Food Waste Recycling
Curbside Compost
According to the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection, the single largest component of solid waste sent to incinerators and landfills is food waste. Households typically have 12 lbs of food waste per house per week according to Nick Skeadas from Curbside Compost.
Curbside Compost collects food scraps from residential and commercial locations in Connecticut and New York. Their process ensures that food scraps are brought to compost facilities, not burn plants or landfills. This decreases waste and pollution, and produces healthy, rich soil to give back to the earth – “Staying true to our roots by leveraging our planet’s oldest method of recycling.” According to Nick Skeadas, Composting is rewarding, but can be difficult to do on your own. We do all of the work, and you’re the one making it possible! Plus, because of our scale we can compost items that aren’t recommended for home composters, like meat and bones. Put it in your bucket with a compostable liner or brown paper bag, and we’ll empty it each week.
A study by the University of Arizona in 2004 indicated that 14 to 15% of United States edible food is untouched or unopened, amounting to $43 billion worth of discarded, but edible, food. Another survey by the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab found that 93% of respondents acknowledged that they buy foods that they never used.
According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, 40% of food in the United States is never eaten, amounting to $165 billion a year in waste. This takes a tremendous toll on the country’s water resources and significantly increases greenhouse gas emissions.
Curbside Compost works with residents, schools, restaurants, businesses and events. At the end of the composting cycle, they offer compost delivery for you to enjoy the fruits of your efforts. Households get a free 1-cubic foot certified organic bag of composted soil each spring. They also sell bags and bulk compost to the public.
How It Works:
Get your bin, fill it up
Curbside Compost will deliver a pail, lid, countertop bin and roll of compostable bags on your designated collection day. (First roll of bags is on us!)
We deliver your pail and lid on your designated collection day. The pail is 5-gallons and is 16″ tall by 14″ wide. Most participants keep their pail in the garage, under a sink, in a cabinet, closet, kitchen or balcony.
We’ll collect it each week
Leave your filled pail with the week’s food scraps at the end of or on your driveway by 8:00 a.m. on your designated pick-up day and we will replace it with a clean one. You can use BPI certified compostable bags or a brown paper bag to line your pail. If you live in a town that doesn’t allow for waste to be left at the end of your driveway, we have to pick up your pail by your home (not on the curb). If you would like us to pick up the container on your property we can do that. We run collections until 7:00 P.M. each day.
Place an order for delivery
Place an order any time you would like compostable bags, compost, garden soil, or mulch delivered. When you would like compost delivered, please order it online or reach out to us. We also deliver loose garden soil and mulch by the yard.
When ordering bagged compost, we leave your compost with the clean pail.
Curbside Compost had Stratford customers for several years, but discontinued service as they did not have enough residents interested. A minimum of 75 residents would need to sign up. The 75 could be in the same neighborhood or scattered throughout town. If interested you can send in your name and address, and, when 75 residents have signed up Curbside Compost will notify you that service is now available. The 75 can be scattered around town – it doesn’t have to be on the same street or neighborhood!
Nick Skeadas noted that his company, Curbside Compost, has spent 7 years working on food waste. They work with restaurants, institutions, grocery store, offices, rest homes, all kinds of commercial businesses that generate food waste. “We are currently in discussion with Chipotle. We have been trying to work with your Transfer Station. We work with 10 transfer stations across CT, we provide carts to transfer station, and pick up each week (or more if requested). Carting away food waste from a transfer station would be lowering the fee paid to a burn plant, as we are less expensive.”
I am submitting my name and address to info@curbcompost.org, hope others do the same. I have been doing my own composting for years, never place any food scraps in the garbage. I think this would be better and easier. 🤞we can get the support to bring it to Stratford!