The Secret Life of Farmington’s Garbage
On December 2, the Farmington Green Efforts Committee logged into Zoom and spent an hour turning small-town details into concrete climate work: school cafeteria composting, town-wide cleanup plans, textile recycling numbers, and even who gets to steer “nip bottle” revenue. If you want the full play-by-play, you can watch the full Dec. 2 meeting on YouTube.
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New Member, Old Trail, Familiar Work
The meeting opened with a roll call: Keith Fibbert, Bri Quinby, Martin Skelly, Jennifer Wynn, Stacy Petrazella and new member Mary Messier all online, along with staff support from Garrick and Sam. With a quorum present and no public comment raised through Zoom, the committee quickly approved minutes from the October 7 regular meeting. One member briefly worried about voting on minutes from before her formal appointment; colleagues reminded her she had attended the meeting, and the approval moved ahead.
The group then paused to welcome Messier properly. A retired school psychologist, she and her husband are already waist-deep in local stewardship, working to remove invasive plants along a stretch of the Farmington River Trail. That project connected her with Farmington Land Trust Executive Director Kate Grady Benson, who encouraged her to join Green Efforts. The Town Council appointed her in late October.
From Pumpkins to Public Programs
Under its public education goal, the committee took stock of what has already gone out to residents and what needs structure. Members noted a recent social media post about Farmington’s “pumpkin drop,” which sent spent jack-o’-lanterns to Sub Edge Farm, where cows have been chewing their way through the town’s seasonal décor instead of sending it to the trash. Stacy Petrazella got credit for flagging the opportunity. 🎃
Chair Keith Fibbert reminded everyone that he had set up a OneDrive folder to collect draft materials for public education and outreach—short articles, handouts, slide decks, anything that might travel from the committee to the public. He promised to resend the link with the December minutes; committee member Jennifer Wynn agreed to help organize the folder and take the lead on setting up public information sessions.
Those sessions may run through the library or, soon, the new third-floor meeting room at Town Hall. Fibbert described the new space as a large, flexible room with better technology than the existing library rooms. Once open in the first half of the new year, it should support hybrid meetings: in-person events, streamed via Zoom and recorded for posting on the town website.
One likely topic: light pollution and “dark sky” lighting. The Farmington Land Trust recently hosted a talk with Leo, the Connecticut representative for Lights Out Connecticut, and committee members wondered whether Green Efforts should offer a similar session under town auspices. Bri Quinby plans to follow up with the Land Trust and with a local Girl Scout working on a dark sky project to see how the effort might tie into committee outreach.
Earth Day Cleanup: Four Trucks, 27 Years, And Counting
The committee’s anchor event is the annual town-wide cleanup, held on the last Saturday in April to align with national Earth Day. For the upcoming year, they confirmed the date as Saturday, April 25, with a “save the date” planned for the January town newsletter. A longer notice will follow in the spring newsletter and on the town website.
Bulk waste pickup will run the prior week, from April 20 through April 24. On cleanup day itself, Green Efforts will again staff four collection stations: Tunxis Hose, Farmington Fire, Irving A. Robbins Middle School (IAR), and Tunxis Mead. The Highway Department supplies four dump trucks—one per site—while volunteers sign in, grab bags and litter grabbers, pick a route, and head out.
Collected material comes back to the trucks, where volunteers weigh bags and log totals. Any single item heavier than 25 pounds counts as 25 pounds for tracking purposes. At the end of the day, the Highway Department weighs each truck in and out to calculate town-wide tonnage. Local businesses donate prizes, which the committee awards in several categories. Long-time volunteer John Vibert, members noted with some amusement, starts picking up trash on April 1 every year so he can deliver a full load on cleanup day. 🌱
New member Messier asked whether the decentralized model—four hubs rather than one big rally—left education on the table. Historically, Green Efforts has set out pamphlets and handouts about recycling, energy use, and composting, including Hartford Garden Club’s “Trash Talk” materials and Blue Earth information sheets. Committee members agreed those materials are due for an update.
Several ideas surfaced: a new trifold handout explaining composting (curbside and backyard), dark sky practices, textile recycling, and town programs, plus QR codes linking to deeper information on the town site. Adults can scan; kids can take the paper home. Messier suggested tapping Master Gardeners and Master Composters to table at cleanup sites with simple, practical tips—from mosquito dunk buckets to fast-fashion impacts.
The committee also wants student voices. Farmington High School’s environmental or “green” club already exists; Sam agreed to contact the club advisor to see if students would like to help develop materials or staff stations as part of community engagement.
Textile Recycling: 3,352 Pounds and Climbing
Fibbert shared a mid-year update from the town’s textile-recycling vendor. Between April 11 and September 26, drop-off locations collected 3,352 pounds of textiles—roughly one and a half tons. He plans to request a full-year figure after January 1, covering April through the end of 2025, so the committee can tout the annual total in the winter newsletter.
Members noted that textile recycling, like household donations, tends to spike in spring cleaning season, dip over the summer, and rise again in the fall as residents swap out wardrobes. A short reminder in the winter newsletter could help keep the program visible and the dedicated account funded.
That account matters because Green Efforts does not receive an annual line in the operating budget. Instead, it draws on revenue streams tied to previous energy projects and to programs like textile recycling. That money now sits in a dedicated “green efforts” account, which Fibbert described as slowly growing.
School Composting: Westwoods Running, IAR Waiting
The most detailed conversation of the night centered on school composting. Westwoods Upper Elementary School, members heard, is “rolling along smoothly” with its food-scrap program, which sends cafeteria waste to Blue Earth for processing at an industrial digester. That allows the district to move meat and other food items that are not safe for backyard composting.
