Should Lexington turn more of its trash into compost? City exploring options and costs
A Lexington council committee voted unanimously Tuesday to hire a consultant to determine how much it would cost and if it would beneficial for the city to move to a digester system that would heat and then turn city garbage into mulch.
Once the consultants are hired it will likely take a year before the city gets the final report, Environmental Quality and Public Works Commissioner Nancy Albright said. Such a study will likely cost over $150,000. That money will not come from the general fund— the city’s main checking account — but from solid waste accounts, such as a landfill fund that has money for such a study, city officials said Tuesday.
Some members of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council visited Sevier Solid Waste in Sevierville, Tenn., in March, which has a composting system. That program uses five digesters that heat trash and then turn into mulch. It costs approximately $5.4 million a year to operate.
That system accepts all types of waste including wastewater sludge, Albright told the council’s Environmental Quality and Public Works committee Tuesday.
The trash goes into the digesters, long rotating drums, for about three days. Then the waste is spread and screened, Albright said.
The program produces 50,000 tons of mulch a year, which is given to property owners for free.
The facility also makes money by taking food waste, particularly food waste from food manufacturers, that use that food waste to help break down the trash, Albright said.
Councilman Richard Moloney has pushed the city to look at the Sevier model for several years.
“In California they are doing the recycling first and then the composting,” Moloney said. The city could start a pilot that just uses yard waste. The city spends upwards of $900,000 on yard waste disposal alone, he said.
Albright recommended the city hire a consultant because Sevier takes roughly half the trash Lexington processes and only has a limited recycling program. The city would need to know how many digesters it needed to buy and how much land would be needed to start a digester and compost program, she said.
“We have so many variables that are similar but so many variables that are different,” Albright said.
If the Servier facility, constructed in the 1990s, was built today it would cost $30 million, city officials estimate.
The city currently pays $27.20 a ton for trash disposal. That price increased after a Scott County landfill that took Lexington’s trash shut down. Less trash in the landfill means less cost to taxpayers annually.
Councilwoman Whitney Elliott Baxter said the consultant could help the city figure out the costs over time. Moreover, if the consultant determines that it may be a good investment and good for the environment, “We could apply for federal infrastructure dollars” to help with the costs to build the facility.
The federal government previously approved a $3 trillion infrastructure bill that included money for state and local governments. The city has not yet determined the guidelines for how that money can be spent.
The recommendation to hire the consultant will go the full council next month.
