Composters offer collection services for difficult-to-recycle items, thus closing the gap
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More and more organic waste disposal companies across the country are offering collection services for hard-to-recycle materials and working with their customers to exclude more non-compostable materials from disposal.
These services have emerged in partnership with third-party recycling companies willing to process the materials. One provider, TerraCycle, recently announced that it has partnered with more than 20 providers across the country to provide and pick up “zero waste bags” that can handle 24 material categories, including coffee capsules, toothpaste tubes, expanded polystyrene foam and more.
“Our goal is to partner with composting companies nationwide – or any company that offers a home or pickup service – to help residents conveniently recycle more of their household products, especially items that are generally not accepted by local recycling services,” said Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle, in a statement.
Black soil compost, A green waste hauler and composter operating in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire has begun a partnership with TerraCycle in the Boston area. The company’s residential and commercial customers will be notified each month when Black Earth deploys a collection route and can sign up for pickup that day. They can either pay a one-time fee for pickup or subscribe to receive monthly or quarterly pickup.
David Stephenson, compost growth manager at Black Earth, said the program is consistent with his company’s mission to keep materials out of landfills and incinerators.
Black Earth’s Hard-to-Recycle Materials Collection (CHaRM) program works with local suppliers for items such as electronics and textiles and with TerraCycle for many other materials.
Permission granted by Black Earth Compost
Stephenson said interest in a collection service for hard-to-recycle materials has grown steadily since his company began picking up electronics in late 2022. Black Earth already has about 40,000 customers signed up for the organics collection service, and Stephenson said that customer base gives the company the confidence to continue to expand its capabilities with the TerraCycle bags.
“Black Earth Compost was founded to keep food waste out of landfills,” Stephenson said. “It only makes sense to step forward and divert everything we can, especially since we have such a large network of people paying for this service.”
TerraCycle said it plans to further expand the service, which is already available through providers in states such as New York, Maryland, Illinois and Tennessee.
CompostNow, a Georgia-based organic waste hauler and composter, has also expanded its capacity to collect and divert hard-to-recycle materials. The organization began piloting such a system in Asheville, North Carolina, in November 2023 before expanding to Charleston, South Carolina in March and Atlanta in April. Most recently, the organization expanded into the Research Triangle, which includes Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina.
CompostNow picks up items from customers during normal organic waste collection hours. Like other haulers moving into this area, CompostNow seeks out local partners to properly dispose of the collected materials, including organizations like the Atlanta-based nonprofit Live Thrive. Together, the partners collect and recycle products such as batteries, textiles, small electronics and various types of plastics.
David Paull, chief impact officer at CompostNow, said many of his customers distrust the curbside recycling system today. Offering a service that provides transparency into where each stream of material goes has been key to attracting sign-ups, he said.
“It’s almost like a return to the early days of recycling, when we sorted by source,” Paull said. “I think consumers are increasingly looking for experiences like that.”
CompostNow began rolling out the service in part because customers were asking for help finding solutions for those materials. The company began surveying customers to gauge interest before the pilots began, said Chief Operating Officer Kat Nigro.
CompostNow has collected more than 850 bags in its stores so far. Nigro said they were initially concerned about whether customers would actually use the service or if they would just express interest in a survey, but they are pleased with the results.
The fees that waste management companies charge their customers for hard-to-recycle service vary. CompostNow charges $7 per bag. Black Earth Compost charges about $20 to $25 per pickup, according to Stephenson. O-Town Compost — based in Orlando, Florida — charges about $5 to $10 per pickup for its smaller list of materials.
Charlie Pioli, founder and CEO of O-Town, said the service contributes only a small portion of his company’s overall revenue. To offer the service alongside organic waste pickup, for example, O-Town limits its customers to providing one bag of textiles per pickup to ensure there is still room in the trucks for organic waste.
Despite its limitations, the hard-to-recycle waste pickup service is still popular with customers. Pioli said it offers a more convenient solution for those who don’t necessarily participate in their city’s household waste collection points but still want to be sustainable.
“It’s in line with our mission and just makes our composting subscription so much better from a customer perspective,” Pioli said. “We’re just adding value to our customers and now they can recycle more than just their food scraps.”
