Forty percent of what we throw away in the United States is food. However, these food scraps are not waste. Kept out of landfill, edible food and food scraps are immensely valuable and can be donated, upcycled into new products (e.g., animal feed), recycled into valuable nutrient-rich compost and other soil amendments, or converted into biogas through anaerobic digestion. The EPA’s Wasted Food Scale (see right) outlines end- of-life options for wasted food on a “most preferred” to “least preferred” basis. As shown in the scale, composting is the preferred end-of-life option for food scraps if they cannot be used for consumption (or left unharvested). Local governments have the opportunity to capture this food and process it properly, giving their residents and communities access to organics collection programs, in addition to waste and recycling collection. This Blueprint, co-created by the Composting Consortium and Eco-Cycle, is crafted to educate and support municipalities in developing and scaling food scraps collection programs and composting infrastructure in their cities and jurisdictions. Municipalities are a critical stakeholder when building the necessary compost infrastructure and promoting the behavior changes needed for a thriving circular economy for food scraps, particularly for complex organic streams that include post-consumer source separated organics. This Blueprint explores key considerations and provides resources, tools and guidance for municipalities looking to establish organics recycling collection programs in their communities and jurisdictions.