First and foremost, the Brown County Food Waste & Organics Program, which began as a “free” “pilot program” in/around November of 2014, under the auspices of the Brown County Port & Resource Recovery Department, and which expanded several times over the next few years, no longer exists and has not existed for several years.

According to Mark Walter, Brown County Port & Resource Recovery’s Business Development Manager, who did a tour of Greener Bay Compost’s operations with our founder in August of 2021, the Program, which ended sometime after 2019, had, at its peak about 150 registered households (approximately 200 individuals) participating in it, with three Food Waste & Organics “Drop-Off Sites” available to its participants.

The differences between our Curbside Compost Pickup Service and the Brown County Food Waste & Organics Program are many:

• Our Service is a paid service, unlike the Brown County Food Waste & Organics Program, which, while having been touted as “free,” was actually funded with Brown County taxpayer funds (which meant that all Brown County taxpayers were paying for it, regardless of whether they participated in it).
• Our Service is easy, in that all participants (subscribers) need to do is place Acceptable organic materials (such as those on our list of Acceptable and Not Acceptable Materials) in our Food Safe, five gallon buckets, and then place those buckets outside for us by a certain time, and on a certain day, every other week, for pickup (in exchange for new, clean buckets), unlike the Brown County Food Waste & Organics Program, which required its participants bring their food waste to one of just three County “Drop-Off Sites,”—all of which were located within the city of Green Bay, and which were only open on certain days and during certain times.
• Our Service is clean (or at least as clean as dealing with food waste can be), in that it allows its participants to add their food waste to a bucket with wood shavings in the bottom (to help control odor and moisture) and an air-tight lid on top, unlike the Brown County Food Waste & Organics Program, which required its participants to dispose of their food waste in giant, outdoors dumpsters filled with mostly nitrogen-rich food waste that smelled terribly as it rotted, not to mention flies, which were undoubtedly attracted to said food waste.
• Our Service is convenient, in that it does not require its participants (subscribers) to leave their homes to participate, unlike the Brown County Food Waste & Organics Program, which, again, required its participants to bring their food waste to one of the County’s “Drop-Off Sites,” which, of course, necessitated driving and dealing with inclement weather, among other things (as described above).
• Our Service is a full-service composting service, in that we not only retrieve our subscribers would-be organic waste from them, but also do all of the composting of this waste ourselves, within less than 25 mile of Green Bay, unlike the Brown County Food Waste & Organics Program, which contracted the giant agri-business company Sanimax to pick up its waste and haul it all the way to the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, nearly 60 miles away, where it would be processed by way of a “biodigester.”
• Our Service composts the would-be organic waste it receives via the “hot composting” process, an aerobic (that is, with oxygen) process that produces little to no methane (a greenhouse gas more than 20x more potent than carbon dioxide), unlike the Brown County Food Waste & Organics Program, which had the waste it collected handled by the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, which uses a “biodigester” and produces methane as an intended by-product of their anaerobic (that is, without oxygen) composting process.
• Our Service produces clean, high-quality compost that is ready for use in local gardens, flower beds, and agricultural operations of all kinds, unlike the Brown County Food Waste & Organics Program, which outsourced the creation of compost to the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, which would mix the compost produced by its “biodigester” with compost produced by the City of Oshkosh (which was undoubtedly made with herbicide/weed-killer contaminated yard waste), and then sell it as “Titan Gold,” with our service area (the Green Bay metropolitan area) deriving little to no benefit from this.

Currently, we perform the majority of our Bucket Swaps/Compost Pickups using a gray Toyota Sienna minivan. On occasion, such as for in the event we need to perform a Special, One-Time Bucket Swap for someone, we may utilize a silver Chevy HHR.

We do not currently offer any Drop-Off locations or Drop-Off services, due to concerns about privacy, legal liability, and cost-effectiveness/efficiency.

Accordingly, the only way for anyone to provide compostable materials to us is to either sign up for our Curbside Compost Pickup Service or, if they have a large volume of acceptable materials they would like to donate to us on a one-time basis, to Contact Us to make arrangements for us to pick said materials up from them.

Our Curbside Compost Pickup Service plans, which are subscription-based, can cost as little as $13.50 per month, if you sign up for our most popular plan, which is the Every-Other-Week Pickup, 6-Months-Paid-in-Full Plan, or upwards of $15-$25.00 or more per month, if you sign up for any of plans, with our Add-a-Bucket option on top of it (which adds an additional $10.00 per month), or if you purchase any Special, One-Time Bucket Swaps (which are $5.00 apiece).

Please note: All of our pricing is subject to change at any time. Therefore, if you would like to “lock” yourself into a set price for as long as possible, you will want to seriously consider our 6-Months-Paid-in-Full plan.

For complete details on how much each of our Curbside Compost Pickup plans costs, please visit our Services page.

Our Curbside Compost Pickup Services are not free, because:

• We are a for-profit business, as opposed to a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, with plans to grow and expand aggressively (not just in terms of service area, but also in terms of the number and type of products and services we offer).
• We have fixed and variable costs/expenses, just like all other businesses, including, but not limited to, the cost of our materials and supplies (including our buckets, lids, and compostable bucket liners), fuel (for our pickup vehicles), and labor.
• Disposing of food waste and other organic materials, through the process of composting, is extremely labor-intensive and time-consuming, and thus expensive, when compared to simply disposing of it in a landfill.
• We believe the time, effort, and skill of our extremely talented workforce is worth every penny of what we charge for our Services (and then some), especially whereas we offer the only service of our kind within approximately 60-70 miles of Green Bay.

