CANAAN, Vt. — Officials of Canaan, a town tucked in the northeastern corner of Essex County near the Canadian and New Hampshire borders, can’t get food scraps from here to there.
The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation accused Canaan in late September of failing to collect food scraps at its transfer station, in violation of a new food scrap composting mandate for residents that went into effect July 1.
But, even though the town could be fined, officials say there’s no reasonable way to comply.
“It’s not that we don’t want to,” said Gregory Noyes, one of Canaan’s three selectboard members.
He said the town doesn’t have a local place where it can easily set up a composting site, nor has anyone been able to help. Officials had been talking to a local farmer about accepting food scraps, Noyes said, but the farmer doesn’t have the manpower or time to compost them.
“It was suggested that we could get a hauler to come in from other areas, and we figured out the cost, and it’s going to cost around $4,000” a year, he said. “That ain’t gonna happen. We don’t have $4,000 to spend.”
On Monday, Selectboard members discussed a way they could avoid the state violation — acquiring a collection container for food scraps and installing it at the transfer station — but the plan remains uncertain.
In 2012, state legislators passed Act 148, Vermont’s universal recycling and composting law. The law’s final phase took effect in July: Individuals were banned from throwing out food waste. The goal was to compost the food scraps, so they didn’t wind up in a landfill.
Josh Kelly, solid waste program manager for the Department of Environmental Conservation. said state officials have been talking to Canaan officials about food scrap collection since 2017. At one point, it seemed the town transfer station had been offering the services.
But after a complaint this year from someone trying to drop off food scraps at the station, state officials found the town hadn’t been collecting the organic waste.