North suburban Glenview has joined the growing list of municipalities diverting food from landfills by composting.
A community environmental group opened two free drop-off sites last week as part of a pilot program, thanks to a grant from a local private foundation.
Mary Munday is co-founder of Greener Glenview, which secured $2,300 to pay for the weekly collection outside the public works department and public library.
One of the first people to take advantage of it told her the sites are much easier than composting on your own.
Munday credits the lack of smell coming from five 32-gallon bins to their plastic liners and weekly cleaning.
That’s despite vegetables, dairy, meat and other food scraps sitting in them amid the summer heat.
Munday hopes a report after the program ends in September outlining how much food was diverted from landfills will help guide Glenview as it looks at a new wastehauling contract.
Skokie began offering free drop-off sites in February of 2023 and the city of Chicago followed in October that same year.