IMPORTANT: Our Acceptable and Not Acceptable Materials List has been Updated

We have just updated our list of Acceptable & Not Acceptable Materials for Inclusion in Our Compost Buckets, which can be viewed on this website at https://www.gbcompost.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Greener-Bay-Compost-Acceptable-and-Not-Acceptable-Materials-List.pdf, or through our link at the bottom of our homepage.

The changes that have been made can be summarized as follows:

• We have updated our list to indicate that we will now accept any and all products labeled as either BPI-Certified Compostable (with BPI being an American organization) or TUV-Certified Compostable (with TUV being a European organization). To find items certified as such, or to find out if items you buy or are considering purchasing are certified as such, please visit https://bpiworld.org/Find-Certified-Products or https://www.tuv-at.be/green-marks/certified-products/.
• We have updated our wording on our acceptance of ashes from untreated, natural wood to be more clear with regard to the fact that we do not accept charcoal.
• We have updated our wording on our acceptance of coffee grounds to indicate that we also accept coffee beans, in addition to the paper coffee filters we have always accepted.
• We have updated our wording on our acceptance of dead/dying houseplants to indicate that we no longer accept root balls (and would thus like those removed), which we recommend taking to one’s local yard waste site (or leaving on ones curb, for pickup by one’s municipality, if/when such pickup services are available).
• We have updated our wording on our acceptance of eggs to be clear that we do accept Easter eggs.
• We have added flowers to the list of materials we clearly accept, with the caveat that we only want them if they have not been painted/dyed with non-food-safe paints or dyes or coated/covered in glitter.
• We have updated our wording on our acceptance of fruits and vegetables to be more clear that we accept whole produce, and not just scraps.
• We have updated our wording on our acceptance of grains (such as corn, rice, quinoa, etc.) to be clear that we do also accept grain-based products, such as breads, cereals, chips, crackers, pastas, etc.
• We have added “Napkins, paper towels, etc. soiled with food” to our list of Acceptable Materials, with an emphasis on them being soiled with food.
• We have updated our wording on our acceptance of nuts, seeds, and their shells to state that in addition to black walnut, we now no longer accept pecans or their shells, as they contain juglone (which inhibits the growth of other plants), just as black walnut does.
• We have updated our wording on our acceptance of paper or cotton tea bag tags to be more clear that we only accept the tags if they are plain/matte, as opposed to shiny/glossy, as we have been receiving many shiny/glossy tea bag tags lately.
• We have added vinegar to our list of Not Acceptable materials, where it is now lumped in with alcohol, such as beer, wine, hard liquor, etc.
• We have added ceramics (such as terracotta pot pieces) to our list of Not Acceptable materials.
• We have added root balls (such as those from dead, potted houseplants) to our list of Not Acceptable materials.
• While we have always found shiny/glossy paper and cardboard to be not acceptable, we have now added emphasis with regard to our non-acceptance of “gift wrap” paper & food boxes lined with “waterproof” material).
• We have added “snotty” tissues or Kleenex (for health/safety reasons) to our list of Not Acceptable materials.
• While we have always found them to be not acceptable, we have now officially added wax, “baking”/parchment, or “non-stick” paper to the Not Acceptable side of our list, to provide more clarity to our subscribers, whereas we have been receiving quite a bit of this material over the past several months.
• While we have always found them to be not acceptable, on the grounds that chemicals, such as those commonly found in wet wipes, are harmful to compost, we have now officially added wet wipes / baby wipes to the Not Acceptable side of our list, to provide more clarity to our subscribers, whereas we have seen a large influx of these wipes in the buckets we have picked up over the past few months.

In addition to the above updates, we have made many more minor updates to the wording of our list, to eliminate or reduce redundancies and provide clarity to our subscribers and the general public.

Please note that with regard to some of the new additions to the Not Acceptable side of our list, including ceramics, root balls, and “snotty” tissues and Kleenex, we will not be penalizing anyone for the inclusion of these materials in any buckets we pick up prior to 6/19/2022.

