FARMINGTON — Three Farmington schools collected about 8,100 pounds of cafeteria food for composting between April and the end of the last school year, and the school district wants to bring the program to its other elementary schools, probably in the 2027-28 school year.
The numbers came from Sam Kilpatrick, the district's director of school facilities, who was not at the Green Efforts Committee's Oct. 6 meeting. Garrett Daigle, the assistant town planner who staffs the committee, read them out:
- West Woods Upper Elementary School: 4,700 pounds
- Union School: almost 1,900 pounds
- Irving A. Robbins Middle School: 1,500 pounds
That comes to roughly four tons. West Woods, which already had a food-scrap program running, counted from April 1. Union and Irving Robbins started collecting in late April, about three weeks later.
Union, a K-4 school, collected almost 400 pounds more than Irving Robbins, a middle school, over the same weeks. In May, Union's Student Council asked the committee for help paying for a cafeteria sorting table, and the committee voted to cover the full $4,500.
Three schools next, probably not this year
Kilpatrick is looking to expand to the district's other K-4 schools that don't compost yet: East Farms, Noah Wallace and West District. Farmington High School is not on the list for now.
The district has already signed with Blue Earth Compost for this school year, so the expansion would most likely wait until 2027-28, the committee was told. Kilpatrick is getting prices from another company for next year.
The cost would come out of the school budget. Composting is part of a district-wide contract and is folded into the trash line rather than listed on its own.
The black plastic question
The same meeting turned up a disagreement over black plastic.
The committee wrote an article for the town newsletter that, members indicated, listed black plastic as recyclable. It ran in the winter newsletter, which went out this fall. As soon as it reached mailboxes, a committee member said, someone called the town's highway department to say the state says black plastic can't be recycled. The member said they told the department it can, and that they would ask the department to update its website.
The state's own guide says the caller was right. RecycleCT, the state recycling site that Farmington's trash and recycling page links to under "What can I recycle at the curb?", puts "Black plastic trays and containers" on its list of what's out.
The member's view comes from a tour. At the committee's June 2 meeting, a member described visiting the plant that sorts Farmington's recycling: it goes to a transfer station in Hartford and from there to a facility on Christian Lane in Berlin with optical scanners, where "they can recycle black plastic." The state's list, the member said, reflects "the least amount that can be recycled."
The same member added a caveat: "Just because the facility has the capability to sort and recycle these things doesn't necessarily mean that the contract to send it to them covers that stuff."
On Oct. 6, members said the recycling company, which they called USA, has a printable guide on its website that includes black plastic, and one member said they keep a copy on a bulletin board. The town's trash and recycling page says nothing about black plastic either way, and for what goes in the cart it sends residents to the state's list.
This coverage is supported by Farmington Storage, 155 Scott Swamp Road, the only storage facility in Connecticut with Museum air. Four tons of lunch went to compost last spring. The things you aren't ready to part with can stay at Farmington Storage. 860.777.4001 📦
Jack Beckett has reported on Farmington's Green Efforts Committee long enough to have opinions about black plastic. He keeps them in the trash, per the state, next to his empty coffee cups, which are also out. ☕
The Farmington Mercury covers the town nobody else is covering: the committee that counts lunch by the pound, the police log that is technically public record but that you'd never find unless someone typed it up, the school board vote that decides what your kids learn next year. We publish slowly, deliberately and without apology. Our motto is "Always last to breaking news," and we stand behind it. Find us at farmingtonmercury.com and tell your neighbors. 📰