For the last few years, Ashland and Holliston have had a partnership with Black Earth Compost. 

Black Earth Compost is a curbside compost service that allows residents and businesses to reduce the food waste that they send to landfill. The more residents that subscribe to the service the less the cost of the service will be. 

How it works:

Put all of your kitchen scraps in a counter top bin. They accept all produce scraps, diary, meat, paper towels, napkins, bones, pet food, pet waste, cotton balls, fireplace and stove ash, and much more. When your bin gets full put it into the larger curbside bin. This will be collected like trash and recycling once a week. 

Cost: 

The current cost of a weekly composting pick up service is $69.99 for 6 months. This breaks down to $2.96 a week. In adding this service to your weekly waste pick up you are not only reducing food waste going to landfill but can also cut down on your cost for trash pick up. Currently the cost for a small Ashland trash bag  is $1.05 each and the cost for a large Ashland trash bag is $1.80 each. If you are using more than two large bags a week, bringing in a compost service or backyard compost will lead to savings. The more residents that sign up the more the rate will be reduced. 

Why composting is important: 

Food waste is one of the leading forms of waste. Annually in the US 119 billion pounds of food waste is created. When put in landfills it does not break down as easily and when it does it produces methane gas. Methane gas has more than 80x the warming power of CO2. By composting your extra food waste you allow the waste to decompose and be made into compost soil. For everyone that subscribes to the service they receive a bag of compost each spring that they can use in their own yards. 

To sign up go to https://blackearthcompost.com