That said, if any of these materials are found in buckets picked up on or after 6/19/22 or later, the buckets they are found in will be considered “dirty,” as per our Compost Discount Program, which we made an announcement about on 5/15/2022, and which you can read at: https://www.gbcompost.com/2022/05/15/effective-6-1-22-our-loyalty-and-waste-reduction-rewards-program-will-be-replaced-with-a-new-compost-discount-program/

If you have any questions or concerns about any of these updates/changes to our list of Acceptable & Not Acceptable Materials, please let us know by using any of the contact methods available at www.GBCompost.com/Contact.

Greener Bay Compost featured in Green Bay’s Official Newspaper, The Press Times!

On Friday, May 20th, 2022, Greener Bay Compost was featured in The Press Times, which was recently named the official newspaper of the city of Green Bay, as seen below. Enjoy!

Click here to read the article online: https://gopresstimes.com/2022/05/25/making-green-bay-greener-one-compost-bucket-at-a-time/

Effective 6/1/22: Our Loyalty and Waste Reduction Rewards Program will be replaced with a new Compost Discount Program

We hope you had a wonderful weekend and didn’t get sunburned in the least!

As indicated in the announcements we’ve made over the past three days, if you are a subscriber to our Curbside Compost Pickup Service, you will be directly affected by some major policy and program changes we are making, 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 opted to divide our announcements into a series of announcements: One which was made three days ago, one which was made two days ago, one which was made yesterday (5/14), and, finally, this one today (with the announcements having become 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 MAJOR announcement to make, which will affect all of our subscribers, both present and future, which is that, effective 6/1/22, our current Loyalty and Waste Reduction Rewards Program, which rewards our subscribers with (1) pound of finished compost for every (15) pounds of would-be organic waste they provide to us, will cease to exist, with a new Compost Discount Program taking its place.

Rather than reward subscribers based on how much would-be organic waste their households provide to us, as the Loyalty and Waste Reduction Rewards Program has done since its inception in late August 2021, our new Compost Discount Program will reward subscribers based on 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 are making the transition to this new rewards program for several reasons:

• First, our data suggests that the Loyalty and Waste Reduction Rewards Program, which was intended to reduce the amount of waste ending up in our local landfills, may have had the opposite effect, in that it may have encouraged/incentivized subscribers to produce more waste, not less.
• Second, as our subscriber base has continued to grow (by nearly 800%, since just about nine months ago), the administrative work necessary to facilitate the Loyalty and Waste Reduction Rewards Program has becoming increasingly burdensome, to the point where it is taking valuable time that we feel could be better spent on other activities, such as physical, compost-related work.
• Third, we have determined that we cannot continue to cannibalize our currently-very-limited compost supply by rewarding our subscribers with it, especially whereas many subscribers have expressed little to no interest in claiming said compost (despite having earned it), and still successfully transition into a company that not only provides Curbside Compost Pickup Services, but also sells compost (which is one of our major goals for this Spring)

Currently, our only revenue stream stems from our Curbside Compost Pickup Service. But in the very near future (as early as next month), our business model will evolve to include the sales of (1) Cubic Foot bags of our compost (for starters), to both our subscribers and the general public.

Accordingly, we must prepare to produce and package up enough compost for sale each year, moving forward, to meet the needs of a market in which compost is not only in great demand, but also extremely short supply (especially given the fertilizer shortages our country is currently suffering from).

This means we can no longer afford to give away our product for free, except for in very small amounts, or in very limited circumstances (such as per the terms of our Referral Rewards Program, which will continue to exist beyond 6/1/22, or for the sake of donating it to local organizations, such as the Northeastern Wisconsin Master Gardeners, local community gardens, etc., in exchange for promotion of our company).

