Top Photo: Facility rendering courtesy of SCS Engineers.
Southeastern Connecticut is getting its first commercial-scale food waste composting facility, with the Southeastern Connecticut Regional Resources Recovery Authority (SCRRRA) announcing construction began in May on an eight-acre site in Preston. The facility is expected to be operational by December 2026.
The project has been years in the making, moving through pilot testing, permitting, and facility design before reaching construction. The target capacity is 13,000 tons of organics annually, diverting food scraps and yard waste away from incineration and out-of-state disposal and converting them into compost for local farms, gardens, and community projects across SCRRRA’s 12-member municipalities.
The facility uses a hybrid system combining aerated static pile (ASP) processing with open windrow curing — a design approach that balances pathogen reduction requirements with cost and scalability. Food scraps received from municipal transfer stations are mixed with ground yard waste and water in a covered receiving building, then moved through an ASP phase with forced aeration and temperature monitoring before transitioning to open windrows for curing, screening, and storage.
The regional urgency behind this project is hard to miss. SCRRRA Executive Director David Aldridge has been direct about Connecticut’s waste disposal crisis, noting the state is currently shipping 40% of its waste out of state at significant financial and environmental cost. The new composting facility offers a partial but meaningful answer, keeping one large organics fraction local and productive rather than exported.
Funding is coming from multiple directions, including Connecticut’s inaugural Materials Management Infrastructure Grant Program through the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, and the USDA’s Composting and Food Waste Reduction program. Engineering support is being provided by SCS Engineers, with Greg McCarron, a USCC Certified Composting Professional, leading the technical work.
