Curbside Compost Pick-Up Now Available in Rockford
Rockford residents now have a new option for keeping food scraps and other organic waste out of the trash!
The Rockford Sustainability Committee is excited to share that paid curbside compost pickup is now available to Rockford residents through The Wormies.
If you’ve ever wished there were an easy way to deal with food scraps, meat, bones, and yard waste without sending them to the landfill, this is it.
Why Compost?
Food waste is a significant part of what we throw away—and when organic material ends up in a landfill, we lose the opportunity to turn those nutrients back into the soil.
Composting provides a better destination for organic materials. Instead of sending food scraps and other compostable materials to the landfill, composting allows them to break down into nutrient-rich material that can be returned to the soil. Michigan EGLE encourages residents to compost food and yard waste through backyard composting, drop-off programs, or curbside collection.
And for many households, curbside pickup makes composting much easier.
You don't need to maintain a backyard compost pile, figure out what to do with food scraps every few days, or make special trips to the North Kent Recycling & Waste Center drop-off location. Simply collect your compostable materials and put them out for pickup.
What Can You Put in Your Compost Bin?
We are especially excited about Wormies’ curbside services because their compost can accept hard-to-compost items like coffee filters, tea bags, meat, bones, yard waste, and other plant materials. That’s far more than the vegetable scraps you might normally think of as compostable!
A Solution for Yard Waste, Too
Yard waste can be tricky to manage.
The North Kent Recycling & Waste Center does not provide yard-waste disposal. Kent County specifically directs residents to municipal or private yard-waste services because yard waste is not accepted as ordinary landfill waste. In fact, Michigan prohibits most yard clippings from being disposed of in landfills or waste-to-energy facilities.
Rockford residents do have access to the City's seasonal curbside yard-waste collection program, which provides an important free option for residents during the growing season.
But curbside compost pickup offers something different: one service that can handle both food waste and compostable yard waste.
That can be especially useful for residents who want a simple, year-round solution for their household's organic waste.
And What About Meat and Bones?
This is another major advantage of a professional composting service.
Many backyard composters are designed primarily for plant-based materials. Meat, bones, and other animal products can attract pests and create odor problems in a typical backyard compost bin.
That means even residents who compost at home may still be throwing a substantial amount of food waste into the trash.
A professional composting service can provide a place for those materials, too—helping households divert even more of their waste from the landfill.
Think of It as the Next Step Beyond Recycling
Most of us have gotten pretty good at recycling our bottles, cans, cardboard, and paper.
But recycling isn't the only way we can reduce the amount of waste we send away.
Composting is the other half of the equation.
Instead of asking, "Can this go in the recycling bin?" we can also start asking:
"Can this go in the compost?"
For Rockford households, curbside compost pickup makes that question much easier to answer.
Ready to Start Composting?
The Rockford Sustainability Committee encourages residents who are looking for an easy way to reduce their household food waste to consider signing up for The Wormies' residential curbside composting service.
Learn more and sign up here:
The Wormies – Residential Compost Pickup
Every banana peel, coffee filter, food scrap, chicken bone, and handful of yard waste that gets composted instead of thrown in the trash is one more piece of organic material being put to better use.
Let's make composting part of the way we Rockford :)