Neighbor upset over Warren compost operation

The Compost Plant, of Providence, is bagging organic compost at Warren DPW yard on Birch Swamp Road.

By Ted Hayes
Posted 4/23/17

A Birch Swamp Road man who doesn’t want a regional composting operation near his home has asked the Warren Town Council to bar the importation of food waste from outside Warren.

In December, …

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Neighbor upset over Warren compost operation

The Compost Plant, of Providence, is bagging organic compost at Warren DPW yard on Birch Swamp Road.

Posted

A Birch Swamp Road man who doesn’t want a regional composting operation near his home has asked the Warren Town Council to bar the importation of food waste from outside Warren.

In December, officials from the Compost Plant in Providence signed a one-year free lease with the town to use two acres of town land behind the DPW yard for a compost bagging operation.

Though Compost Plant officials’ goal is to establish several small composting operations around the state, manager Nat Harris said Friday that his firm is not producing compost at the town yard, and won’t through the term of the lease. Instead, Compost Plant workers are trucking in bulk compost made by Earth Care Farm in South County, bagging it and selling it commercially.

“We have a one-year lease to do nothing but bagging” of compost, Mr. Harris said.

“To set up a (full composting) facility like we want to in Warren is a much heavier lift. It’s going to take some time.”

Though Compost Plant officials have received a warm welcome from the Town of Warren, opposition came last Tuesday from 125 Birch Swamp Road resident Kevin Cabral. He said he is concerned about the impact a composting operation could have on his home’s value, the environment and the quality of life in the neighborhood.

“I’m 100 percent for the Town of Warren composting its own waste,” he said. “I think we need to find something to do with the waste we produce. But I didn’t buy into being a regional center for the food waste industry. I’m concerned about the neighborhood and about my property values.”

He said he is concerned that should Compost Plant expand in Warren, the constant movement of trucks coming in and out of the town yard will change the neighborhood’s character. He said he also fears that the operation could destabilize contaminants in the town’s uncapped landfill, that the operation will create a rodent problem, and more.

“They can’t give me any guarantees that it’s going to be a safe operation.”

Mr. Cabral said he has spoken to Mr. Harris about his issues; for his part, Mr. Harris said his firm is doing its due diligence, his hired an engineer to explore the feasibility of a full composting operation at the yard, and only wants to be able to present its case to the public:

“There’s already a (DPW-run) compost facility there, and we just want to manage it better,” Mr. Harris said. “This is going to be a model facility, and it’s going to ultimately improve what already exists. We’re not going to be successful if it smells, or if the neighbors don’t want it.”

Why now?

The Compost Plant developed a lease with Warren on the heels of a new state law which attempts to compel large food waste producers to recycle their scraps, rather than trash them.

Though the law is not yet being fully enforced, commercial food producers that generate more than two tons of food scraps per week are now required by state law to compost, rather than throw out, their waste.

The law applies only to outfits within 15 miles of a commercial composting facility. By launching a facility in Warren, Mr. Harris and Mr. Pollock would be poised to service many of the larger restaurants, learning institutions, food producers and employers in the eastern half of the state, hauling their food scraps to Warren to be turned into compost. They would then sell that compost commercially.

Currently, the Compost Plant has about 50 regular stops and collects about six tons of food waste a day. The firm has pick-up arrangements with Brown University, Roger Williams University, several hospitals, and small restaurants including Bywater and Simone’s in Warren.

“We don’t see one giant facility taking care of the whole state,” Mr. Harris said. “We could see three or four sites similar” to what one day might be in Warren.

He added that the Compost Plant is not proposing an expansion of the current, long-time composting operation at the town yard — just a change in the way it’s run to make it more efficient and productive.

“It’s important to understand that we’re not proposing a site any bigger than what’s there,” he said. “We asked (Mr. Cabral) to at least give us a chance to present our plan to the community. We hope to have that (pitch) ready for the fall.”

Mr. Cabral said his next step is to wait for the town council’s response on the ordinance request.

“This is a can of worms,” he said. “One you open this facility, no one can tell me that there won’t be problems.”

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