Video: Tips for Using Your Food Scraps Caddy

We’re now in week two of food scrap collection in Arlington.

If you receive Arlington County’s residential trash collection service, then you can now place compostable items in your green organics cart instead of the trash. Earlier this summer the county distributed a countertop caddy and compostable bags to residential collection customers as a way to collect food scraps in the home.

(Apartment and condo residents who receive private collection service can drop off food scraps at designated locations.)

Examples of items that can be composted include:

• Vegetables and fruits
• Meats, including bones, and old meat grease (sopped up with a paper towel)
• Dairy products and eggshells
• Breads
• Coffee grounds, paper coffee liners and tea leaves (but not tea bags)

Food and beverage containers that are marked as compostable, some of which actually contain a plastic lining, should be kept out and placed in the trash instead, officials previously said.

For those who still have questions about how to best go about collecting and disposing of food scraps, a dedicated county web page has answers and a new county-produced video, below, also offers tips. Among them: place a paper towel at the bottom of the bag to soak up liquids, and be sure to wash the caddy with soap and water regularly.