First and foremost, we fully support anyone who wishes to compost at home, especially whereas Greener Bay Compost was born out of our founder’s desire to do exactly that. That said, we must note that many of our subscribers have signed up with us because they have already tried to compost at home and found themselves either entirely unsuccessful, or at least not as successful as they’d hoped.

Furthermore, composting is not, in fact, free, unless one considers their time and effort (among other things) to be worthless, because composting, the type of which we do here at Greener Bay Compost, is not only extremely labor-intensive, but also time-consuming. The “hot composting” process we use to convert organic materials into finished compost, alone, can at least take 2-3 months, if not substantially longer, depending on what time of year it is here in Wisconsin, and while we can’t speak for anyone else, we believe our time spent composting is quite valuable.

Also, while it may be possible to  obtain “free” materials locally or online (such as through marketplaces like Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace) to compost, or to build compost bins with, the acquisition of such materials can be very expensive, in terms of the time it takes to acquire them (not to mention the cost of fuel, if one drives to acquire them) and then to physically compost them.

If you are able-bodied and have the time, energy, space, knowledge, skill, and motivation, as well as the right mix of nitrogen- and carbon-rich materials and tools, to compost the way we do, then we say “more power to you” and wish you the best with your composting at home.

That said, not everyone is able-bodied, nor does everyone have access to the resources necessary for successful composting. For such individuals, our services offer an opportunity to still experience the benefits of composting, without having to literally or figuratively break their backs trying to create and manage their own compost bin(s) or pile(s) at home. And for those individuals, we highly recommending signing up for our Services today.

Because giving your would-be organic waste to us, as opposed to tossing it in the trash is:

• Better for the environment, in that our compost process produces little to no methane (a greenhouse gas 20x more potent than carbon dioxide), as opposed to landfills, which is where all your trash goes, and which are the third-largest source of human-related methane emissions in the United States.
• Better for our local community, in that our compost process will convert what would have been waste into a valuable soil amendment, which will help grow more food locally and make our communities more resilient in the face of things like pandemics, inflation, economic recessions, and rising gas prices.
• Better for our collective wallets, in that, by keeping this waste out of our local landfills, we can delay building new landfills, which will be very expensive and likely paid for with our tax dollars.

Our Curbside Compost Pickup Services can potentially save you money, but whether they do will depend, in large part, on how much would-be organic waste your household tends to produce each week.

According to a Wisconsin DNR (Department of Natural Resources) “Waste Characterization” Study released in September 2021, three of the top five materials (by weight) found in Wisconsin landfills include wasted food that was formerly edible, food preparation scraps that are not traditionally edible (i.e.: peels, bones, and shells), and “compostable paper,” which is typically paper products that cannot be recycled, such as facial tissues and used paper plates.

In terms of numbers, the DNR found that “organics” (such as food waste) and paper (including “compostable” paper items), such as the kind found on the Acceptable side of our list of Acceptable and Not Acceptable Materials, make up more than half of the material in our landfills.

This means that as much as half, if not more, of the materials you throw in the trash each week could be composted by us. Accordingly, if you were to have us compost them for you, you would find yourself filling your trash bags far more slowly, which would, in turn, result in you buying fewer trash bags and making fewer trips to your outdoor trash bin/cart over time, thus saving you both time and money.

Furthermore, by diverting your organic waste from landfill to our compost piles, you would also be slowing the rate at which our local landfills fill up, thus pushing back the timeline for when we, as a community, would need to build new ones (which are, for the record, very expensive to build and operate),  and potentially saving us all a substantial amount of taxpayer funds, especially when your personal impact is combined with that of our other subscribers.

Another potential cost-savings you could experience as a subscriber of ours could come as a result of you realizing how much edible food you waste each week, which could result in you changing your shopping habits or learning how to preserve your food for later (via canning, pickling, freezing, dehydrating, etc.), thus saving you money and making your household more resilient in terms of food security.

Please note that many of our subscribers, after using our Curbside Compost Pickup Services for only about a month or so, have not only remarked that their trash bins are far less smelly (due to none of the usual, rotting food going into them), but that they’ve also been able to replace them with bins and bags half their size.

To learn more about the ways composting can benefit us in ways far beyond our bank accounts, please see our answer, on this FAQs page, to the question, “What are the benefits of composting?” in the “About Composting” subsection.

Yes. We provide our Services year-round, because our subscribers don’t stop eating, and we don’t stop composting, even in the middle of winter.

On that note, we would like to point out that, contrary to what many believe, it is entirely possible to compost outdoors in sub-zero temperatures.

If you’re torn between signing up for our Every-Other-Week, Month-to-Month plan or our Every-Other-Week, 6-Months-Paid-in-Full plan, we will try to help make your choice as easy as possible.

We recommend the Every-Other-Week, Month-to-Month plan to anyone who is not 100% sure they’d like to stick with our Services for at least six months, especially whereas our Every-Other-Week, 6-Months-Paid-in-Full plan is non-refundable (unless you have yet to receive your first bucket under it).

Having said that, our Every-Other-Week, 6-Months-Paid-in-Full plan is our most popular plan, and for good reason: It gets you a built-in 10% discount to what you pay, over a six-month period, for the Every-Other-Week, Month-to-Month plan.

While a 10% discount may not seem like much to some people, with our “post-pandemic” U.S. economy being the way it is, every penny counts.

Accordingly, for anyone who is absolutely sure they’d like to stick with us for at least six months, and/or would like to save money, we would highly recommend our Every-Other-Week, 6-Months-Paid-in-Full plan.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE: You can always upgrade, at a later time, from our Every-Other-Week, Month-to-Month plan to our Every-Other-Week, 6-Months-Paid-in-Full plan, but you cannot downgrade from the Every-Other-Week, 6-Months-Paid-in-Full plan to the Every-Other-Week, Month-to-Month plan.

