Beachwood is launching a residential food scrap composting program; Hunt selected as legal director

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BEACHWOOD, Ohio – The city used Earth Day on Monday (April 22) to officially launch its residential composting program.

Mayor Justin Berns cut the ribbon Monday morning on a row of trash cans outside the Beachwood Community Center, 25225 Fairmount Blvd., where residents can take their food scraps to keep them out of the landfill.

The leftovers are instead composted and used to enrich the soil which provides nutrients and structure for growing food, flowers and flora. Such recycling also helps in water retention, pollution reduction, increasing biodiversity and beautification.

The city is running the compost program in partnership with Rust Belt Riders, a worker cooperative founded in 2014 whose motto is, “Working together to feed people, not landfills.”

“We have partnered with a private company, Rust Belt Riders, that will take the food recycling and convert it into commonly used mulch products,” Public Works Director Chris Arrietta told the council at its April 15 meeting. a great new service and I hope residents will take advantage of it.”

Council President Alec Isaacson also spoke about the program during that meeting.

“The food composting program is unique,” ​​Isaacson said. “It’s something that no other community in Northeast Ohio offers. If you are in another community and you want to do this (composting), you have to pay for the service.”

“It takes a huge amount of food out of the waste stream.”

Isaacson said his family has paid to participate in food composting since the beginning of the year and has diverted about 300 pounds of waste from the waste stream since January.

“That’s 140 pounds not going to the landfill,” he said. “It is made into compost, which you can then put in your garden to grow new things.

“That is a huge amount. If we can get as many homes in the city as possible to take that kind of waste out of the stream and use it for other purposes, it will really have a huge environmental impact on our community and the world around us.”

Residents can participate by completing a registration form found at BeachwoodOhio.com/composting. When residents register, they receive a unique code with which they can unlock the collection bins so that they can deposit their food waste every week.

Leftovers should be collected in a five-gallon bucket with a lid for easy transportation.

The program accepts 100 percent of kitchen-generated food scraps, including raw and cooked foods, cheese, pits, peels, shells, nuts, seeds, bones and pantry items.

BPI-certified compostable plates and cutlery are also accepted. Liquids, plastic and waste may not be deposited in the collection bins.

Residents can use the Betterbin app and website to learn more about what can and cannot be composted.

Legal director elected

During a brief special council meeting on Thursday morning (April 18), the council voted 7-0 to retain R. Todd Hunt as the city’s legal director.

Hunt, from the Roetzel & Andress firm, has been serving as Beachwood’s interim legal director since November.

He started at Beachwood when the previous legal director, Stewart Hastings, resigned after two and a half years to become legal director at Sandusky. Hunt also serves as legal director for Richmond Heights and Gates Mills.

Councilman Eric Synenberg said two companies have applied for the legal director position.

“For me, I am pleased with the work that Roetzel & Andress, and in particular Todd Hunt, have done for us in recent months as interim legal director, so that was a big factor for me (in choosing between the two firms) . “

“This has been the council’s top priority since this council session began in January,” Isaacson said of selecting a legal director. ‘I’m happy that we got it done and I’m happy that we now have good, competent and highly respected help in our legal department.

“I look forward to moving forward with the other topics we discussed in the near future.”

Street work

Arrietta said the Public Works Department is delaying until next year installing a new roof on the city’s service building. Because of that decision, the department will use the money set aside for that project to work on streets that were scheduled for work in 2025.

“We really didn’t have a road program (planned) this year, we had a parking (repair) program,” Arrietta told the council. “This will provide residents with new (renewed) roads.

“We’re going to do Timberlane Drive, from Beachwood Boulevard to Halcyon (Road); Letchworth Road, from Green Road to Bryden (road); Fire station drive; and also Wendover Drive, from Beachwood Boulevard to Halcyon.”

In the case of Letchworth Road, Arrietta said, phase one was completed a few years ago and work this year will see the completion of phase two of the renewal.

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