JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Reducing Jacksonville's footprint, one piece of popcorn at a time.
The Jacksonville City Council just launched a new composting program in the Riverside area.
"We think it's a great way to reduce the amount of trash that we're putting in to our community," said Sun-Ray Cinema Owner Shana David-Massett. "We think every body, everywhere in this city and beyond should be composting."
While David-Massett may not miss the cold winters of Duluth, Minnesota, one thing she does miss - is composting.
Up in the land of ten thousand lakes, city crews would pick up her composting straight from her driveway, something the City of Jacksonville doesn't offer.
That may be changing, as Sun-Ray Cinema is one of more than a dozen businesses in Riverside and Avondale that have agreed to be part of a pilot composting program.
"Why isn't there something like this in the city? We have the resources," said David-Massett. "We have the drive. We have a lot of people who want to get on board. So when we heard about the opportunity, we jumped right on board."
The first thing that comes to mind when it comes to composting at the Sun-Ray Cinema, is popcorn.
"There's so much of it! Popcorn is such voluminous stuff," said David-Massett. "It's a big bunch of trash. It really doesn't need to be trash. It takes up a lot of space."
Thanks to a new city council initiative, a crew will be swinging by once a week for the next six months to pick up the Sun-Ray's leftover popcorn and the rest of its compostable trash and take it to Sunshine Organics on the Northside.
"We have one landfill, and we need to do whatever we can so the life of that landfill is extended," said City Council Vice Chairman Ron Salem.
Salem spearheaded the idea, noting that Jacksonville's one landfill is expected to be filled up within the next 30 years.
Salem sees businesses as the low-hanging fruit of getting Jacksonville more involved with composting, and he's hoping it will eventually spread out of the Riverside/Avondale area into other parts of town and possibly into neighborhoods.
"The ultimate goal is to generate interest in the community to say, 'How can I get involved in this? How can my neighborhood get involved in this,'" said Salem.
The weekly pick-ups at the Riverside and Avondale businesses will go on for the next six months, then the city will take a look at the progress and determine what the next phase may look like.
One key contributor will be Duval County Public Schools, where the truck will pick up compost at the main nutrition center where all food is prepared before getting distributed to individual schools.
Salem says changes are also in the works for the city's recycling program.
He says 20% of all recycling isn't eligible, so the city will start issuing report cards to participating residents so they can try to improve their recycling efficiency.