Valley High administrators proposed adding a food-waste compost pilot to the facility's supplemental budget. The pilot would partner with a company called Waste Not (already active at "MCC"), use roughly four 64-gallon containers to collect food and food-related paper waste, and is projected to cost a little under $5,000 annually.

The administrator said the pilot aims to reduce compactor volumes and landfill disposal costs by diverting cardboard, food scraps and other compostable items to the vendor. "It will significantly reduce the amount of trash that we are putting into our compactor," the administrator said, while noting some items (biohazard plastics, incontinence briefs) cannot be composted or recycled and will remain in the waste stream.

The pilot is intended as a contained trial at Valley High; if successful, administrators said the program could extend to other high-food-use county sites such as the jail. The administrator said MCC (a local partner) had reported offsets to landfill disposal costs from a similar program, and Valley High plans to monitor actual trash-cost changes before recommending broader rollout.

The board was asked to include the program in the supplemental budget request for FY2026; administrators said the pilot would allow the facility to measure operational effects and adjust trash-pickup cycles as needed. No final appropriation was approved at the Oct. 3 meeting; the item will appear in the supplemental requests submitted with the budget.