City Councilor Matt O’Malley, who represents a portion of Back of the Hill, is tackling curbside composting once again.
O’Malley with City Councilor Ayanna Pressley recently refiled a hearing order on the feasibility of implementing a curbside composting program in the city. O’Malley has filed a hearing order on the matter several times. Asked why it is taking multiple efforts to try to get it done, he replied, “Like anything in life, it is complicated. Hopefully, we can get it done this time around.”
He went on to say that like any program, it costs money and that the City does not have an infinite revenue stream.
“But if done right, if done well, if done large enough, composting pays for itself,” O’Malley said.
The councilor pointed to San Francisco as a city that has a successful program and has used mulch from the compost to spread in parks and playgrounds throughout the city, an example that Boston could follow.
O’Malley said that the City could create a public-private partnership with a company like Bootstrap Compost, a small, local curbside compost company that provides door-to-door food scrap pick-up in Jamaica Plain and then returns with compost.
The councilor said he will continue to work with colleagues and the mayor on composting and other issues relating to renewable and environmental causes as the federal government is “openly hostile” to them.
O’Malley said that the “Trump administration is calamitous” on a whole bunch of issues and that it is up to the cities and towns of “our great Commonwealth” to counteract the administration.
The councilor said a hearing has not been scheduled yet on composting, but expects one in the “not too distant future.”