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What to do with food scraps?

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Waste & Recycling

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Hate to trash food scraps but can’t compost yourself? Want to reduce your household waste by up to 50%? Not have a smelly trash bin? Get quality compost? Reduce your carbon footprint? Save your septic?

There are many reasons to make sure food scraps get composted and returned to soil!

You can of course also compost yourself! Learn more about there here. And if you’re looking of discount compost bin, check them out under the Steps to Take Tab above! 

But if you don’t compost at home, 

  1. Use WOW! If you are a Transfer Station customer, simply collect your food scraps and on your Transfer Station run, put them in the WOW (Wayland Organic Waste) collection bins. Read more about what you can bring, here.
  2. Have them picked up at the curb! Sign up with our preferred partner, Black Earth Compost, for a reliable weekly curbside pickup service of all your organics, including food-stained newspaper, flower cuttings, meat, grease, cheese and even bones. Here’s the full list of what you can put in the bin. In the spring you can either receive a voucher for a bag of finished compost, redeemable at participating Garden Centers, or you can donate your compost to Backyard Growers.

Businesses like restaurants, schools, and assisted living facilities can use this service too: email us at info@energizewayland.org, and we’ll put you in touch for exceptional commercial-scale organics pickup. 

EnergizeWayland does not receive money from Black Earth Compost. A customer already? Use another vendor? Let us know how they’re doing by leaving a Testimonial here, or emailing us at info@energizewayland.org.  

Steps to Take

For Black Earth curbside food scraps pickup:

  1. Sign up on their site. 
  2. Choose a one-month or a six-month subscription, which is the best deal at $114.99. 
  3. Also, order a Starter Kit which includes a handy, critter-proof bin on wheels, a roll of bags to line it so it stays clean, and a roll of smaller bags for whatever container you use to collect compostables in the kitchen.
  4. Once registered, you will be given instructions about where in Wayland to pick up your Starter Kit.
  5. Start collecting!
  6. Let us know how it goes by contactig us or by leaving a testimonial (third tab, above).

To buy a discount compost bin

Energize Wayland has New Age compost bins available. You can find more info about them here, but in short, they are $79 each. This is a discount price as they were bought through the State’s Department of Environmental Protection program, and we are selling them at the original price. 
 
  1. Email Kaat for here adderss so you can to send a check to Energize Wayland.
  2. Then you can go pick up the bin at the Wayland Transfer Station (484 Boston Post Rd, you won’t need a sticker). 
  3. Take a picture of your compost setup and send it to us, write a Testimonial (Testimonial tab above) and share on social media: let’s all compost!

Deep Dive

Incredibly, over 51% of the trash that goes to landfills is compostable. In the US, we throw out roughly 60 millions tons of food each year, not only wasting valuable resources (food, and organic fertilizer) but also contributing to methane, a gas with a warming potential roughly 21 times that of carbon dioxide. We’re putting a stop to that, household by household, town by town!

Why we recommend Black Earth.

We are aware that there are other haulers in our town that offer this service, and if you use these, we welcome your thoughts (email info@energizewayland.org or leave a testimonial on this site). But these are two ways in which Black Earth stands out for us. 

  1. First, 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. Second, they also sell this finished compost. For that reason they are more strict than anyone else in the business (that we know of) 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 (more info here). This tells us that they deeply value the quality of their compost and the environment, even at the risk of losing some customers. 

Testimonials

I was very happy to hear that Wayland Energize Wayland has partnered with Black Earth Compost to provide weekly curbside compost pickup in our town…
Black Earth Compost Above and Beyond
Submitted by: Robi Z
We have been doing this now for several weeks. It is SO EASY. With Septic and no garbage disposal all the food was going into…
Black Earth is GREAT
Submitted by: Doug McNeilly
We've been composting for years ... in the nice weather. The Black Earth collection system is super easy and works all year long. It's a…
Black Earth Rocks
Submitted by: Michael Delman
We have enjoyed Black Earth Compost service for two years now and the weekly compost pick up continues to be a real positive. Our household…
Daily good feeling
Submitted by: Katrin Schliewen

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