The Lexington Observer chats with Laura Swain, President of the Board of LexZeroWaste
LO: I want to start with a question I usually ask at the end – what can Lexingtonians do to help LexZeroWaste?
LS: There are two things. One, if people have not signed up for the curbside composting program, there are still free slots. You can still do it now. It’s so easy.
The second thing is, if you’re reading this and you have a restaurant that you frequent for takeout food, consider whether you might order from that place more often if the restaurant joined our ZeroToGo program. If so, please tell the restaurant! We would like more establishments to participate.
LO: What is the curbside composting program, and how does it relate to LexZeroWaste?
LS: The curbside composting program is a free service offered by the Town of Lexington. All you have to do is sign up on the website, and every week on your regular trash day, Black Earth Compost will come by with a truck and pick up your compost. In addition, in the Spring, program members receive a voucher for a free bag of Black Earth compost.
The support provided by the Town of Lexington for curbside composting collection came about because of the efforts of LexZeroWaste. In 2021, we received a grant from the Community Endowment of Lexington to conduct a pilot program called LexSORT. LexSORT is a drop-off composting program, which maintains compost drop-off bins at the Community Center and the DPW – and has since expanded to Brookhaven. Residents sign up and receive instructions on how to drop off their food waste at those bins, which are regularly emptied by Black Earth Compost. In the pilot, LexZeroWaste conducted regular monitoring of the bins to determine usage levels and did a lot of marketing and advocacy work about the program, which was ultimately a significant enough success that it convinced the town to offer the curbside composting option through Black Earth.
In short, it was the work of LexZeroWaste that showed the interest, need, and desire for composting options to be available to Lexingtonians and the town has been a great partner in recognizing that need and working to meet it on a broader scale.
LO: You also mentioned ZeroToGo. Can you share more details about that program?
LS: ZeroToGo is currently available at Royal India Bistro, with Revival Café joining the program in February. The restaurants offer stainless steel, reusable takeout containers with silicone lids. We partner with an app (Recirclable LLC) that tracks the containers’ use. The containers are thoroughly cleaned in commercial dishwashers upon their return to the restaurant just like dine-in dishware. Developing the ZeroToGo program took a lot of research, from trying to find the right type of container, to testing samples and talking to restaurants to try to gain buy-in – and doing all of this during the pandemic. It was a lot of work, but the result is a program that can have a significant impact. By replacing one-time-use, disposable plastic containers that end up in the trash, ZeroToGo gives restaurants and diners a more sustainable option.
LO: What is your role with the organization?
LS: I am the Board President and a former attorney at the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. I work very closely with Janet Kern, our Vice President. Together with the rest of our board and volunteers, we determine our newsletter content, set meetings and develop the budget, organize and participate in events such as our Halloween Costume Swap and Discovery Day ZeroToGo, and advocate for changes that can help Lexington reduce waste.
We are a fully-volunteer-run organization. Since the beginning, we’ve worked hard to raise awareness about getting to zero waste here in town. Renee Steinbrecher and Hien Nguyen, the founders of LexZeroWaste, were already doing a lot of zero waste practices in their own households when they established the organization in 2020, and they wanted to spread those practices across town for a much bigger impact. As a result of their advocacy, Town Meeting members approved a zero waste resolution, followed by an warrant article to enable the town to prepare and adopt a zero waste plan.
Five years later, we continue to be highly focused on waste in Lexington – how to reduce both the amount of waste generated and the associated cost with getting rid of it. This is so important to our town, because our disposal costs are increasing every year as disposal options in Massachusetts decrease. While our waste goes to an incinerator, there are fewer landfills available every year, so the disposal options are narrowing, driving up costs. The last thing we want to do is spend money on trash.
LO: What are your goals in the year ahead?
LS: First, we would love to have a third restaurant join our ZeroToGo program before the end of this year! In addition, there is a movement called “Skip the Stuff” that encourages restaurants to only add napkins, utensils, and condiments into takeout orders upon request since too many diners end up throwing them away. If we had an article passed in Town Meeting that supported this initiative, we could further reduce waste in Lexington.
Someone told me CO2 & other gasses are released during composting ??
@MA Thenen: I did a web search with your question. Yes CO2 is released during composting but compare that to other disposal alternatives. In an ordinary landfill, methane is released during breakdown. Our trash from Lexington is incinerated which obviously will result in CO2 and other emissions. Composting is a preferrable environmental choice. Finally, reducing the amount of biowaste that your family produces is the optimal solution.