By: Charity Meier | Novi Note | Published March 26, 2026
NOVI — The city of Novi is working to get to the “root of the problem” of food waste by implementing a pilot composting program.
The Novi City Council approved funding the startup costs of no more than $10,000 for the food waste recycling pilot program during its regular meeting on March 23.
The program was recommended to the council by the Novi Environmental Sustainability Committee, which includes Councilwoman Priya Gurumurthy and Councilmen Brian Smith and Matt Heintz. It will be run in partnership with My Green Michigan, a food waste recycling company based in Wixom.
“As you know, 40% of all food that is generated in this country is thrown away. That’s a fact,”said Robb Harper, operations director for My Green Michigan. “And our goal is to keep the food out of landfills.”
My Green Michigan operates similar programs in several nearby communities, including Farmington, Royal Oak and Ferndale. According to Harper, the city of Royal Oak started a pilot program a year ago with just one bin and now has 14 bins, which are collected twice a week.
Harper said the program has been successful — so much so that they now work with school districts, such as Royal Oak, where they collect the food waste, turn it into compost and sell the compost back to the schools at cost to be sold by the students as a fundraiser. Harper said the company also donates compost back to the schools for their gardens.
“We’re planning to start small with a few bins for residents to drop off food waste. If that takes off (which I expect it will) we can expand from there, like other communities have done,” Councilman Brian Smith said in an email.
The initial $10,000 startup funds will cover the costs of four bins at two locations, which have yet to be determined. The bins cost $20 each and collection service costs $334 per month for the two locations. There is also a $15 per bin optional cost for bin-cleaning service.
“We understand that food waste collecting is a messy business. We understand that. We work diligently in working with our clients to maintain the cleanliness,” Harper said.
“We are adamant about making sure the compost that we make is clean and that there are no chemical byproducts in there,” he said.
Heintz was enthusiastic about the program.
“One of the beautiful aspects of composting is that it doesn’t require the purchase of any sort of new equipment, you just put it from one bin into another bin and it’s got some amazing benefits as well,” said Heintz.
The city will have the help of a summer University of Michigan fellow to support the program. The fellow will spend 40 hours a week for 10 weeks monitoring bins, recording observations, doing public engagement and developing a how-to guide for other cities to follow, according to the city.
Councilman Dave Staudt asked Harper to speculate on the approximate cost of the program to the city when it is fully implemented. Harper said he would speculate the cost to the city to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $30,000 to $35,000 a year.
“It’s very innovative,” Councilman Aaron Martinez said.
Martinez asked Harper if My Green Michigan would help to educate the community on what can and cannot be composted.
“We welcome the opportunity to provide education material on what can and what cannot be put in there,” Harper said.
He said that once the sites are set up, he will commit time to being there to speak with the community about it.
A potential timeline of the project showed that the city would evaluate the program in November.