OCEAN CITY, Md. - The Town of Ocean City has renewed its agreement with Go Green OC to continue with a compost pick-up service with certain restaurants.
Garvey Heiderman, compost manager at Go Green OC, cares about food but more importantly food waste and where it goes.
"As a country, we waste about 40% of our food,"Â Heiderman said.
There will be 20 to 25 more restaurants added to the compost pick-up route for this upcoming pick-up season, which runs from March until late October. Heiderman wants to increase the amount of food waste Go Green OC composts compared to last year.
"We're hoping to do at least 300 tons of food waste, which sounds like a lot but the town has about 35,000 tons of single stream waste a year," Heiderman said. "Single stream waste is everything put together."
Ray Gawel, manager at Higgins Crab House North, is glad that his restaurant is participating in the compost pick-up for the first time this year.
"We rely vastly on the natural resources of the area, the Chesapeake Bay for crabs, fish clams," Gawel said. "So we really need to try to preserve that and make sure it's sustained for our generation and generations to come."
Locals like Michael Lott think composting is a no-brainer, but he is concerned about how realistic composting will be for fast paced restaurants.
"It's necessary, a necessary part of everyday life like using the sewage system or electricity," Lott said. "I think it really depends on the system they have in place, that's what it boils down to, how you get it churning in and out because restaurants are incredibly busy."
Despite this Heiderman thinks the pros of composting outweighs the inconveniences it may bring at times.
"It just brings awareness to people not being wasteful," he said.
Go Green OC is always looking for volunteers at the composting site. Anyone interested can reach out to them directly on Instagram at @GOGREENOC.Â