Free food scrap program for Ottawa County
Turn your kitchen scraps into super soil!
Don't throw those carrot tops, avocado peels, rotten bananas, apple cores, slimy uneaten bags of spinach, and corn husks in the garbage! Not only will they sit in a landfill and wreak havoc on our planet, but you're missing out on the opportunity to turn those scraps into a nutrient-rich soil amendment: Vermicompost!
We're rolling out our Food Scrap program in 2024 to select communities in Ottawa County, with an eye on expanding to more areas it in 2025.
Our worms are hungry. We've got thousands of them, and they eat half of their body weight in food every day. That means 10,000 worms can eat a 150 pounds of rotten produce a month.
When you sign up for our Food Scrap Pick-up Service, you pay nothing to have us recycle your kitchen scraps. We'll even reward you with free vermicompost for your own garden, potted plants, lawn or whatever else you have growing in soil!
How it works: First, apply for the program here. Then we'll drop off a small bucket, a biodegradable bucket liner and some info on the program (do's and don't's for food collection). You'll then toss your fruit and veggie scraps into the bucket. Once a week, we'll have a drop-off site where you can come drop off your scraps, and get a new biodegradable bucket liner. It's that easy!
We are a bit picky about what we feed our worms, which means we don't want certain things put in the buckets:
The food scrap season will run through October, and sometime in September, we'll be distributing the vermicompost to our food scrap partners.
If you have any questions, shoot us an email at [email protected].
Don't throw those carrot tops, avocado peels, rotten bananas, apple cores, slimy uneaten bags of spinach, and corn husks in the garbage! Not only will they sit in a landfill and wreak havoc on our planet, but you're missing out on the opportunity to turn those scraps into a nutrient-rich soil amendment: Vermicompost!
We're rolling out our Food Scrap program in 2024 to select communities in Ottawa County, with an eye on expanding to more areas it in 2025.
Our worms are hungry. We've got thousands of them, and they eat half of their body weight in food every day. That means 10,000 worms can eat a 150 pounds of rotten produce a month.
When you sign up for our Food Scrap Pick-up Service, you pay nothing to have us recycle your kitchen scraps. We'll even reward you with free vermicompost for your own garden, potted plants, lawn or whatever else you have growing in soil!
How it works: First, apply for the program here. Then we'll drop off a small bucket, a biodegradable bucket liner and some info on the program (do's and don't's for food collection). You'll then toss your fruit and veggie scraps into the bucket. Once a week, we'll have a drop-off site where you can come drop off your scraps, and get a new biodegradable bucket liner. It's that easy!
We are a bit picky about what we feed our worms, which means we don't want certain things put in the buckets:
- no citrus (too acidic for our worms),
- no egg shells,
- no meat, dairy or oils (neither animal- nor plant-based oils),
- no cooked, sauced, seasoned or processed foods (baked goods, canned goods, etc)
- no landscape scraps or trimmings (a minimal amount of cut flowers are ok).
- leafy greens,
- root veggies,
- fruits (peaches, cherries, apples, bananas & peels, grapes, etc)
- avocados and their skins,
- celery,
- onion skins & garlic skins,
- coffee grounds & tea leaves,
- herbs & flowers.
The food scrap season will run through October, and sometime in September, we'll be distributing the vermicompost to our food scrap partners.
If you have any questions, shoot us an email at [email protected].