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DECEMBER 20, 2018
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Curbside composting Pickup service helps households meet Act 148 requirements By Jason Starr Observer staff
Compost is messy, smelly and challenging to properly manage. It’s also Vermont law. Passed in 2012, Act 148 is ramping up mandatory composting requirements, starting with larger institutions (e.g. schools and hospitals) and moving toward a universal requirement for all households by 2020. But when Jacob Wollman began developing the idea for a food scrap pickup service in 2017, he was unaware of Act 148. He came to the idea as an environmentally conscious Burlington resident who was looking for an affordable way to compost his own food scraps without regular trips to a drop-off center. Business advice he learned during his Champlain College education came to mind: “When you see a need, fill a need.” “I wasn’t 100 percent sure if it was going to be a good business, but I thought it was the right thing to do,” Wollman said. “It turned out OBSERVER PHOTO BY AL FREY
Above, Mason Otley drives hard to the hoop during Champlain Valley Union High School’s comeback win over Burr and Burton in the Kevin Riell Memorial Basketball Tournament on Saturday at the high school. The boys won 41-40 on a game-winning layup by Bennett Cheer. At right, Harper Mead hustles down the court during the CVU girls team’s tournament win. See page 16 for more from this week’s season-opening Redhawks games.
see COMPOST page 13
OBSERVER COURTESY PHOTO
Jacob Wollman hauls compost from homes throughout Chittenden County to the Green Mountain Compost facility in Williston.
Catamount purchase extended to 2019 By Jason Starr Observer staff
OBSERVER PHOTO BY AL FREY
to be a good business.” After recruiting his friend Cameron Scott — who helped refine the business plan and streamline operations — No Waste Compost took off. About a year and a half in, the company now serves households throughout Chittenden County, as well as a handful of commercial clients, diverting about 2,000 pounds of food waste from the landfill ev-
The Trust for Public Land has secured extensions on two grants worth a combined $155,000 that were set to expire at the end of this year, enabling the Town of Williston’s purchase of the 383-acre Catamount Community Forest to be extended into 2019. Town officials had planned for a
2018 closing on the Governor Chittenden Road property, which is slated to be preserved as a public resource in perpetuity. The property is currently owned by state Rep. Jim McCullough and his wife, Lucy, and is home to the Catamount Outdoor Family Center. The project hit a snag over the summer when an appraisal completsee CATAMOUNT page 2
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