Finding a Place for Food Waste

West Tisbury, Oak Bluffs, and Chilmark approved articles at their town meetings in April that set the stage for food waste recycling units to be installed at their town transfer stations. A similar article is on the warrant in Aquinnah, which was meeting just after this magazine went to press. Towns that approve the measures will fund and install their own systems, creating a place for residents to drop off food scraps during routine trips to the dump. 

The material would be processed into compost that could eventually be used by Islanders in home gardens, reducing the amount of food waste sent off-Island for disposal and cutting back on compost shipped in for local use. Food waste is one of the largest drivers of methane emissions in landfills, a potent greenhouse gas linked to climate change.

Tisbury is not pursuing its own article, as it plans to partner with Oak Bluffs and share a machine. Edgartown, meanwhile, is applying for a state grant through the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection to fund a recycler at its transfer station, with a decision likely in the fall. 

Procurement, town governance, and implementation will follow approval. In West Tisbury, Oak Bluffs, and Chilmark, officials are now entering the request for proposals (RFP) phase, where vendors submit bids for the approved system. One of the systems under consideration is the EcoRich food recycler, an electric unit that processes food waste into a soil-like compost material on site. While the EcoRich system was included in the warrant article, the final selection will be determined through procurement.

“The idea is that the town voted for this, and now we have a procurement process to follow,” said Sarah Toste of the West Tisbury Board of Health. “We’re likely moving forward with the EcoRich system, since that’s what the warrant was based on, but it still has to go through the proper steps.”

The program is funded through the town. “The town voted to use taxpayer dollars for the purchase of this,” Toste said. The warrant article included a request of about $70,000, though final costs will depend on the procurement process.

The EcoRich system has been in use at the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School since late February, with another unit recently delivered to the high school and awaiting electrical hookup.

“The machine is so, so easy to use, and the output from the machine looks really good,” said Sophie Mazza, community food waste educator at Island Grown Initiative, who helped bring the food waste processing article onto town agendas. “It kind of looks like a big pile of coffee grounds — exactly as advertised.”

At the Charter School, the system is processing about 150 pounds of food waste per week, with the capacity to handle significantly more. Two high school students help run the program, weighing and loading scraps and coordinating with kitchen and facilities staff.

“These systems make a lot of sense in places that don’t have a carbon source,” Mazza said. “You don’t need to balance carbon and nitrogen the way you do with traditional composting.”

That makes the machines a good fit for schools and some transfer stations, particularly in towns where leaf and yard waste isn’t collected. The output can be used locally, including in school gardens.

The Chilmark School also received a food recycler in April — a different indoor unit about the size of a dishwasher called the FoodCycler. Sophie said she hopes to secure additional units for the Island’s other four schools by fall. Schools are funding the machines with a mix of private funding and grant support, though Mazza noted that securing funding, particularly federal grants, has become more difficult. 

The school-based systems are part of a broader effort to rebuild food waste processing on the Island after IGI’s previous composting program ended in 2024, when its in-vessel drum reached the end of its useful life.

“We just get countless calls all the time from people who want this,” Mazza said. “People were using this program, and we wanted to bring it back in a way that can continue indefinitely.”

If approved and implemented, the transfer station programs would be open to residents with dump stickers, allowing them to drop off food waste during regular hours. Exactly how the finished compost will be distributed is still being worked out.

“Ideally, we would want that same food waste to go back into the community,” Toste said. “Are we going to give it back to them, sell it back to them? … We’re going to run the program for a year and then re-evaluate.”

Toste said the effort reflects strong community interest following the end of earlier composting programs.

“We received calls … questioning whether there were alternative options for community composting,” she said. “There’s a real interest in the sustainable management of food and waste.”

The effort is part of a broader push to rethink waste systems across the Island. The Martha’s Vineyard Commission’s Trash Task Force, formed in 2025, is working with representatives from each town to coordinate planning and set priorities.

“One of our recommendations is more investment into food waste solutions, especially as the state is likely going to be enforcing restrictions,” said Sakiko Isomichi, the MVC’s Climate Resilience Planner, who helps coordinate the group. “By 2030, residential food waste will likely be part of the ban.”

The Martha’s Vineyard Organics Committee, which has worked for years on food waste processing solutions, now falls under the Trash Task Force as a subcommittee. The committee is primarily focused on large-scale and commercial food waste processing possibilities.

Even with momentum from town meetings, questions remain about how quickly towns can move from approval to implementation.

“I’d be curious to see how each town is going to be running it,” Isomichi said. “How much capacity each town has to make sure that it runs well… that’s going to be really important.”

Longer term, Island officials are still exploring larger-scale composting options, particularly for commercial food waste from restaurants and businesses. But finding a suitable site remains a challenge, with space constraints and permitting hurdles limiting options.

“Space is always an issue,” Isomichi said.

For now, the Vineyard is moving toward a more decentralized approach: smaller processing sites, school-based systems, and transfer station units that together reduce the amount of food waste that needs to leave the Island.

That approach could expand over time, potentially including commercial composting facilities or even curbside pickup for food waste.