Mill, a startup that makes a home food waste management appliance that turns food scraps into chicken feed, has captured its first municipal pilot in a partnership with Tacoma, Washington, the company announced this week.
The company partnered with the city of Tacoma to launch a pilot program that uses technology to address residential food waste. As part of the program, Tacoma residents will receive priority access to Mill Memberships, which they will pay directly to Mill at the cost of $33 per month. According to the News Tribune, the city “gained priority access to at least 600 Mill memberships and access to new data that can help inform the city on waste prevention and food-waste reduction projects.”
A Mill subscription, announced last month, is a $33-a-month subscription and includes a kitchen bin and a pickup service for the processed Food Grounds. Once Mill customers activate their bin via Wi-Fi, they can start tossing food scraps. Once the bin is full, they put the Food Grounds into a prepaid box and schedule a pickup with the Mill app.
“We are proud to be at the forefront of creative public-private solutions to tackle the challenging problem of food waste in landfills. The City of Tacoma began collecting and recycling residential food waste in 2012—since then, diverting up to 1,000 tons per year of compostable food waste from landfills. With this first-of-its-kind-agreement with Mill, we are excited to be the first municipality in the country to pilot this innovative new approach to preventing food waste and to support residents who want a better kitchen experience and want to take practical action to address climate change at home,” said Lewis Griffith, City of Tacoma Solid Waste Division Manager.
It will be interesting to see how many Tacoma residents subscribe to the Mill service. One incentive could be offsetting the cost by moving to a smaller garbage can; according to the city, food scraps make up 28% of residential waste, and by taking food waste out of their garbage can by using the Mill, residents could save up to $25.60 by downsizing their container.
According to the announcement, the Mill memberships will be available to Tacoma residents starting next month.
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