Barrington is hoping to expand its composting effort.

Members of the Barrington Town Council recently voted 4-0 to apply for a grant that would bring a curbside composting program to town. 

Currently, Barrington residents can bring their food scraps to a few drop-off locations in town. There are collection boxes set up near the Kent Street tennis courts, the Barrington Senior Center parking lot, and at Barrington Farm School, a nonprofit organization that uses the food scraps to make its own compost. 

The pilot curbside pickup program would serve as a second option for residents. According to Barrington Director of Planning, Building and Resilience Teresa Crean, the grant program is run by the US Department of Agriculture and, if Barrington’s application is approved, it would be available to 500 households in town for two years. 

Crean told Council members the curbside pickup would take place every other week, although it might increase to every week during the summer months. 

Crean said officials from the Eastern Rhode Island Conservation District reached out to her office about the grant program and encouraged Barrington to apply. Crean said her department was unable to complete the grant application, but Eastern RI Conservation District officials offered to handle the application process, as long as the town could commit to its local match (10 percent) for the program.

That is where the Town Council came in. Councilors agreed to fund the local match — a total of $13,000. If the grant is approved, Barrington will receive $130,000 worth of services through the program. 

Crean said a private company will handle the curbside collection. There will be no tasks placed on the town’s Department of Public Works. 

It’s a private group that gets the contract, Crean said. 

Barrington Town Council President Carl Kustell asked if the program would impact the food scrap collection managed by Barrington Farm School. Crean said the curbside collection would expand the types of food scraps people could donate, including meats, dairy products and some other items that Barrington Farm School does not accept. 

Tim Faulkner, an official with Barrington Farm School, said his group is enthusiastic about the pilot curbside collection program. 

“It's an extension of our efforts to bring the benefits of composting, waste reduction, and regenerative farming to the community,” Faulkner wrote in an email to the Barrington Times. “We are working with the town and other stakeholders in the pilot program to ensure that we have a steady supply of local food scrap to create compost for our education programs and crops.”

The Town Council will use $7,000 from the Climate Mitigation Capital Reserve account, and $6,000 from the Council Contingency fund to pay for the local match.