Significant improvements to our Waste Reduction Rewards Program, effective 8/1/2023

Effective 8/1/2023, we will be making one of the most significant improvements we have ever made to our Waste Reduction Rewards Program (which is just one of three rewards programs we offer to our Residential subscribers, which you can learn more about at www.GBCompost.com/Rewards).

Effective 8/1/2023, Residential subscribers pounds diverted from landfill, which we track publicly via the Greener Bay Compost Leaderboard at www.GBCompost.com/Leaderboard, will be converted to “Compost Points,” which can be redeemed (or “cashed in”) with us, in either 100 or 500 point increments, for bags of our finely sifted, premium compost (which, for those who don’t know, we sell year-round at www.GBCompost.com/Compost).

100 Points = (1) Gallon bag of compost

500 Points = (1) Cubic Foot bag of compost

(For reference, a cubic foot of compost is equivalent to just shy of six and a half gallons of compost)

Please note: As per our current Waste Reduction Rewards Program terms, we will provide Points to subscribers only in exchange for the contents of 100% contaminant-free buckets, on the basis of one Point per each qualifying pound. Simply put, contaminated bucket contents = no Compost Points (and so now may be a good time to review our List of Acceptable and Not Acceptable Materials, located at www.GBCompost.com/List).

We are able to make this improvement to our Waste Reduction Rewards Program in large part due to the fact that in our second year of existence (August 2022 to present), we more than doubled the volume of food waste (and other organics) we divert from landfill each week (thanks in large part to the massive amounts of waste we pick up each week from our Commercial subscribers, which include Glass Nickel Pizza, Kavarna Coffeehouse, Bellin Hospital & Psychiatric Center, and St. Vincent Hospital), compared to our first year (August 2021 to August 2022), as well as to the introduction of our Gallon-sized bags of compost this past November.

This is a very exciting development for us, because it enables a much larger percentage of our Residential subscribers to earn compost from us, in a much shorter period of time, so more of you can experience the awesomeness of our amazing soil amendment/plant superfood for yourselves (or gift it to your loved ones).

Once this improvement takes effect, the Leaderboard will be updated to reflect subscribers “Compost Points Accrued,” rather than “LBS. OF WASTE DIVERTED FROM LANDFILL SINCE 6/1/22”.

Assuming subscribers contact us to advise us they would like to redeem/”cash in” their Points, we will endeavor to distribute their earned compost to them, free of charge and as soon as possible, on one of their future Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup days.

Please note: Once the above-mentioned Leaderboard update is completed, subscribers will be expected to proactively visit the Leaderboard (www.GBCompost.com/Leaderboard) and to contact us, at their convenience, using any of the contact methods available at www.GBCompost.com/Contact, to advise us as to when/how they would like to redeem their Compost Points. Effective 8/1/2023, will no longer be sending individual emails to subscribers to notify them that they have “earned compost” (or accrued a certain number of Compost Points), with rare exception.

Please also note that our compost is, as always, subject to availability, which means we may or may not always have it available, in certain bag sizes, or at certain points in time. That said, we work very hard to ensure our compost is available year-round, in both Gallon and Cubic Foot bags, for both sale and as a reward for our subscribers, and will always do our best to fulfill any requests our subscribers may make to redeem/”cash in” their points (even if such requests are made in the middle of winter).

If you have any questions or concerns about the content of this announcement, please do not hesitate to contact us using any of the contact methods available at www.GBCompost.com/Contact.

Until next time, best wishes & happy composting!

MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT: We are moving to a Wait List based system with regard to our Residential Compost Pickup and Drop-Off Services

Due to overwhelming demand for our services, and effective immediately, we are moving to a Wait List based system with regard to our Residential Compost Pickup and Drop-Off Services.

What this means is that, going forward, we will not be accepting any new Residential subscribers, until/unless we lose a commensurate number of our existing Residential subscribers.

Pursuant to this decision, we have created a Residential Wait List individuals may sign up for, if they are interested in becoming a Residential subscriber of ours, which may be found by clicking on any of the “Subscribe Now” buttons at www.GBCompost.com/Residential. Should a spot for a new subscriber open up, we will offer said spot, via email, to whomever may be first in line on this Wait List.

