TVCR was awarded a $14,000 Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Grant to encourage Teton Valley residents to reduce food waste at every step of the way. We will be devoting a newsletter series to Food Waste Reduction, and we will be giving away 500 free backyard compost bins to Teton Valley community members, including you!  We’ll be offering training on how to succeed with your compost and we’ll help you troubleshoot any issues. In return, you’ll keep track of how much food waste you divert for one month so we can quantify the impact of backyard composting in our region to divert food waste from the landfill.

CLICK HERE to get your FREE BIN. We’ll also give you helpful tips and ideas on how to reduce food waste.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, about 38 percent of municipal solid waste in the United States consists of food waste, yard waste, and wood waste. All of these materials are organic and could be spared from the landfill through source reduction, redistribution, reuse, and composting. Do you want to cut your organic waste and your waste disposal bills? Good. Check out these helpful tips.

Would you like a free backyard compost bin? We’re giving away 500 bins in 2021. CLICK HERE to get your FREE BIN. We’ll also give you helpful tips and ideas on how to reduce food waste.

Teton County wants your wood waste. Clean, untreated wood is chipped and used in the county’s composting operation, which transforms approximately 70 tons of dead livestock and waste from meat processing facilities into soil a year. The biggest challenge is getting enough wood chips to use in the operation. Please bring your brush and clean, untreated wood to the sorted piles at the Transfer Station to continue making this program a success.

Sorted waste only costs $15/ton at the Transfer Station compared to $210/ton for unsorted waste, so it really pays to separate your yard waste, scrap wood, scrap metal, noxious weeds, recycling and much more. Wood and yard waste is chipped and used in the County’s animal carcass composting program.

It is illegal to burn treated wood products in Idaho.

Teton Valley Community Recycling and RAD are happy to help you reduce construction waste. The easiest method is to SORT and separate your construction materials rather than mixing them all in one dumpster.  Sorted items delivered to the Transfer Station and put in the appropriate piles (scrap wood, scrap metal, yard waste, inert construction material) incur a cost of $15/ton as opposed to the unsorted waste fee of $210/ton – more than a 10 fold difference. It really pays to sort. Watch a short video on how to do it and download the list of Sorted Construction Materials.

Scrap wood and construction materials from the C&D pit can be salvaged every Friday for a $10 fee. Scrap metal is sold at the market rate and can also be salvaged on Fridays. Download the Salvage Permit here and pay at the Transfer Station Scale House.

Yard waste is easy to compost at home. Mulching mowers are the easiest way to reuse grass clippings. However, a simple compost bin made of wood pallets can divert and compost organic waste from your yard and garden with minimal maintenance.

Brush can be sorted and disposed of at the Transfer Station, where it will be chipped and reused. Yard waste and manure can also be sorted and disposed of at the Transfer Station where it is composted.

Noxious weeds can be delivered to a separate “Hot Compost” pile which thoroughly cooks all of the weed seeds.

We are not able to compost at the county level yet. However, TVCR encourages residents to compost their own food waste.

Reduce food waste at the source by sticking to foods you know and love, choosing smaller portion sizes or using smaller serving plates, storing food properly, and considering secondary uses for leftovers.

Feed hungry people by donating excess food to the Teton Valley Food Pantry. Feed livestock by partnering with TVCR to connect food waste producers with local farmers. This is most appropriate for restaurants and industrial kitchens, but households could also partner with neighbors who have chickens or hogs.