Composting Services in Asheville, NC

We often have customers ask about our compost bins and whether they are an actual composter. While they do not do the composting for you, they do serve as a useful and beautiful go-between for your scraps. Some people can compost in the backyard, and, if you're wondering how you can, you can read about a community member's backyard system here. However, today, I'm (Rhianna here) going to be talking about how you can still compost in Asheville without having to actually compost in your backyard (or lack thereof). 

The first option (and easiest) is to pay someone else to compost your organic waste. Two services have become pretty popular in the area, so you may have seen the signs and/or trucks around —  Compost Now & CompostAVL. 

Compost Now makes composting e-a-s-y for folks in Asheville, Black Mountain, and Swannanoa. As paid subscription services, they allow you to choose the frequency of pickups as well as the amount of buckets needed—available for offices and commercial food settings, too! It's as easy as signing up, getting your drop off/pickup day, and filling your bucket with food scraps and compostable materials. The bucket gets put in the designated drop off place and, next thing you know, you have a clean bucket for that week! Because they are operating a commercial facility, things you may not be able to compost in the backyard are allowed here. For example: compostable packaging, compostable to-go containers, paper towels, dairy, bones, the list goes on and on. You also receive a helpful magnet at your first drop off that lists all the things that can/cannot be composted. Like I said, they make it easy! You can also choose to receive your soil back or donate it to the community.

CompostAVL is an Asheville-based, family-owned business that offer virtually the same services. They do not offer weekly pickup/drop off. Rather, pickup/bin swaps happen twice a month.

The downsides to these two composting services is that not everyone wants to or can pay for it. However, that doesn't mean you are out of luck.

Asheville City offers FREE composting services for anyone in Buncombe County. You simply bring your compost to one of the designated drop off locations in Buncombe County. They have a registration form you should fill out before you do your first drop off as you must be a Buncombe County resident to participate in this program. Currently this program has 8 drop off sites throughout the county. They list all the locations on the city website (and it's growing!), and they include libraries (West and East), community centers, and landfills. 

So now that you know composting doesn't have to come with the smelly, time and space intensive process, we've got your countertop compost pails, filters, and liners (they make it really easy to bring to drop off points) for you! 

Know of any other community composting resources in Asheville? We'd love to hear about it and share the knowledge!