Effective 6/1/22: Changes to our policy on extra dry materials provided outside of/beside our buckets

We hope you are enjoying the unseasonably warm weather we are all experiencing this weekend, and staying cool and safe, wherever you are!

As indicated in the announcement we made yesterday, if you are a subscriber to our Curbside Compost Pickup Service, you will be directly affected by some major policy and program changes we will be making between now and this coming Sunday (5/15/22), all of which will be effective 6/1/22 (a Wednesday).

As stated previously, for the sake of not overwhelming you with too much information in any one announcement, we have opted to divided our announcements into a series of announcements: One yesterday, this one today, one tomorrow (5/14), and one this coming Sunday (5/15), with the announcements becoming progressively more impactful with each day.

Again, we are making these changes to our policies and programs for several reasons:

1. To streamline/simplify our business
2. To aid our productivity/increase our efficiency
3. To maximize our profitability/ensure our survival as a business
4. To prepare for our near-term future, which will see our business split essentially evenly between our existing Curbside Compost Pickup Service and what will soon be our Compost Sales
5. To prepare for our longer-term future, which may see us partner with Municipalities (such as the City of Green Bay) on “food waste pilot programs,” potentially as soon as 2023

Today, we have a semi-major announcement to make (only semi-major, in that we believe it will only affect a very small number of our subscribers), which is that, effective 6/1/22, we will:

1. Accept 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
2. No longer 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 are making an exception for, due to how easy they are to accommodate in our pickup vehicle(s))
3. No longer 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

The three changes above can and should be interpreted as a ban on bags larger than traditional grocery store bags (including large yard waste/leaf bags and trash bags greater than 13-gallon), nearly all unbroken-down boxes, and all other items not provided to us either inside of our buckets or inside the type of bags we will be accepting as of 6/1/22 (with, of course, the exception of pizza boxes), that is, unless:

• We have provided a one-time, written exception to this policy to a subscriber who has requested one
• We have provided a blanket exception to all subscribers, for in the event that we run a special pickup event/drive for large amounts of dry materials (which would typically occur on days we are not scheduled to perform our regular Bucket Swap/Compost Pickups)

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). 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.

Please be aware that any materials mixed with Acceptable animal droppings (such as those from chickens, rabbits, guinea pigs, etc.) will not be considered “dry,” effective 6/1/22, and will only be 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). More information will be provided in our announcement tomorrow with regards to how we intend to handle such materials, effective 6/1/22.

So what will happen, on or after 6/1/22, if more bags than we can accept, unbroken-down boxes outside of bags, or loose materials are left outside of/beside our buckets?

Effective 6/1/22, if we find that more than (2) acceptable bags of extra dry materials have been placed outside of/beside any of our buckets as we are performing a Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup, we may, at our sole discretion, make a one-time exception to our (2)-bag limit, assuming we can reasonably fit all identified bags inside our pickup vehicle, however, we reserve the right to leave any such bags numbering beyond (2) at our subscribers residences, without explanation.

Furthermore, and similarly, effective 6/1/22, any unbroken-down boxes or loose materials (not including pizza boxes) provided to us outside of the aforementioned acceptable bags or our buckets will be left at our subscribers residences, also without explanation.

DISCLAIMER: With regard to all dry materials, whether provided inside or outside of/beside our buckets, it will still be a requirement, going forward, that subscribers remove all Not Acceptable materials, such as tape, stickers, stamps, staples, plastic, etc. from such materials, before providing them to us. Failure to remove such Not Acceptable materials from dry materials provided to us may result in subscribers not receiving full credit for the contents of their buckets/extra materials and losing out on potential benefits under current or future Rewards programs.

Our next announcement will be tomorrow. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us using any of the contact methods available at www.GBCompost.com/Contact. We are always here to help and look forward to continuing to serve you in the months (and hopefully years) ahead!