Our List of Acceptable and Not Acceptable Materials has been updated!

Effective immediately, our List of Acceptable and Not Acceptable Materials (which can be viewed and downloaded at www.GBCompost.com/List) has been updated!

PLEASE DELETE AND/OR DESTROY ANY PREVIOUS COPIES OF THE LIST YOU MAY POSSESS AND REPLACE WITH OUR NEW ONE.

Notable changes to the list (which we think you’ll love) include:

• Stickers, rubber bands, twist ties, etc. from fresh produce have now been placed at the very top of the Not Acceptable side of the list (as these contaminants, and particularly produce stickers, continue to be the most common contaminant we find in our buckets), with a recommendation to remove them from produce as soon as it is brought home
• Bones (as long as they are from cooked meat) are now acceptable (with the caveat that we do not want whole carcasses, such as Thanksgiving turkeys)
• To provide clarity, jams, jellies, preserves, maple and other types of syrups, nut butters, salsas, hummus, tahini, etc. have been added to the List as Acceptable
• To provide clarity, herbs have been added alongside fruits and vegetables (whole or scraps, raw or cooked) as Acceptable, with added emphasis about STICKERS NEEDING TO BE REMOVED
• To provide clarity, herbivorous animal/chicken bedding has been added alongside herbivorous animal/chicken droppings as Acceptable
• To provide clarity, we have updated the Not Acceptable side of the list to state that we do not accept either alcohol or fruits (such as apples, cherries, watermelon, etc.) soaked in alcohol, and to make clear that while we do not want vinegar poured into our buckets, we will accept pickled items such as eggs, mushrooms, and vegetables (including pickles)
• We have removed frosting from the Not Acceptable side of the list and updated the Acceptable side of the List to state that we accept bread and other baked goods (which encompasses things like cake, with or without frosting)
• To provide clarity, we have updated the Not Acceptable side of the List to state that we do not accept Large Amounts of Liquids or Oils, such as bacon grease, coffee, juice, kombucha, nut milks, pickle brine, tea, etc., but that a little bit is okay, such as on a paper towel, and that leakage from decomposing fruit/vegetable scraps is expected

If you have any questions or concerns about these changes to the List, or need additional clarification on the List as it now exists, please let us know. We are always here to help.

New $15/month Residential Compost Pickup & Drop-Off Services debuting January 1st, 2023

As a follow-up to our “Price Changes” announcement from yesterday, we are happy to announce that, effective January 1st, 2023, we will be debuting new, Once-a-Month versions of our Residential Compost Pickup and Drop-Off Services, so that we can continue to provide service to Residential subscribers who are unable to pay more than $15.00/month for our services.

These new services will see us perform just one Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup for subscribers to them per month, for just $15.00/month.

We believe that many of our current subscribers may be a good fit for these new plans, especially those whose households routinely produce less than 10 pounds of organic waste each week.

That said, if you reside in a household that produces, on average, 15-20+ pounds of waste each week, we highly recommend sticking with one of our $20/month services (either our Residential Compost Pickup Service, or our Residential Compost Drop-Off Service) going into the new year, as for just $5 extra per month, you will be entitled to at least two Bucket Swap/Compost Pickups each month under these plans.

If you would like to switch, as January of 2023 (or whenever your first renewal date will be in the new year) to one of these new, less expensive plans, all you need to do is contact us using any of the contact methods available at www.GBCompost.com/Contact to let us know that you would like to make the switch and we will set up the switch to occur automatically and coordinate your new Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup schedule with you as we get closer to your transition date.

Please note: Our Add-a-Bucket option will be available to subscribers of either of these new plans, at the same price as they will be to all other Residential subscribers, which is $12.50/month, per bucket. Also, If you are currently signed up for email reminders with us, you will continue to receive email reminders from us on the day prior to your monthly Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup days under this new plan.

If you have any questions about these new plans, you may contact us using any of the contact methods available at www.GBCompost.com/Contact.

Until next time, best wishes and happy composting!

Price changes coming January 1st, 2023

Effective January 1st, 2023, we will be implementing modest price increases across our suite of services, to account for increased operational costs and ensure the profitability of Greener Bay Compost.

The Residential price increases will be as follows:

• Our Residential Compost Pickup Service will increase from $15 to $20/month.
• Our Residential Compost Drop-Off Service will increase from $15 to $20/month.
• Our Residential Add-A-Bucket option will increase from $10 to $12.50/month, per bucket.
• Our Residential “Special, One-Time Bucket Swaps” will increase from $7.50 to $10/swap.
• Our Residential “Make-Up Bucket Swaps” will increase from $5 to $6.50/swap.