Our new Compost Discount Program will work as follows, effective 6/1/22:

• We will sort through the contents of each individual Greener Bay Compost bucket and extra bag of dry materials we receive on or after 6/1/22, as we’ve always done, to identify and remove from our waste stream any items/materials we may find that fall into the Not Acceptable side of our list of Acceptable and Not Acceptable Materials, and document/photograph any such items/materials found.
• Should we find zero Not Acceptable items/material in a bucket or extra bag, we will designate the bucket as “Clean.”
• Should we find any Not Acceptable items/materials in a bucket or extra bag (regardless of whether this is one produce sticker, for example, or ten), we will designate the bucket as “Dirty.”
• Any subscriber who provides a “Dirty” bucket to us will receive a short email from us, with the subject line “Dirty Bucket Alert,” a link the subscriber can use to dispute our determination that their bucket was “Dirty” (if they so choose), and a photo of the Not Acceptable item(s)/material(s) we found in their bucket/extra bags.
• There will be no “educational” component to the “Dirty Bucket Alert” emails, which means we will not be using them to advise subscribers as to how to prevent future buckets from being considered “Dirty.” Our only “educational” efforts, from 6/1/22 on, will be conducted via our website and our social media accounts, and not targeted at any particular subscriber or subscribers (unless, of course, a subscriber contacts us privately for assistance, in which case we will, of course, assist them, in private).
• We will keep track of how many “Clean” and “Dirty” buckets each subscriber provides to us, as well as what percentage of their total buckets are “Clean.”
• Our subscribers “Clean Bucket Percentage” (or “Clean Bucket %”), as it will be known, will be used to determine the discount our subscribers receive on any compost they purchase from us in the future.
• The percentage discount subscribers will receive will be:
  • 5%, for any subscriber with a “Clean Bucket Percentage” of less than 80%
  • 10%, for any subscriber with a “Clean Bucket Percentage” of 80-89.99%
  • 15%, for any subscriber with a “Clean Bucket Percentage” of 90-94.99%
  • 20%, for any subscriber with a “Clean Bucket Percentage” of 95-100%

PLEASE NOTE: We intend to sell our (1) Cubic Foot bags (approximately 35-40 pounds) of compost to the general public for $39.99 per bag, plus tax (5.5%), and so the above discounts would apply to that price. Additionally, we intend to charge a delivery fee of $5.00, plus tax (5.5%) to subscribers and non-subscribers alike (which the Compost Discount would not apply to), that is, unless subscribers opt to meet us at the old Sears parking lot on Military Avenue in west Green Bay (or some other location in the middle of our service area, of our choosing) to pick up the compost, on a date and at a time agreed upon by all parties, in which case we will waive this fee for our subscribers.

Now, because we have learned that most subscribers make most of their mistakes, with regard to putting Not Acceptable items/materials in their buckets, over the course of their first two Bucket Swaps/Compost Pickups, we will be introducing what we call the New Subscriber Grace Period, which will guarantee new subscribers a “Clean” bucket designation on each of the first two buckets they provide to us, regardless of whether they’re actually “Clean.” After those first two buckets, however, such subscribers will be playing by the same rules as everyone else.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE: This New Subscriber Grace Period will only be afforded to actual new subscribers (that is, any subscribers who haven’t already received two Bucket Swaps/Compost Pickups from us by 6/1/22).

Having said that, it should be noted that all of our subscribers, regardless of when they originally signed up with us, or how long they’ve been with us, will start with a “clean slate” on 6/1/22, with regard to the number of “Clean” and “Dirty” buckets they’ve provided us to date. In other words, past “Dirty” buckets (from before 6/1/22) will not be held against anyone, and all subscribers will get a fresh start at the beginning of June.

In spite of this, now may be a good time to re-read our list of Acceptable and Not Acceptable Materials, especially whereas we just updated it a few weeks ago, just to be safe/best prepared.

Now, at this point, you’re probably wondering what we’re going to do with any/all the compost you may have earned, or will earn, through 5/31/22, per our current Loyalty and Waste Reduction Rewards Program, but have not yet claimed, or have been unable to claim to date, due to you perhaps having not been with us for long enough (six months) to have earned the right to claim said compost.

