Plate to Plant, a curbside community compost service sponsored by Imagine Grinnell, has announced a subscription drive running through the month of August for residents of the City of Grinnell. Subscribers may sign up for a six month or full year of weekly compost pick-ups. Sign up is live at signup.platetoplant.org and will close August 31, 2022 until the next subscription cycle opens in January.
Those new to the program will receive a yellow, five gallon bucket with an air-tight lid which they can fill with food scraps and compostables. Each Thursday, the Plate to Plant team will pick up the bucket filled with compost, leave behind a clean bucket and transport it to compost bins located by Marvin Garden, the Imagine Grinnell Giving Garden located on Marvin Avenue. Once the compost transitions into nutrient-rich soil, it is applied to Marvin Garden plant beds with the ultimate goal of delivering soil back to subscribers.
“The first two years of the program have been somewhat of a beta test and we are seeing excellent results with the soil we are producing,” says Bella Kugel, Plate to Plant Program Director. “And because the majority of our pickups are done by bicycle with a trailer, we are making a great environmental impact even in our small community.”
Founded in 2020, Plate to Plant has so far diverted the carbon equivalent of 35 cars, just by taking food scraps and compostables out of the trash and making soil. The compost subscription service costs about as much as a coffee each week and close to 1/3rd of trash bin contents can be put in the compost (anywhere from 5–20lbs every week).
To learn more or sign up, visit platetoplant.org or email Bella Kugel at contact@platetoplant.org with questions.
Imagine Grinnell is a partner program fund of the Claude W. and Dolly Ahrens Foundation, working to turn imagination into action since 1985.