The Commercial (Small Business) price increases will be as follows:

• Our Small Business Compost Pickup Service (2 buckets per week) will increase from $60 to $70/month.
• Our Small Business Compost Pickup Service (3 buckets per week) will increase from $70 to $85/month.
• Our Small Business Compost Pickup Service (4 buckets per week) will increase from $80 to $100/month.
• Our Small Business Add-a-Bucket option will increase from $10 to $15/month, per bucket.

What this means for you

When your service with us renews, on or after January 1st, 2023, your service will be automatically renewed at our new prices, as detailed above, unless you contact us prior to said price increases taking effect to make changes to your service.

Please note: For subscribers who are still in the midst of a Six-Months-Paid-in-Full plan term, our new prices will take effect at the end of said term, whenever that may be, when they are transitioned to a Month-to-Month payment plan (which we have previously indicated such subscribers would be, in an email from this past July).

If you have any questions or concerns about these price changes or anything else, you may contact us using any of the contact methods available at www.GBCompost.com/Contact.

Thank you for your continued support and for helping us make Green Bay a little greener every day! We love and appreciate you very much.

Until next time, best wishes and happy composting!

Greener Bay Compost featured in the Press Times for its Recycling Excellence Award win

We are excited to announce that Greener Bay Compost has been featured in an article by the City of Green Bay’s official newspaper, the Press Times, dated 11/28/2022, highlighting our 2022 Wisconsin DNR Recycling Excellence Award win.

You may view the article in full at: https://gopresstimes.com/2022/11/28/two-green-bay-businesses-receive-wisconsin-recycling-excellence-awards/

Major upgrades to our Rewards Programs for subscribers!

Effective immediately, we have made two major upgrades to the rewards programs we offer our subscribers (www.GBCompost.com/Rewards):

1. We have doubled the discount we offer all subscribers on our compost (including our gallon-sized and cubic foot bags) from 10% to 20%.
   
   What this means for you:  You can now get compost at “bulk discount”-like pricing on as few or as many bags of our product as you would like, exclusively at GBCompost.com/Compost!

   To put this into perspective, this means a single cubic foot bag can be had for $23.99 and a gallon-sized bag can be had for $4.80! These prices, for the record, are actually better than the Black Friday deals we just announced to the general public this morning on social media.

   (Please note: Subscribers are allowed to use this discount to buy compost on behalf of anyone else they’d like to, including friends and family, with the catch being that they, themselves, must be the ones placing the order/making the compost request.)

2. We have relaunched our old Referral Rewards Program, which rewards existing subscribers for referring new subscribers to us with bags of compost!
   
   What this means for you: For every new subscriber you refer to us, as long as  they list you (our subscriber) by name in the “Referred by” section of their subscription sign-up page, you will earn a free one-gallon bag of our compost!

   We intend to deliver these earned bags of compost inside of our five gallon buckets on regularly scheduled Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup days, unless a subscriber would like their compost earlier, in which case we may meet them at the Green Bay Plaza in west Green Bay, on a date and a time that works well for us both, to deliver the compost.

   Please note that as part of this relaunch, we are discontinuing our Partner Program (which has not actually resulted in a single referral to us since its launch several months ago), and rendering any coupon/referral codes created under said program void, effectively immediately.

If you have any questions or concerns about these reward program upgrades, please let us know by using any of the contact methods available at www.GBCompost.com/Contact.

Greener Bay Compost wins Wisconsin DNR’s 2022 Recycling Excellence Award for “Overall Program”

We are proud to announce that we have been awarded the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) 2022 Recycling Excellence Award for “Overall Program,” thanks in large part to our cornerstone Residential Compost Pickup Service.

Per the Wisconsin’s DNR’s website:

The Department of Natural Resources recognizes outstanding recycling and waste minimization efforts through its annual Recycling Excellence Award program.

The DNR offers the Recycling Excellence Awards not only in recognition of efforts made but also as a way of highlighting ideas with proven track records that others might use to improve their recycling endeavors.

The “Overall Program” category of the Awards recognizes programs that are robust and constantly improving, demonstrating a commitment to advance the overall recycling/diversion program.

To read more about our winning of this award, you may visit the following websites:

Wisconsin Recycling Excellence Awards (Wisconsin DNR)

Two Green Bay Programs Receive Wisconsin Recycling Excellence Award (Green Bay News Network)

DNR Celebrates Wisconsin Recycling Excellence Award Winners On America Recycles Day (Baldwin Bulletin)

HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT: We are now accepting Cooked Meat & Solid Dairy!

