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In Springfield, food waste is the second largest component of our collective waste stream, accounting for over 12% of the waste that makes it to the landfill every day. That’s over 31,000 tons of food being sent to our landfill every year. 
Environmental Services is dedicated to minimizing that tonnage by working with the community residents and businesses to stretch our available food resources and repurpose organic waste into compost.


Waste Reduction Programs     Food Storage     Recipes      Compost Tips

Food Waste Programs 

Environmental Services recognizes that food waste is a multi-faceted issue for our community. Not only is it needlessly claiming space in our landfill, but it is being thrown away instead of being eaten or repurposed as compost. 

Dish to Dirt is the name of our new home composting program that provides residents in the Waste District O region, (Greene, Christian, Webster, Polk, and Dallas counties) with composting education opportunities, resources for composting materials, tips and general how-to.

Food Matters Springfield is a commercial composting pilot geared toward local restaurants interested in participating in an innovative new program that not only promotes composting, but food rescue, and considering the way in which food is purchased and prepared in order to reduce food waste.


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Rethink Food

A week goes by and the crisper is opened only to reveal mold has claimed all of the vegetables. We’ve all experienced this. In fact, this generally results in more food being purchased and ultimately, more food being wasted. A few small adjustments in the practice of storing food is not only good for our pocketbooks, but our environment, as well. 

Reducing food waste is an important aspect of our sustainable teachings. In order to provide the best tips and tricks to prevent your dollar from wilting as fast as your lettuce, we have curated a few of what we believe are the most impactful ways to help you stretch the life of your food - ensuring more food is consumed than wasted. Learn the tricks of food storage now!

Just because the expiration date is past or the produce is browning doesn’t mean it is no longer edible and can no longer be used. Feel free to save those scraps and pull out the aging milk and produce to make something tasty.


Save time and money by using past their prime ingredients in one of our recipes!


Recipe Cards

Compost Tips

It seems simple enough to throw old food and scraps into a bin and then wait for it to turn to dirt. It is easy, but it does take a little more effort and understanding to make it work right. Use our compost tips and resources page to help you answer all of the tough questions like "is this compostable?", "what do I do if I notice ants in my compost?" and, of course, "how long before my food scraps become compost that I can use?" 

Become a master of compost and eliminate extra waste from going to the landfill by repurposing it for your yard and garden.