Prairie Village residents who want to will soon be able to drop off compost waste at two sites as part of a new pilot program.
The Prairie Village City Council on Monday voted 8-4 to approve a roughly $6,000 contract with KC Can Compost for a six-month pilot that will offer free drop-off composting to residents. Councilmembers Terry O’Toole, Inga Selders, Lori Sharp and Nick Reddell cast the dissenting votes.
The city council’s debate Monday largely focused on where exactly to place the drop-off composting bins, but some councilmembers also raised broader concerns about composting needing to be a choice for residents instead of a service the city provides.
Currently, Prairie Village residents can opt into curbside composting services offered by either Compost Collective KC or Food Cycle KC. Residents who choose these services work directly with those companies, and there are no discounts or subscriptions offered through the city.
KC Can Compost has a similar partnership to provide drop-off composting with the city of Roeland Park, where residents can sign up for a composting program and drop off their compost in a bin outside of the Price Chopper on Roe Boulevard.
The city of Olathe also has a public composting program, with drop-off locations at its community recycling center and Black Bob Park.
The total program cost is $6,066
- The program cost will cover the installation of the two composting bins, plus fees for weekly collection and monthly maintenance.
- The city’s environmental committee, which worked on bringing the pilot program forward to the city council, committed $2,000 of its budget for the effort.
- The remaining $4,066 is likely to be paid from the city’s sustainability fund, according to city documents.
- Aside from residents buying their own at-home materials for composting, the pilot program is free for residents to use.
How the program will work
- One composting bin will be placed at city hall and another will be placed at Wassmer Park.
- Both bins will be fully enclosed and locked shut to reduce odors and pests. Only users with KC Can Compost’s smartphone app will be able to unlock the bins in order to put their compost inside.
- Prairie Village residents who want to participate in the program will need to download the app and will also need to buy their own biodegradable bags or a small bucket to collect their compost at home before taking it to one of the public bins.
- Additionally, the composting bins allow 24/7 monitoring of how full each bin is getting as well as tracking usage and landfill diversion data.
Council debates placement of smart composting bins
The city council had a lengthy discussion on Monday about where to place the smart composting bins.
City staff and the environmental committee originally recommended placing one bin each at Franklin, Harmon and Wassmer parks, highly visible spots that could spark participation.
Concerns about placing composting bins at parks led to two separate motions to amend the original motion, which was to place one bin at public works and a second bin at city hall.
The first proposed amendment sought to include a bin at Wassmer Park, and that passed in a 7-5 vote, with Councilmembers Nick Reddell, Terrence Gallagher, Terry O’Toole, Inga Selders and Lori Sharp opposed.
At multiple points, Selders expressed concern with placing a composting bin at city parks because of potential issues such as flies, odors, pests, food contamination and food-borne illnesses such as E. coli.
Reddell said his kids regularly play at Franklin Park, and he thinks the potential for trash to pile up at parks is “unsightly.” O’Toole said he wants to see how the bins work before placing them at multiple parks.
Sharp said she believes residents have the choice to compost, and that it is not “an essential city service.”
Councilmember Ron Nelson, who said he began composting when Prairie Village implemented its curbside pilot program, said the discussion Monday was based on a “parade of horribles,” with numerous concerns and fears about potential outcomes.
A second proposed amendment to exclude the bin at the city’s public works building, due to the building’s lack of visibility and visitors, passed with Mayor Eric Mikkelson casting the tie-breaking vote.
Mikkelson said he had a lot of the same concerns when the curbside composting pilot program began, but participating in that program helped him and his household understand composting. He said he sees this new pilot program as a way to get more Prairie Village residents into the habit of composting.
“This problem of landfill scarcity is huge and it’s not going away, so if we can do something else to increase awareness again among another subset of Prairie Village residents, doing it this way,” Mikkelson said.
Next steps
- City staff plans to work with KC Can Compost to install the two bins and roll out the pilot program this summer.
- Then, city staff plans to come back to the city council six months later with an update on the results of the pilot program.
Go deeper: Watch the city council’s entire discussion around composting online here, starting at 2:58:56.
