Frequently Asked Questions

  • • ALL Food Scraps—Bread, Grains, & Pasta; Beans & Soy Products; Eggs, Cheese & Dairy; Meat, Fish & Bones; Fruit & Vegetables; Tea Bags; Coffee Grounds & Filters

    • Paper Towels & Napkins; Waxed/Parchment Paper; Certified Compostable Bags; and, cut flowers.

  • • Liquids

    • Larger soiled fiber products—pizza boxes, take-out containers (these will fill the cart up too fast)

    • Trash, including fruit/produce stickers; milk and juice cartons; aseptic (Tetra Pak) containers, such as broth, non-dairy milk and similar containers; frozen food containers

    • Plastic of any kind—bags, wrappers, utensils, straws

    • Diapers

    • Styrofoam™/polystyrene

    • Recyclables—aluminum cans, plastic bottles, glass bottles, cardboard/other paper, etc.

  • Use any container with a lid or obtain a “kitchen caddie” for storage of the food scraps in your kitchen. Line the container with a compostable bag; a paper bag can be used as a liner in a pinch. Then, fill up the container with food scraps! Bring the kitchen container to the collection cart as often as you like, and dump the collected materials in.

  • Any container with a lid can be used as your kitchen “caddie” or collection container. Compost kitchen caddies are made with a wide variety of materials and in a diversity of styles to meet your needs. The Windham Solid Waste Management District (WSWMD; windhamsolidwaste.org) sells a high quality container. Kitchen caddies can also be found at Brown and Roberts and other hardware stores or can be purchased on line. We will have a variety of kitchen caddies on display at the upcoming food scrap composting kick-off event on February 2; WSWMD will have free and $10 collection containers available at this event.

  • Starting on February 7, the collection cart will be located against the building at the end of the alley to the right of Shin La Restaurant. The cart is green and marked “food scraps.” This isn’t as convenient a location as we would like, but there are space constraints near our current recycling and trash collection containers. The cart has to be located out of the way, but still accessible for a small collection vehicle. The food scrap collection cart is being shared with three adjacent buildings in order to maximize the space we collectively have and to keep the cost of food scrap collection affordable; a second cart can be added if needed.

  • We ask that you contain your food scraps in a certified compostable bag; a paper bag may be used instead, if needed. This will help keep the collection cart and your kitchen collection container clean and keep odors to a minimum. PLASTIC IS NOT ALLOWED! Plastic will contaminate the compost. Please only use compostable bags, which are made from corn, sugar, and other agricultural residues and will fully decompose during the composting process.

  • Compostable bags can be purchased at the Brattleboro Food Coop, Brown and Roberts, Price Chopper, other supermarkets in town, and online.

  • The compostable bags may tear as you remove the bag from the collection container; paper bags will present the same issue. It’s best to leave the bag in your kitchen container and carry the container to the cart and dump the contents into the collection cart.

  • Composting converts organic waste into soil carbon, averting landfill methane emissions in the process. When food scraps, leaf and yard debris, and other organic material ends up in the landfill, it decomposes in the absence of oxygen and produces the greenhouse gas methane, which is up to 34 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over a century. While there is methane management at the Coventry, Vermont landfill, it’s far more effective to divert organic waste to composting. This is why landfilling organics is against the law in Vermont. The Vermont Legislature unanimously passed the Universal Recycling Law (Act 148), which bans disposal of recyclables and food scraps from Vermonters' trash bins in order to help mitigate climate change and to help conserve space in our state’s only landfill. Composting locally helps further reduce greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the distance that organic wastes are hauled.

    By recycling and composting correctly, we all contribute to keeping our building’s operational costs down and reducing our impact on the environment. Keeping our food scraps local also drives our local economy! Jobs are created for haulers and at Windham Solid Waste Management District, as well as at other compost facilities.

  • Compost is a valuable soil amendment that adds biological life, positively impacts soil chemistry, and enhances the physical structure – helping sandier soils retain more water and clayey soils infiltrate and drain better. The organic matter in compost improves soil nutrient-holding capacity, reducing fertilizer requirements for lawns, gardens, trees and shrubs. The improved structure and vegetation rates in healthy soil also reduces erosion, effectively helping hold our landscape in place.

  • It’s natural that food scraps may have a slight odor. Layering the food scraps with coffee and coffee filters, tea bags, and soiled napkins/paper towels will help reduce odors. Also, using the compostable bags in your kitchen “caddie” or container will help contain the odors. A paper bag or newspaper inserted in the compostable bag will also act as an odor barrier. Store your container under your kitchen sink if possible.

    Fruit flies are more prevalent in warmer weather. Because fruit flies lay their eggs on fruit, always wash and dry the outside of fruit prior to removing skins and trimming ends. If fruit is becoming overly ripened, fruit flies can pierce the skin of the fruit and lay their eggs inside, so it’s good practice to use up fruit prior to it becoming too ripened or place it in the refrigerator. Fruit flies do not like the smell of basil, peppermint, eucalyptus, lemongrass, lavender, and clove. Try putting these fragrant herbs in muslin sacks or tea bags and hanging them around your collection container or on the lid. A few drops of herbal tinctures on your collection container can also help deter fruit flies.

    Be sure to keep the inside and outside of your kitchen collection container clean to reduce odors and to remove any sticky surface on which fruit flies can lay eggs. A simple trap for fruit flies can be made by saturating a piece of white paper with apple cider vinegar and a few drops of dish soap; place the paper near or on your collection container.

    Another option is to store food scraps in the freezer until you take them out to the container.

  • Using compostable bags to store your food scraps in your kitchen container will help keep the cart cleaner and control odors. The cart will also be lined. After dumping your food scraps into the collection cart, please be sure that the cart lid is securely latched to help limit odors and prevent raccoons from opening the lid. If odors become an issue in the summer wood shavings can be spread on top of the food scraps to reduce odors and flies. If this does become an issue, we can consider having the cart collected twice weekly during the summer months.

  • The cost of the collection is being shared among the building and business owners who are sharing the food scrap collection service. Others have seen trash collection costs go down when food scraps and soiled paper products are no longer put in the trash collection carts. We will monitor this and may make adjustments to the frequency at which the trash carts are picked up, if they are consistently less full once everyone is participating in the food scrap collection program. By recycling and composting correctly, we all contribute to keeping our building’s operational costs down and reducing our impact on the environment.

  • Your Property Manager