INFRASTRUCTURE opportunities centered on increasing access to composting/food scrap hauling services. Increasing the number of free drop off locations located at farmers markets, gardens, churches, public parks, and schools was mentioned numerous times possibly indicating a belief that this might be the easiest or quickest approach to the adoption of composting if “ drop-off sites [were] in every neighborhood .” More gardens could also host on-site community composting if they had money available to pay stewards. Increasing municipal collection ( "Bins for All!") and community composting efforts and expanding options for home composting and for renters were all mentioned as options to increase access as was the development of a compost (service) directory. Regardless of how access to composting services was increased it should be affordable as “[you] shouldn't have to pay to do right thing.” Opportunities to utilize more appropriate technology abound including using AI for sorting to reduce contamination, developing rat-proof bins (for collection and home composting), using biodigesters, and perhaps creating a new type of facility to handle (plastic-based) ‘compostable’ (biodegradable) serve-ware. To support the development of infrastructure opportunities incentives such as "raising landfill tipping fees [or creating a] methane tax on private LF owners" and funding such as the "potential to pursue Federal funding to pilot creative programs" are critical. Increasing collaboration and coordination is also an opportunity to develop infrastructure with at least one participant wondering, “ Where is regional planning org? (e.g. CMAP)” and now is the time to increase collaboration because "passion exists among food producers in the region who need soil!!" Rather than looking to individual households for new sources of materials to make compost, restaurants, breweries, and landscapers and other large food waste generators could be better engaged and plugged in to composting perhaps driving or at least raising awareness of the issue for individual households. Attendees also mentioned as opportunities new places to process and acquire compost or new ways to handle food waste that included empty warehouses and factories, vacant lots, big box stores offering pickup of compost and drop off of scraps and sending food waste from large institutions to hog farms 4 . A list of comments on Opportunities in Infrastructure are displayed in Table 8, Appendix 1. POLICY opportunities included creating mandates for large generators (such as grocery stores, food processors, schools and universities) to compost and for public projects (roads, landscaping, buildings) to use finished compost. These two policy changes have the power to directly increase demand and may work to create a consistent end market for finished compost. There may exist a scalar mismatch in the region for compost— demand by individual consumers may be too small to justify the amount of effort it takes to create the compost so there needs to be "more emphasis on getting more finished compost to market." Other opportunities to increase demand for the finished product and access to services include passing Right to Compost legislation “so that building managers and landlords don't stand in the way" of their residents using compost pick up services; instituting bans and creating incentives and/or disincentives such as increasing landfill tipping fees ; and incentivizing compost usage by farmers and public works. Creating consistent, stable, and expanded end markets for finished compost and the support for processing infrastructure is extremely important when implementing policies that would increase the amount of feedstock available to create compost. Policy opportunities that did not require a large lift included creating new or expanding existing programs as "many municipalities already accept leaves & lawn clippings. Expanding to collecting food waste scraps is low- hanging fruit" and ensuring that funding is sufficient especially for creating technical assistance positions to support compost collection and processing. Also identified as an opportunity is to increase regional coordination
4 Please note that while this seems like a viable idea from a systems perspective there are serious food safety and disease issues with importing food scraps generated off site to feed farm animals. In fact, Illinois Public Act 48-7 prohibits feeding food scraps to farm animals unless they are sourced from the farm where the animal lives.
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