Responding to community demand for composting resources Howard County announced a significant expansion to the county’s facility at the Alpha Ridge Landfill in Marriottsville. In this phase of the composting program, the county is more than doubling its ability to collect food scraps and produce HoCoGro organic products.
The facility has added 10 concrete bunkers with state-of-the-art moisture and odor control systems to house food scrap and yard trim collections. Previously, the composting was managed in aerated windrows or above ground “piles” with the capacity of only four bunkers. The new processing facility procedures will be refined during the annual surge of fall yard waste collections. Additional improvements will include new infrastructure enhancements, such as roadways, enhanced water pumps and a building to house the grinding machinery.
Beginning in spring 2019, curbside food scrap collections will be offered in three additional collection zones, an increase from 14,000 homes in Elkridge and Clarksville to approximately 30,000 total households.