as the state looks toward big programs

to combat the impacts of climate change

one town in bergen county is tackling

the problem through

small changes one household at a time a

first of its kind food recycling effort

in north jersey

that hopes to save both money and the

planet

joanna gaggis reports as part of our

ongoing series

on the human stories of climate change

peril and promise

while we're working at the sink chopping

or whatever we just put

everything in here like orange peels

this is a little embarrassing um coffee

filters

paper towels plastics have been all the

rage when it comes to environmental

hazards but

food waste is actually a major player in

harming the environment

the waste that we produce either goes to

an incident or it goes into a landfill

and both of those processes

produce bio gases green gases that are

terrible for this planet

so ridgewood's launched a pilot program

to recycle their food waste

just dump it right in there councilwoman

pamela perrin is one of a hundred

families participating

it's amazing how much food waste we

generate

i thought it would be maybe 10 percent

of our garbage

but for us in this household it's fully

50 percent

she knows this because participants have

to weigh their food waste

and their regular garbage so the town

can collect the data

they're realizing exactly how much they

throw away in food scraps that

is a valuable resource for the planet

that we can use to

to make healthy compost that goes back

into our land

and they'll take just about anything

food scraps

we take any kind of vegetative waste we

take

meat bones old rotting food stinking up

the place

not the most pleasant idea so each house

is given a five gallon

airtight receptacle it really doesn't

have a smell and then residents can drop

off their waste at the town's recycling

center whenever they choose

once a week it's picked up by a company

called natural upcycling

that brings it to trenton renewables a

food recycling

and renewable energy company that turns

it into compost

and uses it to power the plant we're

hoping that

by working with this company we can

learn

how to how to do this ourselves you know

that's what that's what this is we're

just

you know dipping our toes in the water

here into a much larger program that we

can

we can institute in the town the town

will decide whether to make it permanent

after they analyze the data that they're

collecting month by month

i would love to see the restaurants

involved as well

and make sure that more goes back to the

earth

but for you personally is it a

gratifying feeling absolutely

this is the garden state this is you

know this is what we take pride in

and it's it's time that we we really

start to think about

composting this food instead of putting

it in into landfills

this pilot program will run for nine

months and even with just a hundred

families involved

they expect they'll reduce the amount of

food waste in town by 22 percent

a number they hope to scale in the

future in ridgewood i'm joanna gagis

nj spotlight news lead funding for

paralympics is provided by

dr p roy vagalos and diana t vagalos

major support is provided by the mark

haas foundation

and sue and edgar wachenheim iii and the

cheryl and philip milstein family