DALTON, Mass. — The Green Committee is mulling the potential of a composting program at the transfer station. 

 

The program would allow residents to bring organic compost to the transfer station without charge.  

 

The compost station would have three sections separated by concrete cubes. Every six months to a year, the compost would be moved to a different section as it breaks down, committee member Antonio Pagliarulo said. 

 

Pagliarulo and committee member Thomas Irwin visited the Egremont Transfer Station to inform Dalton's proposed program. 

 

"It's gratis to the townspeople of Egremont. They leave their compost, and then at the final year, they pick up what they wish to take home. Very simple, very straightforward," Pagliarulo said. 

 

Egremont's program was established 10 years ago before all the permitting, he said. Now there is a lot more state Department of Environmental Protection involvement so Dalton has to navigate through a lot more permitting. 

 

After speaking with various organizations, Pagliarulo realized that other than Williamstown, Egremont is the only town in Berkshire County that has a composting program for kitchen scraps.

 

In Williamstown, residents purchase buckets so that the transfer station knows who is using the program. They bring filled buckets to the transfer station where the compostable material is put into one of the two large vats in a shed and covered with sawdust. The compost is collected two times a week. 

 

"That's a more costly system. That is in a pilot program now with 75 families," Pagliarulo said. 

 

Williamstown Composts won't know the actual cost of the program until the end of the calendar year but will keep Pagliarulo up to date on that. 

 

The Center for EcoTechnology sent Pagliarulo all the information and forms needed to have it consult during this process.  

 

Pagliarulo will share this with the committee and continue to discuss the program with Town Manager Thomas Hutcheson and Highway Superintendent Edward "Bud" Hall. Hall runs the transfer station.