As for our Add-a-Bucket option, we would recommend holding off on signing up for it until you have spent a month or so using our Services, so as to determine whether your household truly produces enough waste every week or two to justify the extra $10.00 per month this option costs.

Similarly, there is no need to purchase a Special, One-Time Bucket Swap from us, unless you absolutely need to, due, for example, to your household temporarily or unexpectedly dealing with a much-larger-than-usual amount of waste.

Allow us to answer this question by first stating that for the first eight to nine months of our existence, we did offer Weekly Pickup options. We made the decision in April 2022, however, to cease offering/phase out such options, for the same reason we have always had for not offering Every-Three-Weeks or Monthly Pickup plans, which is that there is not much, if any, demand for these types of plans.

It should also be noted that we are not fans of the idea of allowing food waste to rot inside of our buckets for upwards of three weeks or more at a time, especially whereas the “offensive odors” that would undoubtedly emanate from such buckets (which many of our subscribers leave outside) could, and likely would, violate countless municipal ordinances.

The longest plan we currently offer is our 6-Months-Paid-in-Full plan, which lock our subscribers in to our services at a set price for six months at a time, and we do not currently have any plans to offer plans of longer duration. We have a few reasons for this:

1. We don’t currently see much, if any, demand for plans that lock our customers into our services for more than six months at a time.
2. We have a need to maintain short-term flexibility with regard to our pricing, due to the current state of the “post-pandemic” U.S. economy.

Whether we can service any particular location depends entirely upon our ease of access to the location and our ability to perform our Bucket Swaps/Compost Pickups at private doors that lead directly outside.

We have previously served (or do currently serve) multiple duplexes, as well as an apartment, a townhouse, and a condominium, all of which had one thing in common: The aforementioned private door leading directly outside (which can be either a standard door, a garage door, or a sliding, French-style door).

If you live in a duplex, apartment, townhouse, or condominium and are interested in signing up for our Services, please Contact Us before doing so, so that we may conduct a review of your location to determine whether we can service it.

Please note that we are unable to service units of any multi-unit residential buildings that are above ground level or which require us to be “buzzed in” or to enter the buildings to service their residents.

We apologize for any inconvenience this policy may cause anyone. Please know that we would absolutely love to service everyone within our service area, regardless of where they live, but that this is, unfortunately, not possible for us at this time.

Please note: If someone who resides in a multi-unit residential building which we determine to not be serviceable by us signs up for any of our Curbside Compost Pickup Services, whether intentionally or accidentally, we will cancel their subscription(s) as soon as we recognize their error and promptly issue them a refund, as well as communicate with them by any means available to us, to make them aware of the cancellation and refund.

On the off-chance that we do not realize or discover that a new subscriber of ours resides in a multi-unit residential building which is not serviceable by us until we are in the process of attempting to deliver their initial compost bucket to them, we will refrain from delivery, cancel their subscription, issue them a refund, and communicate these developments to them as soon as possible, in the same manner as described above.

Currently, we do not provide services of any kind to businesses, schools, or large events, such as weddings. Having said that, we are considering doing so, as part of our aggressive plans to grow and expand both our service and product offerings.

Any business, schools, or other entities that may be interested in receiving composting or organics recycling services, or purchasing products, from us are highly encouraged to Contact Us, so we can have a discussion with them about their business needs and determine whether there exists a possibly of us working with them in the future.

Please note: If a business, school, or other large entity subscribes to any of our residential Curbside Compost Pickup Service plans, we will cancel their subscription(s) as soon as we recognize their error and promptly issue them a refund, as well as communicate with them by any means available to us, to make them aware of the cancellation and refund.

On the off-chance that we do not realize or discover that a new subscriber of ours is a business, school, or other large entity until we are in the process of attempting to deliver a initial compost bucket to them, we will refrain from delivery, cancel their subscription, issue them a refund, and communicate these developments to them as soon as possible, in the same manner as described above.

Currently, we perform Bucket Swaps/Compost Pickups exclusively on Sundays, starting at 8:00 AM Central Standard Time (CST) and continuing until we’ve completed all of our scheduled Bucket Swaps/Compost Buckets for any particular week.

This, however, is subject to change, and eventually, the number of subscribers we serve may necessitate us moving to a two-days-(or more)-a-week Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup schedule.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to the ever-changing nature of our subscriber count and the evolution of our Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup routes, we cannot guarantee that Bucket Swap/Compost Pickups will be completed at any particular time of day, or at the same time of day each week.

Because our Curbside Compost Pickup Service is a subscription-based service, which necessitates us receiving timely, automated payments from our subscribers either every month or every six months, we only accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, JCB, Discover, and Diners Club credit or debit card payments, via our secure, Stripe-based payment system.

We are unable to accept payment in the form of cash, checks, money orders, cryptocurrency (such as Bitcoin), precious metals, or from any other electronic payment services, including, but not necessarily limited to, Apple Pay, Cash App, Facebook Messenger, Google Pay, PayPal, Venmo, and Zelle, due to the inefficiency, risk, and infeasibility inherent in us doing so.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Yes. When you initially sign up for any of our Curbside Compost Pickup Service plans, you should receive an emailed receipt from Stripe, our secure payment processor, on behalf of us, reflecting the service(s) you’ve paid for as well as the amount you’ve paid to us, with PDF copies of both an invoice and a receipt attached, for your records.

If you do not receive your emailed receipt, or if you would like a hard copy/printed receipt mailed to you, you can request this any time by Contacting Us. If you wish to download an invoice, which includes an invoice number, you can do so by visiting our Manage My Subscription page.

