Arlington County collecting food scraps as part of new compost program

Starting this week, one Northern Virginia county wants your leftover scraps of food.

ARLINGTON COUNTY, Va. (FOX 5 DC) - Starting this week, one Northern Virginia county wants your leftover scraps of food.

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"We’re going to use it to basically make a soil amendment of some kind. So the compost will come back and people will use it for various organic projects around their houses or farms, whoever buys the product," Arlington County’s Erik Grabowski told FOX 5 when the idea was first floated back in early June.

Here’s how it works: Arlington residents should have already gotten a free countertop container. They then put a compostable bag inside and fill it with uneaten food scraps, before ultimately putting the bag in their green organics cart and taking it down to the curb.

On the first day of the program, people outside of an Arlington grocery store overwhelmingly said they like the idea.

"It’s great for the environment," Dan Cisek said. "It’s great for the community."

"Food waste is a huge issue for climate change so it’s a simple way to make a big difference at home," added Fiona McRaith.

It remains to be seen, however, whether everyone who likes the program will actually through.

"It’ll take some practice for sure," explained Zach Primm, "and I’m sure I’ll be doing it some weeks, not doing it other weeks."

For more information about the program, you can click here.