Starting on August 1, 2021, curbside pickup of food scraps is available at an annual price of $99 (as compared with current price of $253) with Black Earth Compost, a new project partner to Healthy Soils Healthy Seas Rhode Island. With funding support from 11th Hour Racing, Clean Ocean Access and Black Earth Compost will provide a lower price residential composting service for Newport, Middletown, Portsmouth, Jamestown and Bristol as part of the multi-year Healthy Soils Healthy Seas Rhode Island initiative to position the community as a leader for environmental stewardship.

Black Earth Compost is a Massachusetts-based business with nearly 23,000 customers. With enthusiasm and commitment, owner Conor Miller states, “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. All customers will receive excellent customer service and 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.”

Clean Ocean Access Program Manager Eva Touhey reports, “Improving ocean health starts on land and composting is a transformational behavior change that we want to make possible for everyone. To date, the project has diverted 1,200 tons of food scraps from entering the landfill; however, Rhode Island puts more than 100,000 tons of food scraps into the landfill each year. Composting creates healthy soils which in turn creates healthy seas.”