Please note: If you use our Manage My Subscription page, you will need to enter the email you signed up with and will then receive an email from gbcompost@gmail.com, which will provide you with a security code that you must enter to access your subscription information.

When you enter the code, you will be taken to a subscription self-management page where you can download your invoice, as described above.

If you have any trouble using our subscription self-management options, please Contact Us.

Yes. If you need to update/change the number, or the expiration date and/or CVC code, of the credit or debit card you used to sign up for any of our Curbside Compost Pickup Service plans, you can do so by Contacting Us or by visiting our Manage My Subscription page.

Please note: You should never send credit or debit card information to us (or anyone else, for that matter), via email or text message, as these communication methods are not secure. If you insist on providing your new information to us personally, rather than using our Manage My Subscription page, we recommend you call us at 920-819-0446 and speak to a live Greener Bay Compost representative (who will likely be our founder, Cory Groshek) to provide this information.

Please do not leave this confidential information in a voicemail.

After receiving and saving your new information with our secure payment processor, Stripe, we will ensure that any such information in Greener Bay Compost’s possession is permanently deleted and/or destroyed, so it will never fall into anyone else’s hands.

If you prefer to use our Manage My Subscription page to provide your new credit or debit card information to us, you will need to enter the email you signed up with and will then receive an email from gbcompost@gmail.com, which will provide you with a security code that you must enter to access your subscription information.

When you enter the code, you will be taken to a subscription self-management page where you can make any or all of the updates/changes as described above.

If you have any trouble using our subscription self-management options, please Contact Us.

When a new subscriber to any of our Curbside Compost Pickup Service plans receives their first compost bucket will be determined by what day and time they subscribe by.

Here at Greener Bay Compost, have what we call the “5 PM cut-off” or “5 PM deadline” at 5:00 PM Central Standard Time (CST) each Saturday, which new subscribers must either meet or beat to receive their first bucket the very next day (due to all of our Bucket Swap/Compost Pickups currently occurring on Sundays, as can be seen at www.GBCompost.com/Events).

If a new subscriber meets or beats this deadline, they will receive their first bucket on the next closest Sunday (which could very well be the very next day).

If, however, a new subscriber misses this deadline by even a minute (for example, they don’t subscribe until 5:01 PM on a Saturday), they will not receive their first bucket the next day, but rather on the Sunday after next.

The reason we have such a deadline is because there needs to be a point at which we stop taking on new subscribers relative to any given Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup route, so as to allow us an appropriate amount of time to finalize our routes. With no such deadline, we could potentially have new subscribers signing up with us a literal minute before our drivers start their routes, which would create a logistical and customer service catastrophe for us, and our goal, of course, is to avoid that.

Prior to 6/1/2022, we offered what was known as the Loyalty and Waste Reduction Rewards Program, which saw our subscribers earn (1) pound of finished compost for every (15) pounds of would-be organic waste they provided to us, which they were able to claim once they had been subscribers with us for at least (6) months.

Effective, 6/1/2022, this program was replaced with our Compost Discount Program, which sees our subscribers rewarded for increasingly larger discounts on compost they may purchase from us, based upon how “Clean”/contaminant-free (i.e.: lacking in Not Acceptable items/materials) the contents of their Greener Bay Compost buckets and extras bags of dry materials they provide to us are.

We also offer a Referral Rewards Program, which sees our existing subscribers earn (1) pound of finished compost for every new subscriber they refer to us who signs up for our Month-to-Month plan, or (5) pounds of finished compost for every new subscriber they refer to us who signs up for our 6-Months-Paid-in-Full plan.

This compost can be claimed by the subscriber who has earned it at any time by Contacting Us.

Subscribers on our Every-Other-Week, Month-to-Month plan may upgrade to our Every-Other-Week, 6-Months-Paid-in-Full plan at any time by Contacting Us.

Subscribers who are on our Every-Other-Week, 6-Months-Paid-in-Full plan may not, however, downgrade, to our Every-Other-Week, Month-to-Month plan.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE: Our Every-Other-Week, 6-Months-Paid-in-Full plan is non-refundable, assuming a subscriber to it has already received their first bucket from us. Accordingly, any subscriber who has signed up for this plan and who, for whatever reason, decides to cease using our services at any point during their six-month subscription period, will be ineligible to receive any refunds from us, relative to said plan.

Please note that we do not pro-rate new subscription prices. Accordingly, if any subscriber upgrades from our Every-Other-Week, Month-to-Month plan to our Every-Other-Week, 6-Months-Paid-in-Full plan, they will be charged full price for their new plan and may, depending upon their particular circumstances, receive a pro-rated refund for their old plan.

If, upon our review of any subscribers particular circumstances, we determine that we owe them a refund, we will communicate this to them, by any means available to us, and issue a refund promptly.

Yes, unless your Curbside Compost Pickup Service plan is canceled prior to the end of your subscription period, your plan will be automatically renewed at the end of your subscription period and the last credit or debit card you provided to us will be automatically billed, at whatever price we are charging for your plan at that time.

Yes, and you can do so by either Contacting Us to let us know of your desire to cancel, in which case we can ensure your Curbside Compost Pickup Service plan is canceled properly and that you receive any refund you may be entitled to.

Please note, however, that canceling one of our Curbside Compost Pickup Service plans does not, in and of itself, entitle you to a refund, prorated or otherwise, of any funds you may have paid to us.  To be issued a refund by us, it is necessary for you to contact us, either before or after you’ve cancelled your plan, so we can make a determination as to what, if any, refund you are owed.

For more details on our Refunds policy, please see our Terms of Service.