About that…

We have great news for everyone!

Because we are company that keeps its promises/is true to its word, we will continue to keep track of how much compost our subscribers earn, via our current Loyalty and Waste Reduction Rewards Program, through 5/31/22, and come 6/1/22, once we have a final number as to how much compost we still owe everyone, we will be waiving the requirement that subscribers be with us for six months to claim their earned compost and will endeavor, over the next several weeks, to deliver, on a date (or dates) of our choosing (hopefully before the end of June 2022), the compost we owe everyone.

This will be our way of “paying off our debt,” so to say, to our subscribers and putting an end to the Loyalty and Waste Reduction Rewards Program in what we believe is the right away–the Greener Bay Compost way–with integrity.

To that effect, shortly after 6/1/22, all subscribers should expect an email from us advising them of the final number of pounds of compost we owe them and what day (or days) we will plan to deliver it to them on. Please note that whatever day or days we choose will not be on a regularly-scheduled Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup day, but rather on some other day(s) of the week that work best for us.

It is our hope that this will give everyone a proper opportunity to experience the amazing benefits of our compost to all plants, whether it is a house plant, crops planted in a garden, or a lawn.

Now that that’s out of the way, you may also be wondering what is to become of the Greener Bay Compost Leaderboard as of 6/1/22, being that we will no longer need it to keep track of how much compost subscribers have earned, claimed, or donated, via the Loyalty and Waste Reduction Rewards Program, being that that program will no longer exist.

To that point, please note that we will simply be reconfiguring the Leaderboard to keep track of our new Compost Discount Program-related statistics, including each subscriber’s number of “Clean” and “Dirty” buckets, as well as their “Clean Bucket Percentages.” We expect this reconfiguration to be complete by no later than the end of the day on 6/4/22.

In conclusion, we recognize that the change detailed above is quite dramatic, and will take some getting used to, but we also believe it is for the best, not only for our company, but for our subscribers as well, who we are sure want to help us make our compost as clean and high-quality as possible.

We sincerely hope all of our subscribers will embrace this change and take full advantage of the great, new discounts they will soon be earning through the Compost Discount Program, and support us by buying compost from us, rather than online or from Big Box Stores, in the future.

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!

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

We hope you are staying cool today and enjoying all the pretty butterflies and the bees buzzing around all the beautiful flowers that are just beginning to bloom!

As indicated in the announcements we’ve made over the past two days, 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 divide our announcements into a series of announcements: One which was made two days ago, one yesterday, one today (5/14), and one tomorrow (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 somewhat major announcement to make (only somewhat major, in that we believe it will only affect a small portion of our subscribers, and perhaps only occasionally), which is that, effective 6/1/22, we will no longer accept any wet waste/materials provided to us outside of our buckets, regardless of what kind of bag, box, or container it/they may be provided in.

Historically, if our subscribers had more wet waste/materials than could reasonably fit in their Greener Bay Compost buckets, we would allow our subscribers to put this extra waste inside of unscented plastic bags, tied shut, and set said bags out for us on their scheduled Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup days, beside their buckets.

Effective 6/1/22, we will no longer be allowing this, and if any such bags are left beside our buckets, they will be left at our subscribers residences, without explanation.

Please note: We define “wet waste/materials” as waste or materials that are wet to the touch or moist to the point that, if they were to be squeezed or left to sit anywhere for any period of time, that liquid would leak from them, as well as waste or materials that are nitrogen-rich/prone to emit “offensive odors” as they rot. Generally speaking, all food scraps are considered “wet.”

Accordingly, much of the food waste we commonly receive, such as banana peels, avocados, citrus fruits, potato peels, watermelon rinds, lettuce, etc. are considered wet, as are the animal droppings we consider acceptable (such as those from chickens, rabbits, guinea pigs, etc.). As such, these materials should never be provided to us outside of our buckets, as of 6/1/22.

