What Goes in the Food-Scrap Bin by Hutchins Park? Crab Shells Don't.

At 100 Congress Avenue, just outside Hutchins Memorial Park, there's a fenced pen about the size of a small bedroom. It measures 8 by 12 feet, stands roughly 6 feet tall, and holds up to six green bins. The city unlocks it every day at 7 a.m. and locks it again at 7 p.m. Anyone in Havre de Grace can bring kitchen scraps there for free.

On October 19, the City Council voted to keep it going for two more years. The program depends on a short list of rules, and the first item on the list is the food this town is known for.

The Enclosure at 100 Congress Avenue

The Havre de Grace Green Team started the drop-off as a pilot with the city in June 2020. The Green Team lists the site as 100 Congress Avenue. Disposal is free, and accepted items go straight into the green bins.

The volume adds up for a site this small. The Green Team reported 228,607 pounds of food waste collected by June 2025, the program's five-year mark. That works out to roughly 45,000 pounds a year that never went to a landfill. At this month's council meeting, a Green Team member told the council the program had collected "over 200,000 pounds of food waste" in six years, according to The Local Beacon's council recap.

Those figures show the program's scale: six bins, emptied on a weekly schedule, handling tens of thousands of pounds a year. That scale explains most of the rules.

The No List Starts With Crab

The Green Team posts a list of items that should never go in the bins. The 2026 agreement the council approved requires signs at the enclosure showing what's banned, and its list overlaps but isn't identical. Here are the two side by side:

Crab is the only food that appears by name in both lists. Shells from a backyard crab feast, fish skins and shrimp tails all belong in the regular trash, not the green bins. In a river town where a bushel of crabs is a normal Saturday, that's the rule most likely to catch people out.

The liquids ban is the other one that surprises people, because it reaches further than you'd guess. The Green Team counts raw eggs as liquid, so they can't go in. Empty eggshells are fine, and so are boiled eggs. The Green Team even suggests boiling eggs that have expired before dropping them off.

The Small Yeses That Take Up Room

The Green Team's FAQ answers the in-between items one at a time. Each answer comes down to two questions: will it break down, and does it fit in a bin?

• Bags: Only bags labeled certified compostable. The Green Team warns that some "plant-based" bags contain other materials that disqualify them.
• Pizza boxes: Accepted, one per drop-off. No other cardboard, because the bins don't have room for it.
• Paper plates and cups: Only if they're stamped compostable. Most regular ones have a plastic coating.
• Paper towels and napkins: Accepted if they were used in the kitchen and aren't soiled with chemicals.
• Tea bags: Paper ones are fine. Pyramid-shaped bags are often nylon and are not accepted.
• Brown paper bags: Accepted if they're plain and uncoated, which makes them handy for carrying scraps.
• Wine corks: Natural cork only, cut into at least four pieces. Synthetic corks are not accepted.
• Toothpicks and popsicle sticks: Accepted.

The pizza box rule shows how capacity shapes the list. Cardboard is compostable, but a 96-square-foot pen with six bins can't handle every box from every household, so the line falls at one pizza box per visit.

Some common items aren't on either list, including meat, bones and Thanksgiving turkey carcasses. With Thanksgiving on November 26, a quick email to [email protected] before the holiday cleanup is a better move than guessing at the gate. The Green Team invites item-by-item questions at that address.

What Changed on October 19

Ordinance 1236 is a three-way agreement among the city, the Havre de Grace Green Team, Ltd., and Garrity Renewables LLC. The hauler named in it is new. The Green Team's zero-waste page still says Veteran Compost services the bins weekly. If you've read the website, the name on the truck may not match.

The agreement splits the work clearly. The Green Team keeps the area clean, makes sure the contractor swaps out the bins at least once a week, carries liability insurance for the site and maintains the signs. The city maintains the enclosure, handles locking and unlocking, and installs any replacement signs the Green Team supplies. Any party can end the arrangement on 30 days' written notice.

The council passed it 6-0 on the same night as a second Green Team agreement. The Local Beacon reported that the second one, Ordinance 1235, renews the Green Team's food forest at Todd Park for two years. Scraps go in at one city park, and fruit grows at another.

The Other Half Is on Seneca Avenue

The Todd Park Food Forest covers about 2.63 acres of city parkland on Seneca Avenue. It's generally open dawn to dusk, seven days a week. It sits across the street from the Green Team's Seneca Avenue Community Garden. A grant from the Maryland Urban Community Forestry Committee paid for the first plantings in the fall of 2016.

The Green Team's plant list for the forest names these trees and shrubs:

• American chestnut and American hazel
• Apple, crab apple, Asian pear and peach
• Common persimmon, pawpaw and fig
• Blueberry, gooseberry, elderberry and serviceberry
• Wild American plum

The forest was planted for the community to harvest. The Green Team says the public can pick the edible produce once the plants mature. Care runs through an adopt-a-tree program. Volunteers each take a tree or bush and weed, water and mulch it under the guidance of a forest leader.

The next public workday is Saturday, November 21, from 9 to 11 a.m. Isabel Mooney, a horticulturist with the University of Maryland Extension in Harford County, will demonstrate pruning. Volunteers will also weed and mulch to get the forest ready for winter. Anyone is welcome to help on plants that haven't been adopted yet. The Green Team asks volunteers to bring gloves, their own water, and loppers or clippers if they have them. Details are on the Green Team's event page.

Leaves Take a Different Route

Fall cleanup produces another kind of waste, and it doesn't go to Congress Avenue. Under the city's 2026 trash guide, yard waste, leaves included, is picked up every Monday all year. Leaves have to go in paper bags or loose in a container with no trash mixed in, and plastic bags aren't allowed. The guide doesn't list a separate fall leaf pickup, so the regular Monday collection is the route.

The Green Team's Calendar Through Early December

The Green Team's calendar has more than the workday on it. Here's what's coming up, in order:

1. Wednesday, November 18, 7 p.m.: A screening of the film Let Them Eat Dirt at the Opera House. Tickets are free.
2. Saturday, November 21, 9 to 11 a.m.: Fall cleanup at the Todd Park Food Forest, with the pruning demonstration.
3. Saturday, December 5, 9 a.m.: A bird walk starting from the Lock House Museum parking lot at 817 Conesteo Street.
4. Wednesday, December 9, 7 p.m.: A book discussion of Consumed: How Big Brands Got Us Hooked on Plastic in the Egyptian room at Coakley's Pub.

The drop-off stays open through all of it, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day, at 100 Congress Avenue. Crab shells still go in your trash can at home.

If you're thinking about a home near Hutchins Park, Todd Park or anywhere else in town and want someone who knows how its day-to-day works, Rose Calderone + Co. would be glad to help. Schedule a consultation with Rose.