We have a HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT to make! Effectively immediately, we are now accepting in our buckets the following organic materials:

• Cooked meat (including beef, poultry, pork, fish, etc.) (no bones!)
• Solid dairy (cheese slices, powder, etc.) (melted is ok)

Please note: We are still not accepting raw meat (including raw fish/sushi) or what we refer to as “soft dairy” (milk, yogurt, sour cream, etc.), unless it is in small amounts on/in, or baked into, other foods.

This means we will now take, for example, and just to name a few things, the following items (because we know we will get questions about this):

• Restaurant leftovers (minus any bones)
• Mac n Cheese (made with either powdered cheese mixed with milk or pre-made cheese sauce)
• Lasagna, spaghetti, fettuccine, etc., including with alfredo sauce, ricotta cheese, grated parmesan, etc. on/in it
• Pizza (with all the toppings still on it)
• Chips like Doritos, which are covered in cheese powder
• Tacos, burritos, enchiladas, etc., even if they have some melted cheese sauce, a little sour cream, etc. on them
• Cheeseburgers
• Chicken nuggets/fingers
• Green, moldy cheese
• Entire containers full of homemade meals (like that casserole from last Thanksgiving you forgot you made) that went bad in the back of your fridge

If it hasn’t become apparent yet, what we are doing here is a real game-changer for both us and our subscribers, and we have our friends at Glass Nickel Pizza to thank, in large part, for prompting this change. You see, when we took them on as a subscriber a few months again, we made an exception for them by allowing them to provide us cooked meat and solid dairy, because it wouldn’t make sense for them to compost with us if we couldn’t take such things from them.

Fast-forward to today, and we have determined that, with our compost site being in the Town of Lessor, as opposed to where it used to be (in my backyard), we no longer need to be concerned about attracting rodents or about “offensive odors,” and are thus able to safely accept cooked meat and solid dairy from all our subscribers, without fear of running afoul of Green Bay metropolitan area ordinances.

In accordance with this announcement, we have updated our List of Acceptable & Not Acceptable Materials, which you can find at https://www.GBCompost.com/List/.

(Please note: The above link can also be found at the bottom of the homepage of www.GBCompost.com)

PLEASE DELETE AND/OR RECYCLE ANY OLD COPIES OF THE LIST YOU MAY BE USING OR REFERRING TO AND REPLACE THEM WITH THIS ONE.

This change to our list of of materials we accept is the biggest, most impactful change we have ever made to said list, and we hope it will do a few things:

1. Add major value for all of our Residential subscribers, who can now safely (and sustainably) dispose of a much larger percentage of their household food waste with us (including materials that even the Wisconsin DNR doesn’t recommend anyone attempt to compost in their own backyards)
2. Increase the amount of organic material we receivefrom some subscribers by upwards of 25-33% or more, thus making it easier for those who perhaps do not produce a lot of veggie or fruit waste to justify using our services long-term
3. Massively increase the volume of food waste we save from landfill and compost every month, thereby making our business greener than it has ever been and providing us much more feedstock for our finely sifted, premium compost (for sale now at GBCompost.com/Compost)
4. Pave the way for us to bring on many more Small Business subscribers, in particular, restaurants (like Glass Nickel Pizza, currently our sole Small Business subscriber), for whom meat and cheese waste makes up quite a large percentage of what they throw in the trash every week

If you have any questions or concerns about this announcement, please let us know by using any of the contact methods available at www.GBCompost.com/Contact.

Until next time, best wishes and happy composting!

Greener Bay Compost founder Cory Groshek pitches city-supported Compost Pilot Program to the City of Green Bay’s Sustainability Commission

Greener Bay Compost founder Cory Groshek was proud to pitch to the City of Green Bay’s Sustainability Commission, during their 10/19/2022 meeting, a Compost Pilot Program to the City of Green Bay.

In his pitch, our founder not only explained what Greener Bay Compost is about and the huge impact the small company has had since its inception in July 2021, but also proposed a Public-Private partnership between the company and the city that could help make composting more accessible to all of its residents by cutting the cost of its Residential Compost Pickup and/or Drop-Off Services in half for them. He also explained to the Commission that as they stand right now, the City’s ordinances are not very friendly to composting and that these ordinances will need to be changed if the City would like to see composting become more widespread in its communities.

This meeting may be viewed in full by clicking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0spYfixnt4k, or by watching the video embedded below:

If you would like to cut directly to the part of the meeting where our founder is introduced, you can do so on YouTube at 1:41 into the video by clicking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0spYfixnt4k?t=101, or by watching the video embedded below:

Our List of Acceptable & Not Acceptable Materials has been Updated (plus a quick word on contamination)

Just a quick heads up: We just updated our List of Acceptable & Not Acceptable Materials, which you can now find at https://www.gbcompost.com/list/.

