St. Albans Close the Loop Home Compost Pick-Up

Vermont’s Universal Recycling Law bans food waste from our state’s landfill starting in 2020. But, NWSWD knows that many St. Albans residents are ready to start keeping their food waste out now.

Currently, NWSWD operates a 30+ stop commercial compost pick-up route for customers like schools, restaurants, healthcare facilities, and grocery stores. This service delivers over 30 tons of food waste monthly for composting to Hudak Farm on Route 7.

Business/institutional compost pick-up is somewhat well established in Vermont. Home compost pick-up is still getting started. Seeing a need, NWSWD brought its pick-up experience to St. Albans residents in January 2017. The service is running smoothly and gaining customers all the time.

Our route was featured on Vermont Public Radio.

And a story from the Messenger.

Decaying landfilled food waste is a leading cause of climate-changing greenhouse gasses in the U.S. But, by composting just one 5 gallon bucket of food waste, you prevent emissions equivalent to those produced by using 1 gallon of gasoline in an automobile! Food waste can be used to feed farm animals, turned into high quality soils, or used to generate electricity. Further, food waste makes up about 1/3 of the average household’s trash. By separating food waste out you’ll likely need less frequent garbage pick-up! Our landfills will last longer, too!

• This route is open to residents of St. Albans City and some residents of St. Albans Town. Town residents contact 524.5986 or info@nwswd.org to see if you are in our service area.
• Each customer gets a 5 gallon bucket with a screw-top lid. Keep the bucket in the garage or outside, just like your curbside wheeled trash can. Households bigger than 4 people sometimes require a second bucket.
• Each customer needs a container for food waste in their kitchen. An old plastic container with a lid works great (e.g. an old Tupperware container or coffee can). NWSWD also has containers for $5. When this container gets full, dump it into the 5 gallon bucket.
• All food waste can go in. We give you a list of what goes in and what stays out. No non-food with one exception: if desired, participants may use a paper grocery bag as a liner in their bucket. This will help keep your bucket clean.
• NWSWD comes by weekly to dump your bucket (including the paper grocery bag). They’ll leave the bucket for you. You’ll be responsible for rinsing it, though it’s not overly necessary. (Our compost guru Aaron once went 7 years without rinsing his bucket. It wasn’t a big deal…) Easy!!!
• NWSWD charges $10/month for this service. The monthly charge for anyone requiring 2 curbside buckets (households larger than 4 people or anyone wanting a 2nd bucket) will be $15.

Have more questions? Contact us at 524.5986 or info@nwswd.org