Peoria Heights residents wishing to do the planet a favor and compost their table scraps and other biodegradable waste – keeping it out of area landfills – can now do so at a kiosk set up for that purpose in the Village center.
The Village, thanks to a recycling grant courtesy of Peoria County, is teaming up with East Peoria-based Better Earth Logistics to offer the composting kiosk. The latter is open 24-7 and located in the far northwest corner of the parking lot at the end of Seiberling Avenue, near the old Pabst water treatment facility.
To use the kiosk, residents must purchase a starter kit, which is $20.99 and available at Sous Chef in Peoria’s Warehouse District, 1311 SW Adams St., though Better Earth hopes to partner soon with a Peoria Heights business. The kit includes a card to access the otherwise locked kiosk – so as to prevent unauthorized dumping -- and 25 liner bags. Refill bags are $16.50, which covers the cost of pick-up, the frequency of which will depend on usage, at least once a week.
Items eligible for compost include many residential food products, among them meat, fish, bones, fruits and vegetables, along with cut flowers and some biodegradable paper products such as filters, tea bags, etc. As we are fully into the fall season, those leftover pumpkins/jack-o-lanterns also can be disposed of at the kiosk.
“I just hate seeing organic material going to the landfill,” said Luke Rosenbohm, who founded Better Earth Logistics with wife Yvonne a couple of years ago.
Why?
Because decomposing food, deprived of air in a landfill, creates methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere, said Rosenbohm. Landfills account for an astounding 34 percent of all methane emissions in the United States, along with the potential they pose for soil and groundwater pollution.
Meanwhile, if what was once waste can now be put to safe, productive use in mineral-rich compost to replenish the soil, well, why not?
“If we’re going to sit there and say we have a problem with climate change ... one of the most basic things we can do is getting organic material out of landfills,” said Rosenbohm.
“I don’t think we’ll ever get rid of landfills, but we can definitely reduce the volume” of waste going into them, he said. “It’s pretty simple. Our great- grandparents used to do this all the time. Convenience got us out of the habit of doing the right thing.”
At the end of the day, the question to be asked is, “What’s better for our kids down the road?” The Rosenbohms answered it by merging their passion into a sustainable business model.
The kiosk in Peoria Heights joins others in Peoria, Washington, Bloomington and Illinois State University’s campus in Normal.
“We’re delighted to be a part of this effort,” said Peoria Heights Mayor Michael Phelan. “We greatly value our natural environment here in the Heights, and it’s important for all of us to help preserve and protect it for ourselves, today, and for future generations. It’s the only Earth we have. I hope our residents use this service.”