Possibly.

Whether you are entitled to or otherwise eligible for a refund of any kind from us is dependent upon several factors, including which of our services you are/were subscribed to, under what conditions your services with us are/were canceled, terminated, or otherwise ended, and whether you’ve returned our property, including its buckets and/or lids, to us, when required to do so.

PLEASE NOTE: Our Every-Other-Week, 6-Months-Paid-in-Full plan is entirely non-refundable, unless a subscriber to it has not yet received their first bucket from us. Accordingly, unless someone interested in becoming a new subscriber of ours is 100% sure they wish to stick with us for at least six months, it is not advisable for them to sign up for this plan, but rather our Every-Other-Week, Month-to-Month plan instead.

For details as to whether you may be eligible or entitled to a refund from us, under any particular set of circumstances, please see the Refunds section of our Terms of Service.

If our property, whether a bucket or lid, or both, is lost, stolen, or irreparably damaged while in the possession of a subscriber, the subscriber will be invoiced for the replacement cost of this property.

For a new bucket, a subscriber will be invoiced for $15.00.

For a new lid, a subscriber will be invoiced for $5.00.

If the invoice the subscriber is sent is not paid within 30 days of our sending it, the subscribers may be subject to additional financial and legal consequences, as per our Terms of Service.

Unequivocally, no.

Because our buckets and lids belong to us, and because all subscribers have agreed to do so by agreeing to our Terms of Service, all subscribers who cancel, or other choose to end their participation in, our Services are required to return any of our property still in their possession to us, by no later than their final Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup day, or our next-scheduled Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup day, whichever comes first.

If a subscriber fails to return our property to us in a timely fashion, in accordance with our Terms of Service, upon cancelling or otherwise ending their Services with us, subscribers may experience legal and financial consequences as a result.

Before we answer this question, we’d like you to know that we have an Email Reminder service available to all subscribers, to help them remember to put their buckets outside for us on their scheduled Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup days.

You can sign up for our Email Reminder List:

• Immediately after subscribing to our Curbside Compost Pickup Service as a new subscriber, by entering your email into the sign-up form embedded into the page our website takes you to when your payment to us is successful
• Any time, by entering your email into the sign-up form embedded into our Events pages
• Any time, by Contacting Us to request that we manually add you to our Reminder List

Once you’re signed up, you will receive an email from us the day before each scheduled Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup, with reminder to place your outside for us by no later than 8:00M AM (CST).

If we arrive at your residence to perform a Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup and find that no bucket has been placed outside for us, we may (but are not required to) send you a text message and/or call you, as a courtesy, in an attempt to have you bring your bucket outside for us.

Should we text you, we will allow two minutes for a response. If we receive no response, we will move on to the next stop on our route. Similarly, if we call you and you do not answer, or if we receive your voicemail, we will move on to the next stop on our route.

If your Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup is missed, you may Contact Us to make arrangements for a make-up Swap/Pickup to be performed for you, free of charge, at the old Sears parking lot on Military Avenue in west Green Bay (a public, well-lit location in the middle of our service area), on a date and at a time agreed upon by all parties, or simply wait for us to return to your residence in two weeks.

PLEASE NOTE: There are no refunds available for subscribers due to Bucket Swaps/Compost Pickups missed by subscribers, on account of subscribers failing to put their buckets outside for us, as required, by no later than 8:00 AM (CST) on their scheduled Bucket Swaps/Compost Pickup days.

If you will be unable to place your bucket outside for us, to enable us to perform a scheduled Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup for you, please Contact Us to either make arrangements for an early or delayed Bucket Swap to be performed for you at the old Sears parking lot on Military Avenue in west Green Bay (a public, well-lit location in the middle of our service area), on a date and at a time agreed upon by all parties, or to simply let us know of your desire to skip your scheduled Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup.

While there are no refunds available due to Bucket Swaps/Compost Pickups voluntarily skipped by our subscribers, and while there may be no direct benefit to our subscribers who contact us to notify us ahead of time of their desire to skip a scheduled Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup, there is an indirect benefit, in that doing so will save us time and money (think mileage and fuel costs) by saving us unnecessary stops, which will ultimately help make our routes more efficient and keep our Curbside Compost Pickup Service prices as low as possible for everyone.

If a subscriber produces more waste than can reasonably fit in one of our Food Safe, five gallon buckets, the subscriber will have a few options, depending upon the type of waste they are dealing with.

If the waste is what we would consider “dry” (see definition below), the subscriber may leave a maximum of (2) extra bags (made of either paper or unscented plastic, and no larger than a traditional paper grocery store bag) of dry materials outside of/beside our buckets, on their scheduled Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup days.

We do not except unbroken-down boxes (including those from Misfits Market, Hello Fresh, etc.), unless they can fit inside of the above-mentioned acceptable bags, with the exception of pizza boxes (which we make an exception for, due to how easy they are to accommodate in our pickup vehicle(s)).

We also do not accept loose dry materials placed outside of/beside our buckets, including, but not limited to, cut sheets or pieces of cardboard (regardless of size or shape), again, with the exception of pizza boxes.

Please note: We define “dry materials” as materials that are dry to the touch and generally sanitary/not prone to “offensive odors,” such as plain/matte paper and cardboard (including soiled pizza boxes and used paper towels/napkins), fall leaves, dead flowers, and ashes/sawdust/planer shavings from clean, untreated wood.

Generally speaking, all food scraps are considered “wet,” not dry, and should never be placed inside paper bags for us, as they may rot through the bottoms of such bags quickly and create a potential mess inside our pickup vehicle(s).

