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DAVENPORT (AP) — An eastern Iowa county plans to explore options for keeping food waste out of the landfill, a category that amounts for about 20 percent of residential trash.

Waste Commission Director Kathy Morris said she will ask Scott County to consider collecting food waste for composting, rather than sending it to the landfill.

Morris told the Quad-City Times that she plans to recommend in March that they outsource a study into food waste collection, composting options and community impact. She anticipates the study to cost between $20,000 and $40,000. It could be complete by the fall.

The study would also assess whether the Davenport Compost Facility has the capacity to accept the county's food waste. The facility currently mixes bio-solids from the Davenport's Water Pollution Control Plant with yard waste to make compost to sell.

"We don't want to mess up the Compost Facility," she said.

Iowa's 1987 Ground Water Protection Act prompted efforts to divert items away from landfills. The volume of materials deposited into landfills has already significantly decreased.