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, educating about waste reduction, and creating compost that benefits our community and the Earth.

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, and Chimacum School District.

Our Services

Food scrap drop-off service (beginning June 1st 2026)

  • $14 per month

  • Drop food waste at convenient locations at PT Food Coop, Quimper Grange, Quimper Unitarian Fellowship, Sheridan St

  • Accepting all food (including meat, bones, dairy), Bins not provided

  • Compost give-backs every 6 months (1.5 cu ft bag)

Sign Up To Compost!
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.

Have questions?

Check out our FAQ page

FAQ

Education and Community Projects

We started a compost program at the Chimacum Elementary School in partnership with Community Wellness Project and with funding From Washington State Department of Ecology.

The program includes in-class lessons about food waste and waste reduction as well as a pick-up service that diverts food waste from the cafeteria.

We’re collecting 75-100 pounds of food waste per day which goes to our facility for composting. The finished compost will be returned to the school garden where students will use it for food production.

Follow program updates in our blog and on Instagram!

Blog

We’ve built a small scale compost facility at the Jefferson County Transfer Station that can process the food scrap volume of about 400 households per week. We’re 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.

Our Compost Facility

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.