What this means for our current Residential subscribers is that should they cancel and take leave of our service, whether it be for a short period of time (i.e.: a month or two) or long-term (i.e.: for years, or “permanently”), they will not necessarily be able to sign back up with us in the future, if/when they decide to return to us. Instead, they will need to sign up for our Wait List and wait to be notified by us of when we have an opening for a new subscriber.

Should anyone on our Wait List receive an offer to sign up with us, which will include a link to a page on this site where they can do so, and assuming we are able to service their location, they will have 48 hours to sign up with us. If they do not sign up within this time frame, they will receive an email from us notifying them that they have been removed from the Wait List, but that they may choose to re-sign-up for the Wait List at any time.

Thank you to all of our Residential and Commercial subscribers who have enabled us to grow to the point where a Wait List has become a necessity for us. We appreciate your support and look forward to serving you in the months (and hopefully) years ahead!

If you have any questions about our Wait List, you may contact us using any of the contact methods available at www.GBCompost.com/Contact.

Changes to our service pricing, effective June 1st, 2023

Effective June 1st, 2023, the prices of our Residential Compost Pickup and Drop-Off Services will be updated as follows:

To summarize: The price of our Once-a-Month and 1x/Month services is not changing and will remain $15/month, while the price of our Every-Other-Week and 2x/Month services will be changing to $25/month.

Additionally, the price of a “Special, One-Time Bucket Swap” (an option which is rarely used by our subscribers) will be changing from $10 per swap to $12.50 per swap.

Our “Add-a-Bucket” price is not changing and will remain $12.50 per month, per bucket. Also, our “Make-Up Swap” price is not changing and will remain $6.50 per swap.

As a reminder: Our subscribers are allowed to upgrade or downgrade their service (for example, from Once-a-Month to Every-Other-Week service, or vice versa) at any time.

The above-mentioned changes will take effect automatically and be reflected in the amount you are charged on your subscription renewal date in June of this year, whenever it may be. Accordingly, there is nothing you need to do with regard to these changes.

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

Thank you for your continued support of our one-of-a-kind company, the only food-waste-focused composting facility in our area, and all the communities we serve. We and our planet very much appreciate it!

Until next time, best wishes and happy composting.

Ban on materials provided to us outside of our buckets (with the exception of pizza boxes) to take effect Monday, April 3rd, 2023

Effective Monday, April 3rd, 2023, we will no longer be accepting any materials provided to us outside of our buckets, regardless of whether they are on the Acceptable side of our List of Acceptable and Not Acceptable Materials at www.GBCompost.com/List), with the exception of pizza boxes (which subscribers may continue to provide to us in unlimited numbers and simply set beside their buckets for us on Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup days).

PLEASE NOTE: This update should not be interpreted to mean that we no longer accept the plain/matte paper or Fall leaves listed as Acceptable on our current List of Acceptable and Not Acceptable Materials, but rather that we will only accept these materials inside our buckets going forward.

Additionally (and in conjunction with the above update), going forward, Residential and Commercial subscribers of ours will only receive weight-based credit on our Leaderboard (www.GBCompost.com/Leaderboard) and under our Waste Reduction Rewards Program (www.GBCompost.com/Rewards) for materials provided to us inside our buckets.

What this means is that while subscribers may provide pizza boxes to us outside of our buckets (and while we encourage them to do so, as most pizza boxes are not recyclable, due to being food-soiled), we will not be providing weight-based credit to our subscribers for them (assuming we receive them after 4/2/2023), unless they are provided to us inside our buckets (which will likely require them to be cut or torn into pieces small enough to fit inside said buckets).

Please note that if we arrive to perform a Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup for any subscriber on or after April 3rd, 2023 and find any materials other than pizza boxes left for us outside of our buckets, such materials will be left on the subscribers property, without further explanation.

This update to our policies is being made in furtherance of our plans to streamline/simplify our services and optimize our business as much as possible.

