Composting continues to gain momentum around the country as more communities look to better manage their waste streams and reduce climate impact. But composters can face barriers to success due to zoning laws or funding constraints.
Local governments can help break down those barriers through a variety of means, including changes to county or municipal code and collection contracts, said Julia Spector, policy and advocacy specialist for the Composting for Community Initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.
“Local governments play a very important role in fostering composting,” Spector said during ILSR’s Local Policy Strategies to Advance Composting webinar on Wednesday.
During the webinar, stakeholders from three communities spoke about strategies that worked for them to enable expanded access to composting for their communities.
Durango, Colorado
Table to Farm Compost has spent the past five years building out support for composting in a rural community in southwest Colorado. The business first secured a public-private partnership with Durango in 2021. The annual agreement allows Durango to advertise Table to Farm’s composting services to residents and was a key early sign of support, said Monique DiGiorgio, a managing member of Table to Farm.
The partnership did not include any funding. The company spent about two years securing permits for its compost facility eight miles outside Durango and began building support through education and outreach.
In 2024, the business offered a three-month pilot collection program to Durango residents. The program created a customer base for the company to draw from that would advocate for composting in the community, DiGiorgio said.
“Our customer base and the people in the city of Durango and La Plata County that understand the value [of composting] are our greatest asset. And it was because of that really that the partnership with the city is therefore flourishing,” DiGiorgio said.
DiGiorgio said the company also received help from several outside funding sources and incubators. That includes NextCycle, which helped Table to Farm identify funding to open its facility; the Colorado Circular Economy Development Center, a state-backed entity; and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Table to Farm won a yard waste collection contract in Durango in late 2024. The following year, Durango also passed an ordinance directing city staff to research ways of diverting material to compost either through mandatory fees or an organics ban. That process is still underway.
Miami-Dade County, Florida
Ever since its incinerator burned down in 2023, Miami-Dade County officials have debated how to handle trash disposal. But parallel to that conversation, an effort to improve rules for compost collection and facilities in Miami has found success.
Ana Montes, a senior policy analyst at the city of Miami, said policymakers in the region are responding to concerns from composters about permitting challenges. Montes followed Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins to the city role this year after previously working for Higgins during her time on the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners.
As a county commissioner, Higgins’ office heard from composters that were worried about getting shut down because the county code did not allow for composting on agricultural land. Higgins backed legislation instructing the county mayor’s office to identify solutions for composting in the county, which initiated a two-year fact-finding process.
By the time the results came back, the county was squarely in a debate about disposal capacity. That added new urgency to find alternatives to expensive landfilling and disposal options.
“It was kind of perfectly timed, unfortunately, to have this conversation about composting and making it a part of the solution of our solid waste problem,” Montes said.
Ultimately, county staff in consultation with composters designed a specialized community composting permit that would not impose overly burdensome environmental mitigation costs on the facilities, Montes said. They also wrote new permit language for small haulers so that food waste collection services wouldn’t be required to meet the same requirements as a full-scale solid waste hauler.
Miami-Dade County commissioners approved the composting legislation unanimously in October. Higgins, who was a key supporter of the legislation, told the Miami Herald she hoped it would divert up to 30,000 tons from the landfill in the next two to three years.
Montes said Higgins brought up composting every time the county met to discuss solid waste issues. That support, as well as advocacy from local composters and environmental groups, helped bring change to the county, she said.
“By the time we brought it to committee, we had great support from the community, and we had already been having these conversations every time we talked about solid waste,” Montes said.
Montgomery County, Maryland
Like Miami-Dade County, Montgomery County has also been facing tough questions about disposal due to the performance of its own aging incinerator. That has placed new importance on developing composting infrastructure.
The county has approved almost $28 million to fund a new composting facility, which is currently tied up in negotiations with local groups. But Evan Glass, a council member in Montgomery County, said educating the public about the benefits of composting has been key for a county with a population of nearly 1.1 million people.
The county has ample agricultural land to expand composting, and Glass backed legislation that upped the total amount of organic waste brought in from off-site that farmers can use for their composting piles from 20% to 50%. The county has also approved a free curbside collection program for four communities. But the pilot was scaled back to three after pushback from one neighborhood, said Glass.
“We need to do more public education whenever we do expand composting, because they didn't see the benefit of it,” Glass said.
Glass is optimistic that the county can and will do more composting in the future. He noted its ambitious climate goals support organic waste diversion and cited support from environmental groups. But it will take more work.
"We do have to break through some some educational barriers, some cultural barriers, and then ultimately, we need to build the facilities that can accommodate all of this," he said.
