Starting in October, some 20,000 Walnut Creek households will have the option to help fight the biggest contributor to our waste stream: leftover food. Central Contra Costa Solid Waste Authority has designated our town as the second community, behind Lamorinda,  to join its food-composting program.

The authority's yard-waste customers will receive a free two-gallon collection pail. It can fit under the kitchen sink and comes with a tight-sealing lid to contain odors.

Customers can toss banana peels, apple cores and other food scraps—and even soiled paper food containers—into the pails. The pails can also take items not normally included in home compost, such as meat, bones, and fish scraps. Once the pails are full, customers just empty the contents into a yard-waste cart.

Since 2007, the authority has collected food scraps from homes in Lafayette, Moraga, and Orinda. The program does not cover apartment residents and businesses, but the authority has also been picking up preprep food scraps from restaurants and grocery stores in the area.

Rotting food scraps and other organic materials creates methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The material will be converted into soil that will be sold to nurseries. 

In all, food adds up to about 5,300 tons, or 20 percent, of all garbage collected in Walnut Creek and making its way to East Bay disposal facilities, according to state CalRecycle data.