We are making the change detailed above for two very important reasons:

1. To prevent wet waste/materials from potentially spilling outside of bags and into our pickup vehicle (thus creating a mess we would then need to clean up) and to prevent potentially “offensive odors” emanating from such waste/materials from making our drivers routes unpleasant or intolerable.
2. To protect our subscribers (and Greener Bay Compost, by proxy) from potential municipal ordinance violations relative to, but not necessarily limited to, rat/rodent infestation and “offensive odor” complaints from neighbors.

On a related note, relative to “offensive odor” control, please make sure to snap your bucket lids on tight when/if you put them outside, so as to avoid attracting rats, rodents, or other pests, as well as to prevent potentially “offensive odors” from wafting through your neighborhood.

We were recently informed by one of our subscribers that because they hadn’t snapped their bucket lid on tight, a raccoon got inside their bucket and made quite a mess for them. We, of course, do not want this to happen to anyone else.

Now, you may be asking yourself a very good question right now, which is “If Greener Bay Compost will no longer let me put extra wet waste out for them inside of bags, then what should I do if I produce more wet waste than I can fit in my bucket?”

We have a couple suggestions for you:

1. Consider signing up for our Add-a-Bucket option, which enables you to receive not one, but two buckets from us on each of your scheduled Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup days, for only $10.00 extra per month (which you can cancel at any time, if you decide you no longer need the extra bucket).
2. Consider using our Special, One-Time Bucket Swap option, on an as-needed basis, for a one-time charge of just $5.00, to make arrangements with us for us to meet you at a public location in the middle of our service area (typically the old Sears parking lot on Military Avenue, in west Green Bay) to perform an extra Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup for you, on days we’re not already scheduled to perform one for you on.
3. Save your extra wet waste/materials for inclusion in a later bucket, potentially by placing it inside a plastic bag or container of some sort and freezing it (with this, of course, being the least expensive option).

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!

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!

Major policy and program changes to be announced over the next three days

First things first, we hope you and your loved ones are having a wonderful day and an amazing start to Spring!

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 over the next three days, one of which will be effective immediately and the other three of which will be effective 6/1/22 (a Wednesday).

For the sake of not overwhelming you with too much information in any one announcement, we will dividing our announcements into a series of announcements over the next three days: One today, one tomorrow (5/13), one this Saturday (5/14), and one this Sunday (5/15), with the announcements becoming progressively more impactful with each day.

We are making the aforementioned 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 relatively minor announcement to make, which is that, effective immediately (and thus affecting all Bucket Swaps/Compost Pickups hereafter), we will no longer be sending post-Swap/post-Pickup “confirmation emails,” such as many of our subscribers have become accustomed to, following successful Bucket Swaps/Compost Pickups, to advise subscribers that their Bucket Swaps/Compost Pickups have been completed successfully.

The only exception to the above will be for new subscribers who will continue to receive an email from us after we have successfully delivered their first compost bucket to them, to provide them with all the information they need to get started with us.

The primary reason we are making this change is that we have not received much feedback from our subscribers to suggest that they find these post-Swap/post-Pickup “confirmation emails” to be useful or necessary. Secondly, it takes us quite a bit of time to set up said emails, attach photos to them in the middle of our Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup routes, and to send them. Finally, because of spotty Internet connectivity during our Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup routes, these emails cannot be sent, in the majority of cases, until hours after we have already completed our Bucket Swaps/Compost Pickups, which defeats their purpose to some extent.

Please note: We will continue to take photos of the buckets we are swapping, at the time our Bucket Swaps/Compost Pickups are completed, for record-keeping purposes.

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!

UPDATE: We are discontinuing our Weekly Curbside Compost Pickup Service plans

After much thoughtful consideration, we have decided to cease offering our Weekly Curbside Compost Pickup Service plans to new subscribers, effective immediately, and to discontinue offering the same to existing subscribers on such plans as soon as possible.