Quinby has already written about food waste and composting for town communications and pushed for composting to become a town-wide program “in her lifetime.” Committee members agreed that residents should also know that Farmington students are already practicing these habits at school.
The next step is IAR. The goal is to roll out a similar program there early in the new year, but the project has hit a snag: matching-grant funding for the sorting stations. Originally, planners budgeted for three stations in the cafeteria. After walking the space and traffic patterns, Sam now believes two stations may be enough, which would reduce the gap.
Rough numbers floated during the meeting put the shortfall at roughly $6,000, depending on the final station count. That set off a quick brainstorm:
- Could Green Efforts use its dedicated account to bridge part of the gap?
- Could Farmington tap the state’s DRIP program—similar in spirit to the LoCIP grants—to support combined town-school sustainability infrastructure?
- Could the committee legally raise outside funds from residents or partners to cover the “local match”?
Sam and Fibbert will coordinate with the town’s finance department and with school staff before the next meeting to clarify options and rules.
Nip Bottles, Garden Grants, and Who Decides
The conversation then turned to one of the more unexpected funding sources on the table: Connecticut’s “nip bottle” revenue. Under state law, a share of the surcharge on miniature liquor bottles flows back to towns to support environmental efforts.
Committee members noted that last year the money helped buy a street sweeper—a welcome upgrade—but asked whether Green Efforts could at least recommend how future funds are used. The committee is, after all, an advisory body on environmental matters.
Members floated a simple goal: use nip-bottle money to help expand composting to “all the schools.” That could include IAR, Union School (which has already reached out about composting), and eventually the high school. Fibbert committed to checking how much nip-bottle revenue the town receives and whether the committee can formally advise on its use in the upcoming budget cycle.
Messier then raised another potential source: the Farmington Garden Club. The club is offering $1,000 grants for community projects that improve public landscapes or green spaces, promote environmental health and biodiversity, or create lasting educational or ecological benefits.
The grant guidelines allow community organizations, schools, or small businesses to apply so long as the project itself is treated as non-profit—no one can pocket a surplus. Messier offered to confirm whether Green Efforts could apply for composting infrastructure at IAR or Union School, coordinating with Quinby, a Garden Club member, so they are not working at cross-purposes.
Energy Use Inside Town Buildings
Late in the meeting, members revisited a question raised earlier in the year: could the town run an April “energy challenge” between municipal buildings—senior center, library, town hall, schools—using utility data to reward whichever building cuts its electricity use the most during the month?
Sam was blunt about the limits. Pulling historical data for buildings is straightforward; attributing any one month’s change to specific occupant behavior is not. Heating and cooling loads swing with the weather. Base loads from servers and refrigerators run regardless of light-switch discipline. Turning off monitors helps, but not enough to show clearly in month-to-month comparisons of large buildings.
Members discussed recent steps at Noah Wallace School, where monitors were reprogrammed from a 9 p.m. shutoff to 6 p.m., with motion sensors waking screens only when someone walks by. That change saves some power but sits on top of earlier upgrades:
- A town-wide performance contract with an energy-services firm roughly eight or nine years ago, which led to major conversions to LED lighting—including streetlights—plus steam-trap replacements and fin-tube heating at Union School.
- Motion-sensor or timer-controlled lighting in most public buildings, with only a few spaces (like individual offices at Town Hall) still relying on manual switches that staff already turn off at day’s end.
Sam noted that there is no obvious “flip this switch, save a fortune” measure left. The next round of savings likely comes from larger capital choices—new heating systems, more solar—rather than small competitions. Still, he invited committee members to email him if they want sample data from specific buildings to explore trends or educational graphics.
Along the way, members also got an update on the 1928 building project. For now, some lights and equipment remain on for security and commissioning work. Before the building is formally turned over, everything—lighting, controls, schedules—will be programmed for normal hours.
Committee Membership and Next Steps
The committee closed with housekeeping on membership. One Republican seat was recently filled by Messier. Two Democratic members, Kate Grady Benson and John, have indicated they intend to step down but have not yet submitted formal resignations to the Town Clerk.
Member Kimberly has been waiting for more than a year for an opening. Members agreed that once resignations are in, they hope to see her considered promptly by the Democratic Town Committee, whose screening processes and party-balance rules control appointments. Names like Patty Z, Brian Z, and DTC chair Matt Wagner surfaced as people to nudge—gently—so the committee can return to full strength ahead of budget season.
Fibbert wrapped the meeting by confirming the next regular session: Tuesday, January 6, in the Town Council Chambers, assuming no repeat of the freezing rain that has pushed past meetings online. Until then, the committee’s work continues in inboxes: newsletter blurbs to draft, grant rules to read, and composting stations to price out.
Some towns argue about climate in headlines. Farmington’s Green Efforts Committee does it in the margins of utility bills, Girl Scout projects, and where we put our pumpkins. It’s not flashy, but it’s how change actually happens. ♻️
About the Author
Jack Beckett is the senior writer for The Farmington Mercury, which means he spends a suspicious amount of time watching board and commission meetings so you don’t have to. He believes in slow news, thorough minutes, strong coffee, and the radical idea that residents should know what their town is doing in their name—and with their money. ☕️
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This article, “Farmington Green Efforts Committee Advances School Composting, Earth Day Cleanup, and Textile Recycling,” by Jack Beckett is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0.
“Farmington Green Efforts Committee Advances School Composting, Earth Day Cleanup, and Textile Recycling”
by Jack Beckett, The Farmington Mercury (CC BY-ND 4.0)