Please be aware that any materials mixed with Acceptable animal droppings (such as those from chickens, rabbits, guinea pigs, etc.) are not considered “dry” and are only allowed to be provided to us inside our buckets (due, in large part, to the potentially “offensive odors” that may emanate from them, as well as their generally unsanitary nature).

If we find that otherwise acceptable paper bags have been filled with any “wet” waste, such as food scraps, we reserve the right to leave such bags at our subscribers residences.

If the extra waste a subscriber is dealing is what we would consider “wet” (see definition below), it can only be provided to us inside our Food Safe, five gallon buckets, unless we have provided an exception to this policy, at our sole discretion, in writing, either to subscribers who have requested them from us or to all subscribers, in relation to special, one-off or annual events we may run, such as our Annual Pumpkin Drive (which occurs every year between Halloween and Thanksgiving, and sees us collecting things like pumpkins, gourds, straw bales, corn stalks, etc. from our subscribers).

To request an exception to this policy, subscribers may Contact Us at any time. Subscribers should know, however, that we are highly unlikely to grant such an exception to anyone, as “wet” waste provided to us outside or buckets poses multiple risks to us, including the potential to create a mess or unpleasant/intolerable working conditions inside our pickups vehicles, as well as for our subscribers (and us, by proxy) to be found in violation of countless municipal ordinances relative to, but not necessarily limited to, those having to do with rat/rodent infestation and “offensive odors.”

If any wet waste is left beside our buckets for us, regardless of what kind of bag, box, or container it may be provided in, please know that it will be left at our subscribers residences, without explanation.

For any subscriber who has more wet waste to provide to us than can reasonably fit in one of our Food Safe, five gallon buckets, we have a few suggestions:

Yes.

When we receive extra dry materials, such as, for example, the plain/matte paper and cardboard we accept, in bags separate from our buckets, and set beside our buckets on scheduled Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup days, this provides us with more options with regard to shredding such material for composting (using the shredder we recommend in our Recommended Products list).

When such dry materials are placed inside of our buckets, where they are mixed and intermingled with wet materials, this makes the dry materials wet, which renders us unable to shred them using our shredder(s) and necessitates the hand-tearing of the materials to optimize them for composting (which is far more time-consuming and labor-intensive).

Accordingly, we very much appreciate when subscribers leave extra dry materials in paper or unscented plastic bags beside our buckets, in accordance with our policy on bags of extra dry materials, as this makes our jobs much easier.

Yes, and so are our BPA-free bucket lids.

Our compost buckets are FDA-certified, made of prime high density polyethylene (HDPE), and BPA-free. They meet the requirements for polyolefin resins intended for food packaging applications as described in the FDA olefin polymer regulations 21 CFR 177.1520(c)3.2(a).

This resin may be used in contact with all types of foods as defined in Table 1, 21 CFR 176.170(c) and under conditions of use B through H as defined in Table 2, 21 CFR 176.170(c).

Absolutely, yes.

We use BioBag® bags, which are Certified Compostable by the Biodegradable Products Institute (and meet the US Standard ASTM D6400 and the European Standard EN 13432 standard specifications for solid material biodegradation).

These bags are made from plants, vegetable oils, and compostable polymers and have also been verified by the Non-GMO Project. Accordingly, they are 100% safe for us to compost, alongside the rest of the materials we accept.

If you are interested in buying some of these bags for yourself, possibly for use in a kitchen-top compost bin, you can find them in our Recommended Products list.

To help absorb moisture and control odor.

While we sincerely hope that nothing will happen so as to prevent us from providing our Services to our customers, unfortunately, things outside of our control could conceivably occur, which could result in it being impossible or too dangerous for us to perform Bucket Swaps/Compost Pickups on a particular day. Accordingly, we suggest you review the Services section of our Terms of Service for more information as to how we intend to handle situations such as this.

While we sincerely hope we will never need to terminate or otherwise end our business, let alone any time soon, unfortunately, none of us knows what the future holds. As such, we suggest you review the Services section of our Terms of Service for more information as to how we intend handle such situations, should they arise.

We may, on a case-by-case basis, accept donations of certain types of materials we consider Acceptable, from non-subscribers, but typically only in situations where there is a large volume of material needing to be disposed of.

For example, because we always have a need for high-carbon materials to balance out the high-nitrogen content of the material our subscribers provide us with each month, we may be particularly interested in large volume donations of the following materials:

• Broken-down cardboard, assuming it is plain/matte and not shiny/glossy (colored is okay), preferably with all tape, stickers, and staples removed
• Waste paper, assuming it is plain/matte and not shiny/glossy (colored is okay), with all tape, stickers, and staples removed
• Newspapers of all kinds (Green Bay Press-Gazette, the Press Times, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, City Pages, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, etc.)
• Sawdust, wood shavings, or planer shavings (such as those produced as a by-product of firewood production or woodworking) and/or ashes, assuming they are derived entirely from untreated, natural wood
• Dead/fallen autumn leaves, assuming they are not mixed or intermingled with grass or lawn mower clippings (which we do not accept, due the risk of herbicide/weed-killer contamination), and assuming they have been bagged for us

We will also consider donations of unpainted/unbleached pumpkins, gourds, Indian corn, corn stalks, and straw bales, which are items we run an Annual Pumpkin Drive to collect from our subscribers each year between Halloween and Thanksgiving.

If you would like to donate a large volume of any of the above materials to us, or have questions about other materials we may accept in the form of a donation, please Contact Us.

As per our list of Acceptable and Not Acceptable Materials, we only accept products labeled or referred to as “compostable” if they are properly labeled as BPI-Certified Compostable.