Please note that we will continue to offer two Every-Other-Week plans (a Month-to-Month version, as well as a discounted, 6–Months–Paid–in–Full version), in addition to an “Add a Bucket” option for an extra $10/month (which requires a separate subscription) and a “Special, One-Time Pickup” service for a one-time charge of $7.50, for the sake of providing flexibility to our subscribers whose households may produce more waste each week than an average household.

We have a few reasons for discontinuing our Weekly plans:

1. Out of the (118) subscribers we now serve, only (10) are on our Weekly plans, which means the demand for our Weekly plans is extremely low.
2. Out of the (10) subscribers we currently have on Weekly plans (including your household), we have determined that only about 20% of these subscribers actually need to be on something like a Weekly plan, based on the average poundage of the buckets we pick up from them each week, which means they are paying for more pickups than they really need.
3. Us transitioning to only doing Every-Other-Week pickups will help make our routes shorter and more efficient (thus saving us both time and money), as well as pave the way for us to make further changes to our routes in late summer of 2022, so that we will no longer be driving routes every week (as we’ve been doing since our inception in August 2021), but rather every other week (which will massively improve the Work/Life Balance of our team members).

So what does all of this mean for you?

Any subscribers whose Weekly, 6–Months–Paid–in–Full plans were, until today, set to automatically renew at $162/every six months will, instead, automatically transition to an Every-Other-Week, 6–Months–Paid–in–Full plan at $81/every six months on their next renewal date.

If you are a subscriber who feels that a Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup performed for you just once every other week is not sufficient to account for the amount of waste your household produces each week, then please now that there are a couple options we have to offer to help you work around this concern.

First, you could consider signing up for our “Add a Bucket” option, in conjunction with your new, Every-Other-Week plan plan, which would see you receive not one, but two Greener Bay Compost buckets on each of your scheduled Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup days.

The nice thing about the above option is you can cancel at any time, if, for any reason, you determine or realize that your household does not produce enough waste each week to justify two buckets.

Second, you could pay a one-time charge of $7.50 for a “Special, One-Time Pickup” of your Greener Bay Compost bucket (which, of course, includes a Bucket Swap) on a week when you would otherwise not be having a Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup performed for you, on an as-needed basis.

Finally, you could simply do like many of our subscribers do (and which we do allow them to do, by the way), for in the event that your household produces more waste than you can comfortably or reasonably fit in a single Greener Bay Compost bucket, and put any extra dry waste (such as paper, cardboard, etc.) you may have in a separate paper bag or unscented plastic bag beside your bucket, or any extra wet waste (such as food scraps, coffee grounds, etc.) you may have in a separate, unscented plastic bag beside your bucket, or both on your scheduled Bucket Swap/Compost Pickup days.

Please note: We don’t have any limit on how many extra “dry” or “wet” bags you can set beside your buckets.

If you need to discuss the above options with us in more detail, or if you have any questions or concerns about this update in general, you are welcome (and encouraged) to contact us using any of the contact methods available at www.GBCompost.com/Contact, otherwise you will simply be transitioned to the Every-Other-Week version of our plans which is closest to the plan you are currently on, as soon as your current plan expires, as indicated earlier.

Thank you, as always, for helping us make Green Bay a little greener every day, and happy composting!

Greener Bay Compost featured in Wisconsin Life & Style Magazine’s Spring 2022 Issue!

In April of 2022, Greener Bay Compost, was featured in the spring edition of Wisconsin Life & Style Magazine, as seen below. Enjoy!

Greener Bay Compost name-dropped by Green Bay Sustainability Commission as potential Green Bay City Partner for Food Waste Prevention Program

Greener Bay Compost was name-dropped during the City of Green Bay‘s April 19th, 2022 Common Council meeting by the Green Bay Sustainability Commission‘s Mark Walter as a potential partner for the City with regard to a proposed city-wide Food Waste Prevention Program.

