Community Composting

By Kenna Eaton, General Manager of The Food Co-op

Hopefully by now you have seen our new compost bins, located right next to the library drop box on the south side of our building. They are owned by Return to Earth (RTE), a community composting service.

Their mission statement: “We are dedicated to capturing local food waster, educating about waste reduction and creating compost that benefits our community and the Earth” is super cool and I am personally very excited about this great new service for our community. Did you know that 24% of our municipal garbage is food waste? Often that food waste simply goes to the landfill- that giant hole in eastern Washington, 352 miles away. What a waste!

RTE saw this as an opportunity to start a business, one that takes food waste and turns it into compost for sale. So how does that work? Customers sign up for a monthly subscription for Food Scrap Drop Off. There are various locations around town—and now we have one. Users have the code to unlock the bins and RTE checks and empties them frequently. Ony customers of RTE can place their compostables in the bins.

I’m hopeful this project works -for us and for RTE, and I look forward to a strong partnership, one that keeps this precious resource out of the landfill and enriching our soil.