Composting at Home

1. Buy a compost bin or build your own.  Read up on the basics of composting from EPA and the Rodale Institute . 
2. Use a small bucket on your countertop or other covered container to collect your food scraps and empty regularly into your yard compost bin (adding leaves/torn newspaper for correct balance of materials).
3. Try indoor composting with worms  if you don't have a yard.
4. For home composting, it’s best to keep meat and cheese out of the bin. Commercial services will accept these items. 

Town Supported Composting

Some towns, such as Needham, allow you to drop off food waste at the Recycling Transfer Station to be composted for free.  In Needham’s case, the food is picked up by a partner, Agri-Cycle, and brought to an anaerobic digester to be turned into biogas for energy. In Wellesley, food waste is handled at the dump by Save That Stuff and is also converted to electricity. (Contact the DPW to sign up.) But these are intended only as examples: check with your own town to find out if they have a program.

Curbside Pickup

1. Find out if your current trash hauler offers compost pick up.

2. Check to see if any of the following providers are operating in your town

   1. Black Earth Compost: Our colleagues at EnergizeWayland and Green Newton have identified Black Earth as a reliable composting service and they have also been used by the cities of Natick and Newton. Order your Starter Kit, which includes a handy, critter-proof bin on wheels, a roll of bags to line the bin so it stays clean, and a roll of smaller bags for your kitchen compost container. Once registered, you will be given instructions about where to pick up your Starter Kit. Black Earth currently services over 8,000 residents via curb-side pick-up in 50+ towns in Eastern Massachusetts.

   2. Bootstrap Compost
   3. City Compost
3. Let us know how it goes by leaving a testimonial.

Learn more on backyard composting from the Rodale Institute . 

Why we suggest Black Earth as a composting service

Our colleagues at EnergizeWayland and Green Newton identified Black Earth as a reliable composting service and they have also been used by the cities of Natick and Newton. We are aware that there are other options, and if you use these, we welcome your thoughts (email our colleagues at energizewayland -  info@energizewayland.org or leave a testimonial on this site). There are two ways in which Black Earth stands out. 

1.  Unlike trash haulers, they compost the collections themselves (at their operation in Manchester-by-the-Sea) according to strict DEP rules. They have demonstrated to us their process, and have invited us to come for a tour in spring or summer. Let us know if you want to come on this field trip. 
2. They sell the finished compost. For that reason they are more strict than many about what they take for compostable cutlery, plates, and pizza boxes, taking only BPI-certified (by the Biodegradable Products Institute). They do this to avoid plastics in their end product.