The logo or icon to look for on compostable products should look something like the below:

To search for BPI-Certified Compostable products by company or product name, visit: BPIWorld.org/Find-Certified-Products

The reason for this policy is that not all products labeled as “compostable” are actually compostable, let alone in in our compost piles, and many companies can, and do, try to take advantage of environmentally-conscious, albeit naive, consumers, by claiming their products are compostable when, in reality, they’re not.

When companies engage in this behavior, it is what is now as “greenwashing,” which Investopedia defines as “the process of conveying a false impression or providing misleading information about how a company’s products are more environmentally sound. Greenwashing is considered an unsubstantiated claim to deceive consumers into believing that a company’s products are environmentally friendly.”

Because greenwashing exists, and because our goal is to produce the cleanest, highest-quality compost in as little time as possible, we will not accept any products labeled or referred to as “‘compostable” without independent, third-party verification, such as from BPI, that the products are, in fact, compostable.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause anyone, but our compost quality and business reputation is the most important thing to us.

Yes, assuming you are a subscriber of ours and can fit them in your Greener Bay  Compost bucket(s) or in the extra (2) bags of “dry” materials (which can be no larger than a typical paper grocery store bag), which we accept beside our buckets.

Dead/fallen autumn leaves are a great source of carbon for our compost, with the exception of black walnut and pecan leaves, which contain a plant growth inhibitor called “juglone,” which we’d rather not into our compost piles. Accordingly, we encourage our subscribers to “top off” their buckets, if they’re not completely full, with any such leaves they find laying around. Just please make sure they are not mixed or intermingled with grass or lawn mower clippings, which we do not accept.

PLEASE NOTE: While we will gladly accept leaves from our subscribers in the manner described above, we will not be making special trips, outside of our regularly-scheduled Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup days, to pick leaves up from anyone, unless the volume of such leaves is large enough to warrant a special trip, and unless the leaves are bagged for us.

If you believe you have a large enough volume of leaves, already bagged, that warrant us making a special trip to your home to pick them up, whether you are a subscriber of ours or not, please Contact Us and we will discuss the situation.

Because the risk of herbicide/weed-killer contaminant in grass and lawn mower clippings is unacceptably high, and unlike many compost producers (including most municipality that produce compost from the yard waste they collect), we are very concerned about the quality of the compost we produce.

Also, please note that most municipalities, including those in the areas we serve, have yard waste sites where materials like grass and lawn mower clippings, leaves, brush, and branches can be disposed of, free of charge.

Currently, no. We only sell our compost in (1) Cubic Foot Bags. This, however, is subject to change, and if it does, we will update this website accordingly.

Before we answer this question, please know that compost is not soil, but rather a soil amendment, meaning it is something to be added to existing soil or to create a custom soil blend, not to be used alone as a growing medium.

Having said that, how much compost one needs to buy depends entirely upon what one plans to use the compost for and/or how much square footage needs to be covered with the compost.

For example, if one’s goal is to apply a 2″ top-dressing of compost to an existing garden bed, then one will need 0.116 cubic feet of compost per square foot. Accordingly, if one wants to apply said top-dressing to a 4′ x 4′ garden bed, which is 32 square feet, then one would need 1.856 cubic feet of compost to do so.

Because we intend to sell our compost in (1) Cubic Foot bags, one who is attempting to do as described above would need to buy (2) bags of our compost to achieve their desired results, and would still have a little compost left over when finished, for supplementing their garden with through the growing season. Of course, if one wanted to only do a 1″ top-dressing, in the above-mentioned scenario, as opposed to a 2″, then one could afford to get away with buying as little as (1) bag of our compost.

Having said that, if one wants to do more than simply top-dress a garden bed or perhaps some potted plants, then one may need to buy a much more substantial amount of compost, which could easily cost them hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.

If you have any questions about how much compost you may need from us to cover your personal project, please Contact Us for assistance.

Yes.

To amend soil: Work 1–2 inches of compost into the top 3–5 inches of soil.

For growing vegetables: Give your vegetable garden plenty of compost in the fall. Spread several inches of compost
on top of the existing bed, then till it into the soil in the springtime. Put a handful of compost in each hole when you’re planting.
Once plants begin to grow quickly, you can add a half-inch layer of compost around the base of the plants. Provide “heavy
feeder” plants such as tomatoes, corn, and squash with 1/2 inch of compost monthly—this will result in great produce!

For growing flowers: In the spring, loosen the top few inches of annual and perennial beds and mix in a 1-inch layer of
compost. Or in the fall, apply a 1-inch layer of compost as a mulch to protect plant roots from freezing and conserve moisture.

For replenishing soil in potted plants and window boxes: Even the best potting soil gets depleted of its nutrients as plants grow.
To replenish nutrients, add an inch of compost to potted plants and window boxes twice a year. Or, make your own potting
soil using two parts screened compost to one part sand or perlite.

Yes. Unlike many Curbside Compost Pickup Service providers, which outsource all of their composting to local farms or commercial/industrial compost facilities, Greener Bay Compost is a full-service company company, which means we not only pick up compostable materials from our subscribers, but also compost it all ourselves.

No, because the compostable bucket liners we use, which we do, of course, compost, as well as certain types of paper and cardboard we accept for composting, do not meet USDA criteria for “organic inputs”/are not certified for use in organic farming. As such, anyone considering the purchase of our compost for use in a MOSA/USDA-certified-organic farming operation should understand that the use of compost may void their operation’s organic certification.

Having said that, we would like to note that just because another company’s compost is certified organic (whether through an organization such as MOSA, or directly through the USDA) does not necessarily make it a better or more high-quality product than ours.

Compost quality not only has to do with the materials that go into the compost, but the way in which the compost is produced.