(Please note: The above link can also be found at the bottom of the homepage of www.GBCompost.com)

PLEASE DELETE AND/OR RECYCLE ANY OLD COPIES OF THE LIST YOU MAY BE USING OR REFERRING TO AND REPLACE THEM WITH THIS ONE.

A VERY IMPORTANT REMINDER ABOUT BUCKET CONTAMINATION:

Before we summarize the changes that have been made, we would like to use this opportunity to remind all of our subscribers that we do not accept plastic, metal, or glass in our buckets and never have, and that it is our subscribers’ responsibility to remove materials we accept from plastic bags before putting them in their buckets, as well as to remove all stickers, rubber bands, twist ties, tape, staples, etc. from fresh produce before providing it us.

We are bringing this up because in the last few weeks, despite us having not had an enormous number of new subscribers come into the company in the past few months, we have noticed a dramatic uptick in the number of buckets we are picking up which contain contaminants, most notably produce stickers, rubber bands, and non-compostable plastic bags with food inside of them.

We do not know if this has to do with the fact that a few months ago we stopped sending emails to everyone whose buckets we found contamination in, but would like to remind all our subscribers that we still screen the contents of every bucket we receive by hand to identify and remove contaminants, and that when we do find contaminants, we make note of it and whose bucket it was found in, even though we may not send an email about it.

Please know that us no longer (or rarely) sending emails to our subscribers about contamination in our buckets does not mean we no longer care about it or that it isn’t a major problem for us, when we find it.

Contamination is, and always has been, a major concern of ours, as it is for all composters, especially whereas the quality of our compost (and the time it takes us to produce it), depends on the materials we receive being as contaminant-free as possible.

It takes a lot of time and a lot of work for us, as a small, two-person, family-run business to screen the contents of 70+ buckets each week, and we kindly request that all subscribers help us keep contaminants out of their buckets by:

1. Removing all stickers, rubber bands, twist ties, tape, etc. from fresh produce as soon as it is brought home
2. Double-(and triple, if necessary)-checking materials before they’re added to our buckets, to ensure they’re not contaminated with plastic, glass, metal, etc.
3. Not allowing young children or friends/family members who are not familiar with our List of Acceptable & Not Acceptable Materials to add materials to our buckets, without appropriate coaching and/or supervision

Please know that if you put contaminants in your buckets, you’re hurting us, but you’re also hurting yourself (assuming you ever intend to buy compost from us, or earn any through our Waste Reduction Rewards Program) and anyone else who may wish to do so, because the amount of time we have to spend on producing the compost (which includes pulling contaminants out of it), directly relates to the price we charge for it, as well as the quality of it (which is very high, because of how much time we spend screening contaminants out of it).

Bottom line: We alone cannot keep our compost clean. We need your help, because we receive almost all the feedstock for our compost from you. So please, help us (and yourself) by not letting contaminants come anywhere near our buckets, and in return, we will continue providing you the same great service you’ve always received from us, and producing the best compost anywhere within 100 miles of Green Bay.

Thank you in advance for your help with the above! We very much appreciate it.

TO SUMMARIZE THE CHANGES TO OUR LIST:

Now that that’s out of the way, we’d like to go over the changes made to our List of Acceptable & Not Acceptable Materials, which are relatively minor:

• We have added Bread to the Acceptable side of the List as a stand-alone item we accept, because despite our previous Lists stating we accept any grains or grain-based materials, including bread, we have been asked quite often over the past few months whether we accept bread. So hopefully this update clears up any confusion surrounding this.
• We have updated our listing of dead/dying houseplants on the Acceptable side of the List to indicate that we just don’t want them to have been chemically-treated, meaning diseased plants are now okay. Also, we have clarified that it is thick root balls we do not want (which should be removed from plants before placing them in our buckets). Roots in general, as well as root balls that can be easily torn apart or crumbled by hand are completely fine by us (think seed starts, for example).
• We have updated our listing of plain/matte paper and cardboard on the Acceptable side of the list to align with an email we sent to all subscribers on 9/21/22 which stated that we no longer accept junk mail or its contents. In determining whether something is “junk mail” or not, we ask our subscribers to use common sense, and if you’re not sure if what you’re thinking of putting in your bucket is junk mail or not, we humbly request you recycle it instead (and this especially goes for envelopes with plastic windows and/or stamps on them).
• We have updated the Acceptable side of the list to indicate that we still accept pumpkins and gourds, assuming they can fit in our buckets, but have removed “corn stalks” and “straw bales,”because these things can clearly not fit inside our buckets and never should have been on this List (which is not a list of things we accept in general, but rather things we accept in our buckets) to begin with.
• We have updated our listing of soft-shelled crustacean shells on the Acceptable side of the list to indicate that we accept crab legs and lobster tails, as we were recently asked by a subscriber if we would take crab legs and lobster tails from a seafood party they were attending, and realized that this section of the List needed to be more clear.
• We have updated the Not Acceptable side of the List to clarify that we do not want lawn grass or lawn mower clippings, period. It does not matter whether the grass has grown in a subscribers lawn or they found it in their garden; we do not want it, period, because the risk of weed-killer/glyphosate/Round-up contamination with grass is unacceptably high.
• We have updated the Not Acceptable side of the List to clarify that when we say we do not want root balls, it is not, say, seed starts we are referring to or small clumps of roots that can be easily torn apart or crumbled by hand, but rather thick balls of roots like those attached to potted mums. We had to make this change because we continue to receive a lot of questions about root balls. Basically, the rule of thumb is, if you can’t pull the root ball apart with your bare hands, we don’t want, because we also can’t pull them apart.
• We have updated the Not Acceptable side of the List to add “Swiffer” pads as Not Acceptable, in addition to wet wipes and baby wipes, because, for some odd reason we just received a Swiffer pad last week, and for those who do not know, Swiffer pads (and other, similar pads) are made with synthetic fibers (which are something that has been on the Not Acceptable side of our list since Greener Bay Compost started).

If you have any questions or concerns about any of the above changes to our List, or anything else mentioned in this announcement, please let us know by using any of the contact methods available at www.GBCompost.com/Contact.

Until next time, best wishes and happy composting!

Sign-Up for Greener Bay Compost’s 2nd Annual Pumpkin Drive Has Begun!

This year, Greener Bay Compost is proud to host our 2nd Annual Pumpkin Drive event, which will see us pick up and sustainably dispose of pumpkins, gourds, corn stalks, and Indian corn by composting them, 100% FREE OF CHARGE, through the first three weekends of November 2022, for anyone residing in Green Bay, Allouez, Ashwaubenon, Bellevue, De Pere, Hobart, Howard, Ledgeview, or Suamico!

Subscribers to our Residential or Small Business Compost Pickup or Drop-Off Services will receive weight-based credit, under our Waste Reduction Rewards Program, for any and all pumpkins, gourds, corn stalks, and Indian corn they provide to us during this event.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR PICKUP OF YOUR PUMPKINS, GOURDS, CORN STALKS, AND INDIAN CORN TODAY!

PLEASE NOTE: We will NOT be picking up any of the above-named items if they contain tea lights or are decorated with paint, marker, glitter, or any other type of chemical or contaminant. Additionally we will NOT be picking up any straw or hay bales, due to how large/bulky they are. Items we do not take can be taken to your local Yard Waste site, as listed below:

• Green Bay Yard Waste information: https://greenbaywi.gov/YardWaste
• Allouez Yard Waste Information: https://www.villageofallouezwi.gov/depts/public-works/yard-waste-and-waste-oil-drop-off-site/
• Ashwaubenon Yard Waste Information: https://ashwaubenon.gov/government/departments/public-works-streets/yard-waste-disposal/
• Bellevue Yard Waste Information: https://www.villageofbellevuewi.gov/departments/public_works/garbage__recycling___yard_waste/yard_waste
• De Pere Yard Waste Information: https://www.deperewi.gov/topic/index.php?topicid=278&structureid=88
• Hobart Yard Waste Information: https://www.hobart-wi.org/public-works
• Howard Yard Waste Information: http://www.villageofhoward.com/174/Yard-Waste-Removal
• Ledgeview Yard Waste Information: https://www.ledgeviewwisconsin.com/departments/public-works/yard-waste/
• Suamico Yard Waste Information: https://www.suamico.org/departments/public_works_engineering/yard_waste_site.php

BENEFITS OF UTILIZING THIS 100% FREE SERVICE:
	Avoid the Inconvenience of Needing to Take Your Pumpkins, Gourds, Corn Stalks, or Indian Corn to your local Yard Waste site		Fast, Friendly, Efficient Service from a Small, Local, Family-Run Business
	Feel Good Knowing Your Fall Decorations Will Become Nutrient-Rich Compost for Local Gardens		Support Us and Our One-of-a-Kind Compost Pickup and Drop-Off Services with Wonderful Sources of Both Nitrogen and Carbon

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