Any subscribers concerned about whether this update will result in their Greener Bay Compost buckets being filled faster than usual are hereby reminded that:

• Once-a-Month Residential subscribers have the option of upgrading to an Every-Other-Week/2x-a-Month Bucket Swap schedule with us at any time
• Every-Other-Week/2x-a-Month Residential subscribers and Commercial subscribers have the option of subscribing for extra buckets with us at any time (with no limit on the number of extra buckets they can subscribe for)

If you are interested in upgrading your current service with us to receive more Bucket Swaps/Compost Pickups each month, or in subscribing for extra buckets with us, please contact us at www.GBCompost.com/Contact at your earliest convenience and we will make your service change as easy as possible.

If you have any questions or concerns about the information/updates above, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are always here to help!

Until next time, best wishes and happy composting!

MAJOR UPDATE to our Paper/Cardboard Policy (and a Related Update to Our List of Acceptable and Not Acceptable Materials)

Effective immediately, our List of Acceptable and Not Acceptable Materials (which can be viewed and downloaded at www.GBCompost.com/List) has been updated, for the second time this week, due, in part, to feedback we received on the last update we made to it, as well as to correspond with a MAJOR UPDATE we have just made to our paper/cardboard policy.

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

The most major changes to the List today have to do with our new policy on paper and cardboard items:

First and foremost, what most people would consider cardboard (the “corrugated” kind, with air pockets built into it) is now on the Not Acceptable side of the list. As such, cardboard is effectively banned by us.

We have made the decision to ban cardboard for several reasons, chief among them being that a significant percentage of the cardboard we have been receiving as of late has been contaminated with tape, unacceptable chemical-based glues, and small pieces of styrofoam.

Going forward, we recommend all our subscribers recycle their cardboard in the recycling bins provided by their Municipality, landlord, or private waste hauler.

Secondly, with regard to paper, we are moving to a very specific list of plain/matte paper items we will accept, which includes only the following items:

• Coffee filters
• Egg cartons
• Napkins
• Newspaper (no shiny inserts!)
• Paper bags (including fast food & grocery store bags)
• Paper plates
• Paper towels
• Pizza/food boxes and frozen pizza “rounds”
• Tea bags/tags (no staples and no “pyramid” bags!)
• Toilet paper/paper towel tubes

We are limiting our acceptance of paper to the above items for several reasons. Most notably, we would like to focus, going forward, on composting paper items that are not traditionally recyclable (or accepted by our Brown County recycling authorities), such as greasy/food-soiled items or items with non-recyclable paper (such as toilet paper or paper towels) stuck to them. Secondarily, we would like to focus on composting paper items that are the easiest for us to process and which pose the lowest risk of contamination to our compost.

PLEASE NOTE: As before, we are still not accepting any paper that is shiny/glossy (meaning it has been coated with petroleum-based chemicals).

Also, as a reminder, we are still not accepting any paper that falls into the wax, “baking”/parchment, or “non-stick” category, including, but not limited to, butter wrappers or cupcake/muffin liners (even if they appear to the naked eye to be “plain” or “matte”).

We are also still not accepting receipts, which are made of toxic “thermal paper” (which is made with the chemical known as BPA).

Accordingly, we ask that our subscribers remove any of the above, Not Acceptable paper they may find attached to or inside of the paper items we will accept, prior to placing acceptable items in their Greener Bay Compost buckets.

To make compliance with our new paper and cardboard policy as easy as possible, we recommend that all subscribers assume their paper or cardboard items are Not Acceptable, unless they specifically find them listed on the Acceptable side of our updated List.

Regarding other changes we’ve just made to our List (which are really just minor clarifications), we have:

• Clarified that we accept both solid and soft dairy, meaning we will accept “soft” items such as cottage and ricotta cheese, yogurt, cream cheese, etc., in addition to “solid” items, such as cheese slices, cheese powder, blocks of cheese, shredded cheese, etc.
• Clarified that the list of vegetables we accept include “root veggies” like potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc., as well as beans/legumes (a category which includes dry beans, lentils, etc.)
• Clarified that flours and cake mixes are among the grain-based materials we will accept, in addition to things like breads, cereals, chips, crackers, pastas, taco shells, etc.

In conclusion, we would like to state that our paper/cardboard policy change is not a “knee-jerk decision” on our part and has been in consideration for many months now.