This meeting may be viewed in full by clicking https://youtu.be/rheFqAxGHps, or by watching the video embedded below:

If you would like to watch the part of the meeting where Mark Walter discusses the City’s Waste Reduction goals, you can do so on YouTube at 42 minutes into the video (with the segment running until 46:10 in) by clicking https://youtu.be/rheFqAxGHps?t=2520, or by watching the video embedded below:

If you’d like to skip ahead to the part where Mark Walter discusses Greener Bay Compost specifically, as well as some other potential partners, you can do so on YouTube at 45 minutes and 19 seconds into the video by clicking https://youtu.be/rheFqAxGHps?t=2719, or by watching the video embedded below:

IMPORTANT: Our Acceptable and Not Acceptable Materials List has been Updated

We have just updated our list of Acceptable & Not Acceptable Materials for Inclusion in Our Compost Buckets, which can be viewed on this website at https://www.gbcompost.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Greener-Bay-Compost-Acceptable-and-Not-Acceptable-Materials-List.pdf, or through our link at the bottom of our homepage.

The changes that have been made can be summarized as follows:

We now accept, without reservation, any and all products labeled as BPI-Certified Compostable. To find items certified as such, or to find out of items you buy or are considering purchasing are certified as such, please visit https://bpiworld.org/Find-Certified-Products.

We have updated our wording on Acceptable ashes to clearly state that not only are ashes made from untreated, natural wood Acceptable, but that those made from the type of plain/matte paper and cardboard we have always accepted are Acceptable as well.

We have updated our wording with regard to coffee grounds to indicate that we accept ALL coffee grounds, whether used/spent or not.

We have updated our list to clearly state that we not only accept egg shells, but whole eggs as well (whether raw or cooked/hardboiled).

We have updated our wording with regard to used/spent potting soil to reflect that we would like any rocks/stones in the soil (typically found in the bottom of it) removed from it prior to it being added to our buckets, as well as added rocks/stones to the Not Acceptable side of our list.

We have updated our wording with regard to pumpkins to request that tea lights be removed from pumpkins (Jack o’ Lanterns) prior to them being provided to us.

We have officially added the following materials to the Acceptable side of our list, although we have already been accepting them for quite some time now:

• Fish skins
• Seeds
• Pits (such as from avocados)
• Jack o’ Lanterns
• Planer shavings made from untreated, natural wood
• Scobies (such as from kombucha production)
• Shrimp shells

We have added bamboo brush handles to the hard wood category of materials we do not accept.

We have updated our wording with regard to large volumes of liquid being Not Acceptable to clarify that the liquid that naturally leaks out of decaying food (such as watermelon, strawberries, lettuce leaves, etc.) is perfectly fine, as it is expected, but that large volumes of other liquids (as in, those artificially-added to our buckets) are still Not Acceptable.

We have added sourdough starter to the Not Acceptable side of our list as, after having advised a few subscribers it was okay to include it in their buckets and after having received it on several occasions in the past several months, we have come to the conclusion that the negatives of accepting this particularly sticky material far outweigh the benefits, due to how difficult it makes it for us to sort through buckets containing it.

Finally, we have added wine/bottle corks to the Not Acceptable side of our list as, despite our best efforts in the past several months to compost the corks, the corks have proven themselves to be non-compostable via the composting process we use.

Please note that with regard to the new additions to the Not Acceptable side of our list, most notably bamboo brush handles, rocks/stones, sourdough starter and wine/bottle corks, we will not be penalizing anyone for the inclusion of these materials in any buckets we pick up between now and 4/30/22.

That said, if any of these materials are found in buckets picked up on 5/1/22 or later, we will be applying either our normal half-pound penalty per individually identifiable Not Acceptable material we find, or, as is often the case when dealing with rocks/stones or large volumes of liquid, deducting the actual weight of the Not Acceptable material, whichever is greater, from the weight of the related bucket contents, per our Loyalty and Waste Reduction Rewards Program.

If you have any questions or concerns about any of these updates/changes to our list of Acceptable & Not Acceptable Materials, please let us know by using any of the contact methods available at www.GBCompost.com/Contact.