A $75,000 plan to keep Sweet Auburn Curb Market’s food scraps out of landfills

Atlanta could put up to $75,000 from its Community Energy Trust Fund toward food-waste diversion at Sweet Auburn Curb Market, under a proposal that includes buying and installing a compactor.⁠[1]

The city’s sustainability office already partners with the market under the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program to identify emissions-reduction opportunities and reduce energy use, according to the resolution. The proposed donation would extend that work beyond the grant’s scope into food waste. The resolution’s climate argument: keeping scraps out of landfills prevents them from decomposing there and producing methane.⁠[1]

Resolution 26-R-4346 would route the money through the Historic District Development Corporation, the nonprofit fiscal sponsor for the Municipal Market Company, which operates the market. The sponsor would receive the donation and make the funds available to the market company.⁠[1][2]

City Council referred the measure to the Finance/Executive Committee on November 2; that was not approval of the donation. The committee’s November 10 agenda listed it for a meeting beginning at 2:30 p.m. in the Larry M. Dingle Committee Room at City Hall. The records reviewed do not establish a committee decision.⁠[1][2]