A stinky business model?

[wasabi_poptart]

There's a new thing in town called http://compostcab.com/, which is basically a trash collection service for composting. They supply the bins (and ostensibly the worms), you fill it with your food scraps, and once a week they come pick it up right off your porch. No muss, no fuss ... all for the low price of $32 a month. And this is where it gets

Comments

[lyonesse]

maybe if i were a restaurant or cooking for many-many, and the compostables weren't easily dealt with otherwise?

n.b., i don't compost anymore, i get enough good fertilizer from the barn :)

[frobzwiththingz]

In the same general vein, I have always been completely *dumbfounded* by the whole "leaf collection" ritual people go through every fall. Hey! Lets all deplete our backyard biomass, in nice little paper bags supplied to us, and then have to buy it right back 6 months later. I can see that there are locations where
this makes some sense, but everyone does it here in semi-rural Westford too. Madness. I've been known to
haul away other peoples leaf bags before the collection trucks get there and dump their contents in the
woods behind our house.

[wasabi_poptart]

I bet if one dug around a bit (hahaha), there would be a lot of places that would be glad to take it. Most of Maryland and southern Pannsylvania is still agricultural, once you get outside the city. Even in the city, you can trade your composting to a local CSA (of which there are many) for credit towards a membership. Rotten veggies for fresh ones? Yes, please!

[nobodobodon]

In Austin, the going rate is about $2 a week. We did it for awhile. A lot of the "farm share delivery" places include that in their rates. Those can be kinda pricy overall, but worth it if you make the time to cook the stuff. (Do you have those out there?)

One thing about Austin is there are three different sizes of trash can you can have for your regular weekly pickup, and you pay more for the bigger cans, so there's a direct financial incentive to reduce volume. Our single-stream recycling bins are giant and free. (Because they make some money dealing with it.)

[kickarse]

It sounds like you can get your own compost in trade, if you want to use it. I agree with your points, but I will be honest and say I don't want to deal with my stinky compost at all and I am glad to pay someone to take it away.

In Seattle, you pay for trash, yard waste/composting, and recycling separately. Well, recycling is free, trash is pretty expensive, and I think our yard waste bin is $8 a month. So it's a good deal, and you can compost ALL food scraps, used napkins and food-soiled paper, meat, lots of things that could probably not be composted on a smaller scale. And because of it our trash pickup is much cheaper and we use a teeny tiny can, because the only thing that really goes in the trash can is plastic packaging that can't be recycled and stuff like dryer lint, now that the girls are out of diapers. I would hope most cities would go to a similar model in the future.

[kazoogrrl]

Yes, this. Some people may want to reduce their trash but not really care about getting anything back or what it costs or whatever. We compost because we have a bin in our yard, otherwise it would go in the trash.