Boston Council reviews shift to biweekly food waste pickup

City Council · Meeting of September 18, 2026

Boston Council reviews shift to biweekly curbside food waste pickup starting in October. Chief of Streets Chris Osgood told the Committee on City Services the schedule change, rolling out the week of October 5, will save $700,000 annually and clear a waitlist of roughly 1,700 households seeking to join the 27,000-household program. Chief of Environment, Energy and Open Space Brian Swett said 80 to 85 percent of collected food waste is processed through anaerobic digestion rather than composting, calling it "a long-term solution" only because regional composting capacity remains too small.

Councilor Sharon Durkan argued the program's geography was built around early sign-ups rather than composting capacity, saying "if you were to work backwards from the capacity, you would not build a program like this." Councilors also pressed the administration on Chinatown's low participation, tied to a six-unit building cap, and Mattapan's lack of a Project Oscar drop-off site. The curbside program costs $2.7 million this fiscal year; Project Oscar costs $120,000.

In the full story:

• Hearing Purpose and Sponsorship
• Opening Statements
• Administration Overview: The Waste System and Two Pilot Programs
• The Anaerobic Digestion Question
• The Shift to Biweekly Collection: Rationale and Mechanics
• Equity and Neighborhood Access
• Program Costs, Scale and Regional Capacity Constraints
• State Regulatory Outlook
• Public Testimony and Closing
• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report: 2,109 words

Source: the City Council meeting of September 18, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the meeting transcript.