Curbside Compost Pickup In Jamestown Is Now Only $99 Per Year

JAMESTOWN, RI — Starting August 1, curbside pickup of food scraps is available at an annual price of $99 — as compared with current price of $253 — partners associated with a composting venture announced.

Black Earth Compost is the new operator of the curbside compost pickup project in Newport, Middletown, Portsmouth, Jamestown, and Bristol. Project partners and supporters are Healthy Soils Healthy Seas Rhode Island, 11th Hour Racing, and Clean Ocean Access.

The residential curbside composting program was started by Miguel Costa and Conor MacManus or Rhodeside Revival, and in a news release they said they are pleased to be handing off the next phase of the project.

"Healthy Soils Healthy Seas Rhode Island is the right thing for the Ocean State, and we will enjoy watching Black Earth Compost take over our operations and advance this into the next chapter,” the two said.

“We are excited to bring our passion from the Bay State into the Ocean State and become a project partner within Healthy Soils Healthy Seas Rhode Island," said Black Earth Compost owner Conor Miller. "We look forward to working together to achieve the goal of 2,000 households diverting food scraps by the end of the year across the five communities of the project.”

“Improving ocean health starts on land and composting is a transformational behavior change that we want to make possible for everyone," remarked Clean Ocean Access program manager Eva Touhey.

To date the project has diverted 1,200 tons of food scraps from entering the landfill. Rhode Island puts over 100,000 tons of food scraps into the landfill each year. Food scraps should be composted instead to create healthy soils, Touhey said.

Black Earth Compost can be reached at (978) 290-4610.