City of Austin Requires Apartments, multifamily complexes to provide composting

AUSTIN, Texas — Austin is now the first city in Texas to require apartments and other multi-family complexes to provide composting to its residents.

The move is part of an effort by the city to reach a zero-waste goal by 2040.

It may just start as trash, though the end product is anything but.

“We started in 2009 out of my front yard with a half-ton Nissan pickup truck. Just a vague idea, a lot of naive optimism,” Break It Down owner Jeff Payne said. “What are we what are we doing with that food waste? How much value are recreating with it?”

Break It Down provides recycling and composting services to close to 1000 customers, mainly businesses like restaurants, and turns it into compost or fertilizer instead.

“We’re moving somewhere around 20 tons a day,” Payne said. “And to be honest, that’s kind of the tip of the iceberg.”

Payne says left alone, all that garbage becomes a big contributor to climate change.

“Food waste, when it goes into a landfill, doesn’t break down so well,” Payne said. “It’s going to tend to generate methane, which is a greenhouse gas.”

That’s why the city of Austin is now requiring multi-family complexes like apartments to provide composting services as of October 1st.

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“We can take those to composting facilities, where they are turned into nutrient-rich compost, which then can be redirected back into our communities.” Paul Bestgen with Austin Resource Recovery said.

Bestgen says composting is nothing new since it’s already offered for single-family homes and required for restaurants. But he says currently, the city is only at 40-percent landfill diversion of its 90-percent goal by 2040.

“… and so we need to be able to find different ways to get that number to move up,” Bestgen said.

Complexes which also include nursing homes and condos will have a year to comply.

“Our goal is to answer their questions, and help them overcome any obstacles that they are facing so that they can add this collection service for their residents,” Bestgen said.

But he recognizes it’ll also be a culture shift for residents too.

“You can start small,” Bestgen said. “You can start by just composting, maybe your apple cores or a banana peel.”

Payne says composting is just one small step for the home, with a big impact on the planet.

“I really only need to take the trash out once a week, and that keeps it simple,” Payne said. “And my trash can never stinks, so that’s nice.”

For a guide on what you can and can’t compost, the city has created a website here.