Food Waste Composting & Diversion Services

Food waste should be kept OUT of municipal solid waste (MSW) whenever possible. 

They can either be composted (in the luxury of your own yard), or deposited at a facility such as the examples below.  Check out these resources to see if they offer a solution for you! Additionally, you may want to check with your local transfer station, local farms, and garden centers to see what options they offer as well. 

Check out our Composting Toolkit!

COMPOST AT HOME

Composting at home is a great option!
Check out the NHPR Life Kit on Composting (audio and text)


FOOD WASTE DIVERSION - FARM LOCATIONS

Farm Partners in On-Farm Food Scrap Composting Program

Service Area: dependent on farm location, see website for details.

The purpose of this project is to reduce solid waste, avoid water pollution, and increase soil health by providing technical support and training for community-scale food scrap composting and manure management on farms in rural and small communities in Vermont and New Hampshire. Funded by a USDA Rural Utility Services Solid Waste Management Grant Program. 

GBN Farms

Service Area: Chester, NH area

GBN Farms is an organic materials compost facility located on Dump Road in Chester, NH. We primarily deal in yard and food waste that include but are not limited to leaves, grass clippings, broken or cut down tree branches, manure, restaurant waste as well as vegetable matter/oils.

Geary Farms

Service Area: Plaistow, Hampstead, Atkinson, Sandown, Fremont, Kingston, Chester, and Danville

Geary Farms is a no-till biologically focused farm. They offer residential and commercial compost pick-up.

Highwater Farm

Service Area: Bartlett, NH - CSA members only 

Highwater Farm is a small, queer-owned and operated family farm growing  a diversified veggie and berry crop with organic practices on a half-acre in the flood plane of Bartlett, NH.  They offer composting for our CSA members and partner with local schools to offer composting throughout the year.

Meadowstone Farm

Service Area: Drop-off at the Littleton Coop; Littleton, NH Transfer Station; and the Franconia, NH Transfer Station 

Meadowstone Farm is a small, diverse farm located in Northern New Hampshire. Food waste is used both as chicken feed and is composted.

Open Woods Farm

Service Area: Mascoma Valley Region

Open Woods is an organic vegetable farm specializing in high-quality long-lasting salad greens, summer high tunnel crops, winter growing, and picking rocks. Community composting at Open Woods Farm began in the summer of 2022 . Compost drop-off is available at the Canaan Farmers’ Market - Sundays from 10am-2pm mid-May to October or at Open Woods Farm in the off season. Check their website for details prior to dropping off food scraps. 

Sandberg Farm

Service Area: Upper Valley NH and VT

Bob Sandberg in Corinth, Vermont collects food scraps from several Upper Valley businesses in New Hampshire and Vermont. He leaves large totes at facilities and takes the food scraps back to his farm where he composts them primarily for use by people who buy the compost by the truckload. Full totes are replaced by clean totes. He also offers a drop-off location for residential composting (no meat or dairy).

Work Song Farm

Service Area: Hopkinton, NH residents only

Operated by Dan and Abby Kilrain, is a small-scale farm that produces diverse vegetables, herbs and flowers on three acres in Hopkinton, New Hampshire. They aim to grow healthy, delicious food for their local community and to strive for sustainability in every way. In support of their local community, excess produce is donated to local food pantries and soup kitchens. On-site food scrap composting is done through a bucket system, where participants can pick up empty buckets at the farm and return full buckets. Food scraps only, no paper products or other compostable single-use items accepted.

 

FOOD WASTE DIVERSION - PICK-UP SERVICES 

Agri-Cycle

Service Area: Maine to Maryland

Agri-Cycle operates a fleet of trucks dedicated to both solid and liquid food waste collection. They accept all types of food waste including produce, meat, seafood, and dairy, as well as brewery and other industrial food waste. Our fleet is also capable of collecting palletized packaged food waste, either as part of our scheduled routes, an emergency or an on-call basis. All you have to do is put your food waste in our totes and they will take it from there. If your organization needs to dispose of packaged food, they can take that material as well.

Black Earth Compost

Service Area: Primarily Massachusetts, with additional towns in NH, CT, and RI. View the full service area.

