New Curbside Food Scrap Collection Program Comes to Town!

The Woodbridge Sustainability Committee and Blue Earth Compost are partnering to bring a new curbside food scrap collection service to town! The program will kick off once 50 households sign up.

This new program allows residents to collect food scraps separately from their regular trash. These scraps will then be turned into compost, a nutrient-rich soil amendment that improves soil quality, reduces reliance on chemical fertilizers, helps retain water, and combats erosion.

Blue Earth Compost, a family-owned business from Hartford with a decade of experience, will be providing the service. They’ve collected over 45 million pounds of food scraps from various communities and are offering Woodbridge residents a chance to join in.

For an average of $25 per month, residents can become subscribers and receive finished compost in return. Blue Earth offers free pickup of the finished product or delivery for a small fee.

The collected food scraps will be hauled to a state-approved composting facility, Quantum Biopower in Southington. Quantum can convert the scraps into compost within 21 days, capturing the methane byproduct and converting it into biogas that generates electricity for Southington.

According to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), nearly a quarter of our waste stream is food scraps. Diverting this material reduces the total amount of waste Woodbridge throws away. Incinerating food scraps creates greenhouse gasses and destroys valuable nutrients, whereas composting returns those nutrients to the soil.

Middletown, Glastonbury, West Hartford, and East Haddam are among several towns already participating in similar programs.

Blue Earth’s motto is “If it Grows, it Goes!” This program accepts a wider range of compostable materials than a typical backyard pile, including fruits, vegetables, meat products, dairy, baked goods, eggshells, coffee grounds, and more (see website for details).

Residents interested in signing up can visit www.blueearthcompost.com or call 860-266-7346. Signups will be added to a waiting list until the program reaches 50 participants.