BOISE, Idaho (KBOI) — If you have a house in Boise, you might notice a new trash can bin with a green lid on your curb soon.
The city of Boise is rolling out 70,000 of these bins to Boise homes to start a new composting program and some people are ready to get started.
"We've been ready to go with this and now that it's in place I think it's really exciting and I think overall Boise will just keep moving ahead," said Nolan Crowther, who lives in Boise.
Part of the reason why the city decided to launch composting is because a 2014 Ada County study found almost half of Boise's waste can be composted.
"They determined that nearly 46 percent of everything that Boise households send to the landfill is compostable so that really got folks thinking, 'Can we do something about this?'," said Colin Hickman Boise public works communication manager.
Hickman says most Boise homeowners will pay about $3.40 extra each month for the bin. Everyone in the program should get a bin by July 15.
Residents can put things in it like leaves, grass, fruit, coffee grounds and filters, eggshells or even tea bags.
Then Hickman says in about 100 days it will be available as finished compost for people to pick up.
"We anticipate having several sites through out the city where we'll offer up that finished compost we'll let residents know 'hey you can come get it', we haven't set a ceiling on how much somebody can get but we're thinking a pick-up truck load is is not out of the question," Hickman said.
If you don't think you'll need any compost, Hickman reminds people that the compost can still be used by city.
"It really comes down to burying things forever in the landfill versus turning it into a valuable product that then we can roll back in to the city, we can use it on city parks, golf courses," Hickman said.
Eventually, the city also hopes to sell any extra compost and put those funds back into the program.
For anyone who didn't opt-put of the program and would now like to, Hickman says residents can still call the city and let them know you don't want to be a part of the program.
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