Illustration of a carrot with green leafy top.

Food Waste Composting In Jefferson County, WA

  • Food Scrap Pick-up

  • Education

  • Compost sales

Someone wearing work gloves holding a handful of freshly dug yellow onions over a bucket of dark soil, with more onions in a container nearby.

Our Mission

We are dedicated to capturing local food waste, education about waste, and creating compost that is beneficial to Earth and our community.

People collecting and sorting trash and food waste on a large plastic sheet outdoors.

Who We Are

We’re curious decomposers, big fans of the little critters in the soil, and hopeful change-makers!

Return To Earth is a grassroots nonprofit based in Port Townsend, WA that is working to close the organic recycling loop and build community along the way.

We’re a project of StrongerTowns and work closely with our community partners such as Community Wellness Project, Jefferson County Public Works, WA Department of Ecology, and The City of Port Townsend.

Our Services

Food scrap drop-off service (spring 2026)

  • $14 per month

  • Drop off whenever you’d like at convenient locations throughout PT and surrounding areas

  • Compost give-backs every 6 months!

“Porchside” pick-up service (fall 2026)

  • $20 per month for every other week, $28 per month for weekly pick-up

  • Pick-up from residential house

  • Compost give-backs every 6 months!

A white compost bin filled with rotting food scraps, including vegetable peelings and soil, sitting on a dirty blue surface with scattered dirt and trash around.
Sign Up To Compost!

Community Projects

We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve been awarded a grant from WA Dept of Ecology that allows us to provide a free food scrap pick-up service to the Chimacum School District.

We’ll also be providing compost education in conjunction with their already thriving garden program. We’re partnering with the passionate folks at Community Wellness Project to help make this happen!

Stay tuned to our blog for updates on this exciting project

Blog
A white recycling bin with a green recycling symbol on the front, filled with various vegetable and fruit peels such as banana, apple, orange, and other produce scraps.

Our Compost Facility

Currently under construction!

We’re building a small scale compost facility that can process the food scrap volume of about 400 households per week. We’ll be using a method called aerated static piles that can turn food scraps into high quality compost in about four months.

Aerated Static Pile (ASP) composting is an efficient and odor-controlled method that uses forced air (via blowers and pipes below piles) rather than physical turning to maintain aerobic conditions.

This facility, with its limited capacity, will be testing the feasibility of a larger facility that could meet the need of the entire area.

Construction site with a small excavator, cleared land, and trees in the background under a blue sky with clouds.
A 3D rendering of an outdoor storage and maintenance yard with a large building, a red pickup truck, a flatbed trailer, a stack of green trash bins, a small orange loader, and a person standing near the loader. The yard is enclosed by a wall with a gate, and there is a display case or signage board near the building.