By now the remains of that Thanksgiving feast are either sitting in the refrigerator as leftovers or waiting in the garbage to get hauled off.
King County is hoping that the “icky stuff,” such as the turkey carcass, is in the “green” recycling bin.
The county’s Solid Waste Division has signed up about two dozen families in the Summerwind neighborhood on the East Renton Plateau to dump all the yard waste – and the remains of Thanksgiving Day – into one big pile in a big planter-style box Monday morning.
The challenge is called the “Turkey Carcass Round-up.”
“We are hoping to see a pretty big pile of food scraps, said Gerty Coville, King County Solid Waste Division program manager. “They are pumped,” she said of the families.
The Summerwind neighborhood is no stranger to such recycling challenges. A year ago, six families participated in the Renton Neighborhood Challenge to see how much regular waste they could keep out of the landfill.
“This is a fun way to teach my kids about the new type of recycling, food scraps and food-soiled paper recycling,” said Brenda Collons of Summerwind, who also participated in last year’s challenge.
The county is targeting “green” waste, such as grass clippings but also such things as soiled pizza boxes and those turkey carcasses. All can be processed and made into something useful, such as compost.
The county has kept an eye of how well customers are using the recycling bins. Happily, Coville said, about 50 percent of customers are using the green recycling service.
“That’s good news for us,” she said. Still, she said, the county wants to improve that percentage.
The challenge is in unincorporated King County, in an area where Waste Management is the garbage hauler. However, such recycling services are available to more than 95 percent of the county, representing about 290,000 households.
The average King County single-family household throws away about nine pounds of food scraps and food-soiled paper in a typical week, according to the county.
More information is available at www.recyclefood.com.
