https://datavizforall.org/whitaker
https://swhitaker12.github.io/food-scraps-story/
We are in a trash crisis. A large portion of waste that goes to incinerators and landfills is food scraps, one of the heaviest types of waste and one of the largest sources of methane. In 2022-23, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP) awarded Sustainable Materials Management grants to fund food scraps pilot programs by local governments to divert food scraps from the waste stream. Studying questions about representation, participation, and benefits of these programs gives us a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses and potential implementation at a larger scale. Among 15 grant awards across the state, data collected from West Hartford and Stonington showed these two pilot programs represented wealthier and whiter areas, an average 46 percent participation rate (for West Hartford), and food scrap diversion rates ranging from 5 to 17 percent. Policy recommendations: DEEP should require towns to collect more uniform data, and make it accessible for the public to learn from these pilot programs.