• All edible food waste (including vegetables, meat/bones, dairy, coffee grounds, eggshells)

• Compostable bin liners

  We do not accept

• Trash

• Plastic

• Paper products

• Compostable utensils and plates

• Napkins

• Cardboard

• Produce stickers

• Glass Metal

• Pet waste

• Yard waste

• Ashes

• Packaging

• Port Townsend Co-op, SW side of the main building in the parking lot

• Quimper Grange, N side of garden

• Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, S end of parking lot (Kai Tai side)

• Residential host near Salish Coast Elementary, 1107 14th St. Corner of 14th and Cleveland St (on the Cleveland side of the lot). Please do not approach house!

• The drop-off service begins June 1st. After signing up for the service (post June 1st), you will receive a combo code that provides access to the locked bins

Sorry, but no.

Managing waste comes with a cost. Something or someone always pays for the waste. Either the environment pays for it through increased pollution/emissions from landfilling, a government subsidizes it, or a private company charges a service fee to properly manage the waste stream.

The third option is what is happening in this case. Return To Earth has invested a significant amount of money in equipment and infrastructure, along with years of planning to get to a point where we can compost at a meaningful scale. This cost also includes paying a living wage to our workers and a long list of expenses that come with running a business.

Your monthly subscription is an investment in building a local organic recycling system that has real, tangible positive effects on our community and environment.

This new system relies on people who care about our collective environmental impact and are willing to take the cost into their own hands.

Subscribers to the drop-of service will provide their own containers for collections and transport to the drop location. Common containers are 5 gallon buckets (or smaller), countertop bins, bags (but don’t put the bag in the bin unless it’s compostable!)

The drop-off service is a sliding scale cost with three price tiers.

• $9 per month - Community supported rate.

• $14 per month - Sustainer rate. This is what the service actually costs and allows us to “keep the lights on”

• $19 per month - Pay it forward rate. This rate allows us to offer the community rate and make investments in our organization.

Yes, our Squarespace platform will charge your card on a reoccurring monthly basis

There’s too much confusion about what’s compostable and what’s not. Labeling is nuanced and confusing even for us Most paper products are lined with plastic which becomes contamination in our piles.

Short answer, no.

But use your best judgement here. Is she a sweet elder lady who lives alone and you’d like to pick up her compost? Sure.

Can you share the code to the bin and bundle multiple households? No.

We’re a small nonprofit trying to make big changes, it takes revenue to make this project work. Please respect our work and be honest with the terms of our service.

Rinse the bucket or bin after every use and give it a scrub with soap every once and while.

Put a layer of carbon material like sawdust at the base of the container. Add add another layer after each deposit of food scraps.

Keep the bin stored in a cool area away from direct sunlight.

Deposit food scraps at drop location at least once a week.

Yes, you can subscribe for months that you are using the service, then unsubscribe when you leave.

Through the account that you created on our website when you checked out for the subscription.

Go to the “Log in” page, then cancel

Reach out if you have trouble canceling