Louisville Compost Co-Op
Why bother with composting?
- For starters, it’s almost no bother once you join the coop. Simply toss your leftover breads, greens, fruits and veggies in the bucket we provide, and leave it out once a week for us to pick up. We’ll give you a nice, clean bucket in return – and use your food waste to generate valuable compost that enriches the soil in your community. We now serve some 400 households in the Louisville Metro area, and last year we collected more than 400 tons of food waste that were diverted from the landfill.
- Why not just let the trash truck take your leftovers to the landfill? Well, it’s just wasteful. Even the best-designed landfill is basically a plastic bag that has grass growing on it, and food scraps account for about 30% of what gets dumped in there. No oxygen can circulate to break down all those banana peels and coffee grounds into useful soil. So that half-loaf of bread that got too moldy for you to eat will never do anyone any good.
- What’s more, it can do harm. Once organic material hits the landfill and begins the long process of breaking down inside that plastic liner, it gives off methane – a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change just as carbon dioxide does. But methane’s warming effect on the earth’s atmosphere is 34 times stronger than CO2! So composting just one ton of organic waste has the same emission reduction effect as taking a car off the road for two months.
- And for just $20 a month, you’re giving back directly to your community’s ecosystem. Your food scraps can be composted and returned to local soils in gardens, parks, yards and farms. This compost yields enriched soil that needs fewer pesticides and retains water more efficiently. Plus, making and using the compost locally reduces the greenhouse gas emissions that would come from long-distance hauling.
We are Louisville’s only residential compost pick-up service, and we also partner with local businesses. We are dedicated to keeping trash out of landfills by turning it into useful, nutrient-rich soil. We began as a small team of volunteers, and while we’ve grown to be a small business in our own right, we remain 100% local and dedicated to our mission. If you want to know more or if you’d like to get involved, please explore our site, give us a call or drop us a line. We’d love to hear from you!