Black Earth Compost was founded in 2011 and currently has over 30 trucks to serve RI, MA, and is now expanding into NH.  They are a vertically integrated company that does both the collection and processing of food waste from over 35,000 residents and commercial businesses totaling over 350 tons per week.  They then sell finished bag and bulk compost. Black Earth Compost offers residential, commercial, office, and event services. 

Bootstrap Compost

Service Area: Primarily Massachusetts and Rhode Island, with additional towns in NH (Manchester only), CT, and NY. View the full service area.

Bootstrap Compost is a leading compost pickup service operating throughout Greater Boston, the Merrimack Valley, Worcester, Rhode Island and Hudson, N.Y. Partnering with local farms, Bootstrap diverts thousands of pounds of organic material from landfills every day. As a result, we are harnessing the potential of organic refuse to redefine and empower a local food community. Our farms benefit from our compost in the production of crops while each Bootstrap subscriber receives a portion of black gold for their own gardening projects. Remaining compost is donated to schools and community gardens.

Elm City Compost

Service Area: residential and commercial pick-up in Keene, NH, event pick-up in the Monadnock Region. Service area expansion interest information.

Elm City Compost services include residential compost collection, pick up services at the Monadnock Food Co-op, business collection and zero waste events in the Keene, NH area. Elm City Compost Initiative is proud to bring the first residential compost collection service to Keene! To date Elm City Compost has diverted over 400,000 pounds of food & organic waste from the landfill!

Grow Nashua

Service Area: Nashua, NH

Grow Nashua now offers a local food scrap collection service that is creating soil, green energy, and local jobs and has diverted over 480,000 pounds from our landfill to date. They compost your food scraps and organic materials, while simultaneously supporting non-profit outreach in Nashua's inner city and school gardens. 

Mr. Fox

Service Area: New Hampshire Seacoast & Southern Maine (see service area map - scroll to bottom of linked page)

Mr. Fox provides residential and commercial composting services to the New England Seacoast area. Residential services include delivering supplies needed to compost to your residence and pick up on a bi-weekly or monthly basis. Mr. Fox will work with businesses to to customize a compost program based on business needs. They will also provide compost services for your next event.

Renewal Compost

Service Areas: (curbside pick up) Auburn, Bedford, Chester, Concord, Derry, Hudson, Manchester, Merrimack, New London, Raymond, Windham (drop-off locations) Amherst, Bow, Concord, Goffstown, Hooksett, Londonderry, New London. (See service area list to sign up)

Close the loop! Renewal Garden and Compost aims to put your food scraps to good use. The nutrient-rich soil that we create provides backyards with bountiful vegetable gardens. Closing the loop includes putting nutrients back into the soil, and supporting local agriculture.

Vanguard Renewables

A zero-waste closed loop lifecycle, Farm Powered organics-to-renewable energy combines unusable food and beverage waste and farm manure to generate clean, renewable energy and low carbon fertilizer. Vanguard Renewables is a commercial food waste diversion program. They provide food and beverage manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, cold storage facilities, pet food manufacturers, and other organic waste generators with a comprehensive materials management solution.

WeRecycleFood.com

Service Area: Lebanon, West Lebanon, Hanover, and Etna, New Hampshire; Norwich, Woodstock, Hartland, Hartford, White River Junction, Wilder, Quechee, and West Hartford, Vermont

WeRecycleFood.com is the food waste recycling division of Nordic Waste Services, LLC, a Lebanon, NH based waste hauling company.  We recognize the need to make the trash business more sustainable, and want to bring composting to the forefront.  We make reducing the amount of waste thrown into a landfill easy.  By separating all waste that can be reused, we are able to create a closed loop of returning what we take out of the ground to grow our food, put it back into the soil, thus allowing the cycle of production to continue. While we’ve always been interested in composting, we were spurred to action by the void left by the shutdown of Upper Valley Compost.  Our community needs options for conveniently disposing of our food waste.

 

 

 

 

*Information Sheets Disclaimer: The information provided on this website is intended for general informational purposes only. While we strive to keep the information accurate and up to date, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, reliability, suitability, or availability of the information. Any reliance you place on such information is strictly at your own risk. Any information shared about other businesses, products, or services does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by NRRA. Users should independently verify the accuracy and reliability of such information before making any decisions.

 

Composting & Food Waste
Information Sheet