Local Compost Company Turns Food Scraps Into A Cycle Of Sustainability

BOSTON (CBS) -- The mission is simple, compost, grow, eat and repeat. A local company is providing an at-your-door composting service to help the community produce zero waste.

"Food scrap recycling is something that we have to do," stated Andrew Brousseau, compost manager of Black Earth Compost.

Black Earth Compost is a local company from Gloucester that has a green solution for the overwhelming trash problem in Massachusetts.

"Massachusetts recognized there is a large problem looming, there are no new landfills opening, no new incinerators opening and so in 2014 they but a ban on food scraps going to those facilities," said Brousseau.

With that ban in place, the curbside composting is taking off and simple to do.

"I love it. It puts food scraps back to work, " said Andy Peterson, a Groton resident and customer.

Customers like Peterson, fill a bin with compostable items, put it on the curb and a Black Earth Compost truck picks it up each week.

"It couldn't be easier, what I particularly like about it is that our throw-away landfall trash is probably one-half to two-thirds depending on the week of what we use to throw away. So between recycling and composting, we're only throwing stuff away that can't go anywhere else," Peterson said.

Food waste is collected from homes to commercial companies across eastern Massachusetts and brought to a regional facility. A new facility is being constructed in Groton and will soon be able to process food scraps from the table and turn it into compost to help you grow food.

"So this is the process as we have now, the initial stages where the raw yard waste, you can see the brown yard waste bags, that process will be inside the building for the initial stages, then it comes out here for curing, and then over here, after 6 months, they are screened through our screener, it's ready for plants, to grow," Brousseau explained. "We provide the compost, the soil, the raised bed, and the plants."

It's a full circle in sustainability, as customers get a bag of compost in return from their weekly scraps. If used in the garden, people can make a small step in fighting climate change.

"Greens for example have a higher carbon footprint because of the refrigeration and short shelf life at the grocery store so growing them at home is a big, positive impact on your carbon footprint," Brousseau said.

Founder and CEO Connor Miller said that climate change is just one of the bigger problems Black Earth Compost is trying to fix.

"Compost is a nice carbon sink, it stores carbon long term in the soil, and it also through growing plants it pulls CO2 out of the air, so it has a net negative impact on the emissions. It's just the simplest thing people can do right now to have an impact," Miller told WBZ.

To learn more about local pick up in your neighborhood and the cost and benefits of composting visit Black Earth's website.