Hailey, Idaho’s Community-Driven Food Waste Drop-Off Program

Home » Case Studies » How Hailey, Idaho built a community-driven food waste drop-off program

Client:

City of Hailey

Application:

Public food scraps collection infrastructure

Creating a public composting model that fits the community

The City of Hailey set out to build a food scraps collection program that residents could use easily, consistently, and year-round.

Located in south-central Idaho, Hailey is a small city with a permanent population of under 10,000, a steady flow of visitors, long winters, and a landfill roughly 100 miles away. Those conditions created growing pressure to reduce the amount of food waste leaving the Wood River Valley.

Rather than launching a full curbside organics service, the city chose a community-based model built around public collection points that could offer a simpler, more affordable alternative.

Why curbside was not the right starting point

Curbside organics collection was considered early on, but it proved too expensive for residents and was not especially appealing in a community where some households were already composting at home.

What Hailey needed instead was a system that could be widely accessible, easy to maintain, and resilient enough to work through Idaho’s long snowy winters. It also had to be simple enough that residents would use it confidently in everyday life, without the program becoming difficult for staff to manage.

The challenge was not just how to collect food scraps. It was how to make public participation feel straightforward and dependable.

A simpler public system built around everyday usability

With grant funding from the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, Hailey launched its community food scraps program in late 2023 and partnered with metroSTOR to install FX-series enclosures at high-traffic locations including grocery stores, City Hall, a park, and a community campus.

Each unit houses a 65-gallon cart and uses either metroKEY app access or a simple keypad code. Bins are serviced twice weekly by a local hauler, and all collected material is sent to Win n’s Compost, a commercial composter based in the valley.

The city also used the rollout to test access methods in practice. Initial installations included app-only units and a keypad unit. The keypad option quickly proved more popular, which led the city to shift newer installations toward dual access using both app and PIN entry.

QR codes on each unit link directly to the city website, making instructions and access details easy for residents to find at the point of use.

Strong uptake, low contamination, and clear resident response

The program expanded quickly, with five public collection locations now active across Hailey and monitored by city staff.

One of the clearest lessons from the rollout was that simple access matters. Residents overwhelmingly preferred the keypad-equipped units, reinforcing the idea that public composting works best when it is designed to feel easy rather than overly technical.

“For a city of our size, we were amazed at how much food waste we collected right away. The keypad-access bins were by far the most popular, people just want something simple and easy to use.”

The city also found that communication could remain straightforward. Rather than relying on a complex outreach campaign, Hailey used a bilingual postcard with a photo of the bins and clear instructions, supported by the QR codes on each unit.

“We used a single bilingual postcard with a picture of the bins and clear instructions, and that was enough. The QR code on each bin links straight to our website and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.”

Contamination has remained very low, and when issues do appear, staff can respond quickly and directly.

“We have very little contamination. I check the bins twice a week and if something is off, I look up who accessed the bin and send a quick reminder email. The app makes it really easy to manage.”

That balance between easy use and targeted follow-up has been a major part of the program’s success.

Adapting the programme as participation grows

As participation increased, the city adapted the program rather than treating the original setup as fixed.

Grant funds were redirected to purchase additional bins because demand was stronger than expected. After feedback about bin height and ease of use, the city also added a lower-height unit to improve accessibility for a wider range of residents.

That flexibility matters because it shows the program is not just functioning operationally. It is learning and improving as it grows.

“The program has expanded faster than we expected. We even reallocated our outreach budget to buy more bins. metroSTOR was great to work with, especially when we needed a lower bin height. That unit has made a big difference.”

Keeping food scraps local

All collected material is processed locally in the valley, which helps reduce hauling emissions and gives the program a stronger local logic.

For Hailey, that makes the model more than a waste diversion exercise. It connects resident participation with a visible local outcome, while helping the city reduce landfill dependence in a place where geography makes disposal more costly and more carbon-intensive.

With a low-maintenance operating model, strong resident uptake, and infrastructure that can adapt as demand changes, the program is already providing a useful example for other smaller and more rural communities.

“For us, this has been a big success, affordable, local and community-driven.”

Emily Williams
Grants and Sustainability Coordinator
City of Hailey

What this shows for smaller cities and rural communities

The Hailey project shows that a successful food scraps program does not need to begin with universal curbside collection.

For smaller cities and rural communities, public collection points can offer a more practical way to expand participation, provided the infrastructure is easy to use, resilient enough for local conditions, and flexible enough to improve as the program grows. In Hailey, a simple, user-first approach helped turn a modest public program into a fast-growing local service.

That makes it a strong example of how composting infrastructure can be scaled around real community behaviour rather than around a one-size-fits-all model.

Looking at food scraps collection in your own community?

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