A major driver behind this change is our ongoing desire to make our program as simple as possible for both us and our subscribers. We also have a strong desire to combat contamination, protect the quality of the compost we produce, make our work more efficient, keep our operational costs down, and keep our prices as low as possible for our subscribers.

PLEASE NOTE: For the purposes of our Waste Reduction Rewards Program (www.GBCompost.com/Rewards), and from now through the end of April 2023, we will not be considering buckets “contaminated” (or giving zero credit for the weight of their contents) simply because they may contain a paper/cardboard item we were accepting of just prior to this most recently policy change. That said, we will begin enforcing our new paper/cardboard policy strictly with regard to any buckets we pick up on or after 5/1/2023. Accordingly, if any buckets we pick up on or after this date are found to contain Not Acceptable paper or cardboard items, they will be considered “contaminated” and the subscriber providing them to us will receive no weight-based credit for the contents of such buckets.

If there is any confusion about our updated List or our new paper/cardboard policies, or if there are any questions or concerns about them, subscribers are strongly encouraged to Contact Us with their questions/concerns, and we will respond promptly.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work to make our program (and our company) better for you every day! We really appreciate it.

Until next time, best wishes and happy composting!

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.

Changes to our Rewards Programs to combat contamination, effective immediately

We are making changes to our Rewards Programs, effective immediately, as part of our ongoing efforts to combat contamination in our compost buckets.

Since Greener Bay Compost’s inception in July 2021, we have worked diligently to keep the contents of our buckets contaminant-free and our compost clean. Despite our best efforts, however, we continue to find contaminants (mostly produce stickers) in one-fifth to one-third of our buckets.

Because we consider this amount of contamination unacceptable, effective immediately, we will still be weighing the contents of all of our Residential subscribers buckets and keeping track of the resulting weights for our own purposes, but will be giving zero weight–based credit for contaminated buckets under our Waste Reduction Rewards Program (www.GBCompost.com/Rewards).

For the purposes of this policy change, a “contaminated bucket” means a bucket which contains one or more materials from the Not Acceptable side of our list of Acceptable and Not Acceptable Materials (a copy of which can be viewed and downloaded at www.GBCompost.com/List).

Please note that it will be entirely up to Greener Bay Compost’s discretion as to whether a particular material is considered Not Acceptable (using the above-mentioned List as a reference). That said, produce stickers are our primary concern, and our finding such stickers inside our buckets will, from this day forward, always result in zero weight–based credit for the contents of the buckets they are found in, regardless of the number of stickers found.

To be clear, this change will apply to all buckets picked up from our Residential subscribers (both Pickup and Drop-Off) after today, including those we will be picking up tomorrow (Sunday, 3/12/2023).

PLEASE NOTE: The contents of bags we receive outside of our buckets, which may contain high-carbon materials such as plain/matte paper and cardboard, will not be affected by this policy change at this time. What this means is that, for the time being, a subscriber may receive zero credit for the contents of their bucket, while still receiving credit for the Acceptable Materials inside said bags. This policy is, however, subject to change at any time.

Subscribers are, if not already doing so, strongly encouraged to remove all produce stickers, rubber bands, twist ties, etc. from fresh produce as soon as they get it home, to dramatically reduce the chances of these contaminants finding their way into their buckets, and costing them credit for the rest of their bucket contents.

While this change will affect our Leaderboard (www.GBCompost.com/Leaderboard) updates we perform each week, it should be noted that we will not be emailing subscribers to notify them of whether they’ve received zero credit for their bucket contents, as we simply do not have the time or resources to do so. Likewise, we will not necessarily be taking photos of all contamination we find in buckets going forward, nor emailing subscribers about such contamination (unless we deem it necessary for us to do so).

Subscribers are encouraged to check the Leaderboard at regular intervals to keep track of their own credits from week to week. If a subscriber would like to know what, if any, credit they’ve received for any particular bucket, they may contact us (www.GBCompost.com/Contact) to inquire about this.

If you have any questions or concerns about this policy change, please let us know. We are always here to help.

Until next time, best wishes and happy composting!

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!

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!

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!