Commercial Compost Collection Services

The average business and institution generates considerable amounts of discarded food. Our collection service picks up that material and puts it back into the local food system and economy, instead of sending to the landfill to get wasted and create pollution. We provide full service collection for businesses, institutions, and community recycling centers. 

Black Dirt Farm offers weekly collection of food scraps from businesses and institutions in the Northeast Kingdom, Lamoille Valley, and Central Vermont.

How does it work?

Over the week our clients separate food scraps and collect them in the 48 gallon totes we provide. We accept all food scrap materials, food manufacturing wastes, and a limited number of paper products, including coffee filters, brown paper towels, napkins, cardboard egg cartons, compostable serveware and takeout containers. Each week the totes are emptied and thoroughly pressure washed with hot water. The food scraps are brought back to our farm in where they are first mixed into a forage mix for laying hens and then turned into compost and High Potency Worm Castings; or brought to our partners at Tamarlane Farm in Lyndonville and Lamoille Soil in Johnson, where they are transformed into rich compost.

We provide

• Rugged, 48-gallon totes (as many as you need at no additional cost) with good lids and wheels

• Weekly collection and cleaning of totes

• Sawdust to cap & seal the tote against odors and pests

• Employee training

• Instructional signage & stickers

• Resource recovery & pollution prevention statistics in every invoice

Rates

Cut your trash costs and contact us for a quote! 

What happens to the food scraps?

Food scraps from Greensboro, Hardwick, and our Lamoille Valley collection route are brought to Black Dirt Farm in Stannard where our hens get first pick. The hens forage on pasture, food scraps, and the fungi and grubs found in the compost piles. This rich environment mimics the hens native jungle feeding strategy, even in winter. The food scraps are tipped into the hens feeding pen, which is layered with dry carbon materials. As the pen fills up it is emptied and the mix of carbon, food scraps, and manure is formed into large windrows which heat up from all the microbial activity. This process is called thermophilic composting, and it ensures that weed seeds, diseases and pathogens are killed. At this point, some of this partially broken down compost is diverted as feed for our Red Wiggler Worms who make our High Potency Worm Castings. The remainder is slowly broken down by communities of insects, bacteria, and fungi over the better part of year.

Resources for our Clients

Download communication materials, links to food scrap-related legislation, vist our Resource page here >

Get started with our service!

1. Call us to discuss your needs and how our collection service works

2. Set up a walk-through of your business where we develop a plan for organics management on site. Review our Service Agreement.

3. We deliver the collection totes and communication materials

4. Organize a staff training

5. Start collecting food scraps!