Much of what passes as or is sold as “compost” at big box stores, such as Home Depot, Lowes, and Menards, or even at small or local landscape and supply stores or nurseries, is not so much compost as it is mulch (in that is often made up of very large chunks of non-composted wood), and is often filled with inorganic debris and contaminants, including plastic, glass, and metal, judging from many of the 1 and 2-star reviews such products have received online.

Additionally, much of the “compost” sold by small, local compost operations or landscape companies is unfinished, in that it has not been allowed to age long enough to ensure that most of the weed seeds in it have been rendered nonviable and that all the organic materials that went into it have been provided enough time to break down completely. Such compost may contain higher amounts of nitrogen than finished compost should and could damage plants.

Here at Greener Bay Compost, despite our product does being certified organic, we take great pride in eliminating contaminants from our feedstock and screening our finished product to filter out contaminants (and large chunks of wood) that may make it through the composting process, but in producing the highest-quality compost possible. in general.

For a list of the materials we accept from our subscribers (as well as a list of the ones we don’t), please see our list of Acceptable and Not Acceptable Materials for Inclusion in our Buckets.

Rest assured, when you receive compost from us, it would be compost that any member of our team would be proud to apply to their own gardens.

In the early days of Greener Bay Compost, our compost was produced in our founder’s backyard, on a residential lot in the City of Green Bay.

As our subscriber base grew, and along with it, the amount of would-be organic waste we were handling each month, we quickly outgrew our humble beginnings. Accordingly, in May 2022 we acquired a nearly-seven-acre plot of agricultural property in the Town of Lessor (Shawano County, Wisconsin), upon which we now perform all of our physical composting.

Under optimal conditions (and weather permitting), our composting process can take as little as 2-3 months.

Because we operate in Wisconsin, however, which is well-known for its harsh winters, and because all of our composting is performed outdoors, our process, from start to finish, can take upwards of six months or more to produce a batch of what we would consider finished compost (that is, high-quality, saleable compost, which is ready for use in gardens, flower beds, and agricultural operations).

Accordingly, we do not sell compost between December 1st and April 30th of each year, as most of our compost piles and finished, bagged compost is frozen, or semi-frozen, during such times.

We are not currently hiring, nor do we have any plans to do so, until and unless it becomes absolutely necessary for us to do so. Similarly, we are not currently accepting volunteers. That, however, may change in the near future, and when/if it does, this website will be updated to reflect this and we will also make an appropriate announcement regarding this via social media.

We are currently a two-person operation, and while the work we do is very labor-intensive and time-consuming, we still find it to be manageable, at least for the time being. Should that situation change, however (and we are sure it will, at some point soon), we will consider all available options for bringing in the help we need, including, but not necessarily limited to, hiring employees or engaging volunteers.

PLEASE NOTE: When/if we engage with volunteers, which is something we would do long before we could consider hiring paid employees, we would require all volunteers to sign a waiver of Greener Bay Compost’s liability, legal or otherwise, before we would allow them to work for/with us, as a means of protecting ourselves.

Yes, we are!

You can follow us on Facebook at Facebook.com/GBCompost and/or on Instagram at Instagram.com/GreenerBayCompost.

Yes. Please see our Recommended Products list.

Currently, no. We do, however, have a Referral Rewards Program, which sees our existing subscribers earn (1) pound of finished compost for every new subscriber they refer to us who signs up for our Month-to-Month plan, or (5) pounds of finished compost for every new subscriber they refer to us who signs up for our 6-Months-Paid-in-Full plan.

This compost can be claimed by the subscriber who has earned it at any time by Contacting Us.

Not without our expressed permission and without signing a waiver of all Greener Bay Compost liability, legal or otherwise, no, because there is far too much risk for us, and little to no benefit, inherent in such visits.

Having said that, everyone is welcome to follow us on Instagram and Facebook to get an insider’s look at what we do at our compost site(s).

Greener Bay Compost LLC, as a business, is not currently insured (although that is subject to change in the near future). Our founder, who does all of our driving and interacting with our subscribers and their property, however, does carry auto insurance necessary to cover any liability that may arise out of the driving he personally does to perform our Bucket Swaps/Compost Pickups.

PLEASE NOTE: As per our Terms of Service, which all of our subscribers have agreed to, Greener Bay Compost’s liability for any harm or damage that may result from anyone’s use of our Services is extremely limited. For more information on this, we highly suggest subscribers or potential subscribers read the “Limit of Liability” section of the aforementioned Terms very closely.

Because we are not considered a “waste hauler,” in that we do not drive large, garbage-truck-style dump trucks, but rather a Toyota Sienna minivan, to perform our Bucket Swaps/Compost pickups, we are not required to apply for or maintain any permits relative to our Services.

With regards to licenses, when/if we grow to the point where any of our compost site(s) have on them more than 50 cubic feet of Source-Separated Compostable Materials (not including finished compost) at any one time, we will be required to obtain a Compost Facility License from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Until then, we simply operate in accordance with the Wisconsin DNR’s guidelines and best practices, as related to proper compost pile construction and maintenance.

When it becomes necessary for us to do so, we will work with local Wisconsin DNR representatives to obtain a Compost Facility License for our compost site in the Town of Lessor (Shawano County, Wisconsin), and we have neither any doubt that we will issued such a License, nor any concerns regarding our ability to meet what will be our obligations under it.

To help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other infection diseases, our drivers always have access to hand sanitizer, and are welcome to wear face masks and/or gloves, if they desire to. Having said that, the wearing of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is is not a job requirement for Greener Bay Compost drivers, especially whereas our face-to-face contact with our subscribers is very limited and typically occurs outdoors, when/if it does occur.

No.

No.

No.