Troy opens a free food waste drop-off at its DPW yard, a first step toward curbside pickup

TROY, Mich. — Troy residents now have somewhere other than the trash can for their banana peels, coffee grounds and chicken bones.

The city has started a free pilot program that lets registered residents drop off household food waste at the Department of Public Works, 4693 Rochester Road, according to the city’s website. The bins sit at the back of the DPW employee parking lot and are open around the clock; the area is not locked, the city says.

A contractor, My Green Michigan, will haul the scraps to a commercial compost facility, the city says. The finished compost will be free to Troy residents at the Spurt Industries compost site on School Road in Rochester Hills, which now runs the yard waste composting operation for the Southeastern Oakland County Resource Recovery Authority, or SOCRRA.

Residents must register before using the bins. The city says sign-ups help it decide how often to empty them and how many containers it needs, and it will watch how much the pilot is used before deciding whether to add drop-off sites.

The rule of thumb is “if it grows it goes,” according to the city. Because commercial compost piles run much hotter than a backyard bin, the program takes items home composters usually can’t: meat, animal bones, dairy, fats and grease. Fruit, vegetables, eggshells, bread, pasta, grains, coffee filters and grounds are also accepted, whether raw, cooked or moldy.

Plastic bags are not allowed, nor are pet waste, yard waste, pizza boxes, glass, metal or plastic foam. Food can go in loose or in compostable liners certified by the Biodegradable Products Institute, but for now the pilot does not take other certified items such as napkins, paper towels or plates, the city says. Drivers are asked to stay to the left and not cross the DPW scale on the way into the recycling area, which also has a battery collection container and a cardboard dumpster.

The drop-off is meant as a first step. City officials described the pilot to the City Council on Oct. 5, according to draft minutes of that meeting. Troy’s public works director said it is part of the city’s work with SOCRRA to cut the amount of waste going to landfills and reduce methane and carbon emissions, and that the program would be rolled out slowly. In response to a question from Council Member David Hamilton about mixing food scraps with yard waste, he said he is pushing for year-round collection of both.

By July 2027, SOCRRA communities intend to add food waste to curbside yard waste pickup, according to the city. Residents with questions can email Ashely Tebedo, the DPW’s administrative services manager, at ashely.tebedo@troymi.gov.

Sources:
City of Troy, “Food Waste Collection,” https://troymi.gov/departments/public_works/refuse_and_recycling/food_waste_collection/index.php
City of Troy, “Compost,” https://troymi.gov/departments/public_works/refuse_and_recycling/compost.php
Troy City Council, draft minutes of the Oct. 5, 2026, regular meeting, https://apps.troymi.gov/Meetings/Meetings/DownloadPDF/7323143
Photo: Taz, “GI Market food waste.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/), cropped and color-adjusted, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GI_Market_food_waste.jpg

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