Search Results for: bootstrap compost

Bootstrap Compost service worms its way into Wellesley

January 5, 2016 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

BOOTSTRAP COMPOST SERVICE, UPDATE:

We reported around this time last year that Bootstrap Compost service was trying to gain a foothold in Wellesley by getting a critical mass of customers signed up to make it worthwhile to do business here. With almost 20 customers ready to separate their kitchen fruit and vegetable kitchen scraps into a Bootstrap-provided bucket and pay $8 for weekly or $10 for biweekly pickup, the company starts here on Thursday.

Read more about how it all works…

In Wellesley, there are three options for getting rid of fruit and vegetable kitchen scraps: throwing them down the garbage disposal, tossing them into the trash, or mixing them in with your backyard compost heap. Of the three, the compost heap is the most environmentally friendly because the average household composting operation isn’t on a large enough scale to trap and give off methane, a potent greenhouse gas. But not everyone wants to compost in their backyards. Homeowners in town tend to feel that it’s messy or time-consuming, or that it might offend their abutting neighbors. That’s where Bootstrap Compost would like to come in and pick up your kitchen scraps on a regular basis.

Operating already in several Boston communities, Wellesley is the latest place where Bootstrap will provide a five-pound drum for you to fill with kitchen scraps (excluding meat), which you then leave at the end of your driveway. In exchange, you receive five pounds of rich compost three times a year for your garden. If you don’t need the compost, you can donate it to local farms, community gardens or school projects. The point is that your kitchen scraps are helping grow food rather than increasing landfill and greenhouse gases.

At our house, we have been committed back yard composters for many years, with a nifty double-chamber composting tumbler going behind the shed. In one chamber, I put my Spring/Summer kitchen scraps. In the other chamber, in go my Fall/ Winter scraps. Right now, while my Fall/Winter scraps are piling up, the Spring/Summer scraps are breaking down. Come next Spring, I’ll take out all that beautiful black gold from the Spring/Summer side of the tumbler and use it in my garden.

And all those scraps that I don’t put down my garbage disposal are scraps that aren’t flowing all the way to Boston. Wellesley is part of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) Wastewater System. The town’s wastewater is discharged into the MWRA’s collection sewers, which flow to the Deer Island Wastewater Treatment Facility, located on one of the Boston Harbor islands. From there, the wastewater is treated, and recycled solids are delivered to a sludge treatment facility in Quincy on the Fore River where it is heat treated into fertilizer.

That’s quite a road trip for carrot and potato peelings when really they don’t need to stray far from home at all.

<br />

Composting business digging for more Wellesley customers

January 5, 2017 by Bob Brown 1 Comment

Bootstrap Composter, Wellesley — One of Wellesley’s few and proud Bootstrap Compost customers. Photo credit: Frambes family.

Bootstrap Compost, which has been collecting food scraps from customers in Wellesley for about the past year, says it needs to add more than a dozen households by March to make doing business here sustainable.

Boostrap, which works with both residential and commercial customers in Boston and beyond, returns food scraps in the form of compost to customers who want the nutrient-rich organic matter for gardening (or customers can have the compost donated to farms, community gardens, etc.).

Bootstrap wrote to customers in late December: “As we look toward 2017, however, it’s become apparent that in order to make Wellesley a viable service area for Bootstrap — that is, one where we can make a little profit — we will need to add 15 new households by March. Indeed, here’s some tough love from Bootstrap: compared to other communities of Wellesley’s size, the rate of enrollment for composting voluntarily among residents in your town is … pretty darn low.”

Bootstrap is incentivizing customers to spread the word to potential customers in Wellesley in exchange for service freebies. The business is also trying to get the attention of the town’s Sustainable Energy Committee.

Here’s a look at Mrs. Swellesley’s personal backyard composting operation. Trigger warning for the icky-sensitive: pictures of worms included.

Wellesley Composting — Love my double-chamber composter. It lives discreetly behind my shed, and does such a good job tumbling my raw fruits and veggie scraps, along with some leaves and grass clippings, that there are never any noxious odors. I don’t put a lot of thought into proportions or how many times I spin the chamber per week. I just toss it all in and everything breaks down well enough and in good time.

Farmer’s market to spring up again in Wellesley

February 26, 2016 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

The Wellesley Farmers’ Market will return to its lovely location on the lawn of the Unitarian Church at 309 Washington St. for its 2016 season. Mark your calendar: opening day will be June 4th and the market will run through October 15th on Saturdays from 9am – 1pm.

Vendors, sponsors, and performers interested in applying should message the Farmers’ Market Facebook page.

The Farmers’ Market — which started small in 2012 and 2013 in the Whole Foods parking lot, then went on hiatus in 2014 — came roaring back in 2015 at the prettier and roomier location on the church grounds. The usual healthy stuff will be on hand this year: fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as meats, eggs and cheeses from local farms will be available, and food from speciality providers. Online ordering and flexible delivery options will be offered, too.

If you can’t wait until May, keep in mind that Natick has a market that runs indoors in the center of town during the winter at the Common St. Spiritual Center, 13 Common St.

Where to eat in Wellesley

Bootstrap Compost Service worms its way into Wellesley

Sustainable Wellesley

Wanted: new superintendent for Wellesley dump

January 7, 2016 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

Wellesley RDF's Gordon Martin — Wellesley RDF’s Gordon Martin

Wellesley Recycling and Disposal Facility Superintendent Gordon Martin has spent the past 37 years as the key figure in town responsible for maximizing dump revenues received, and minimizing dump costs incurred by the town through the disposal of solid waste and the sale of recycled materials and compost.

And have he and his team ever maximized revenues, to the tune of $619,000 in 2015 alone, all turned over to the general fund. That’s not chump change, but here’s the really big number — $11 million dollars over the past 15 years. That’s right, and it all began on Martin’s watch back in 1996, when voters said yes to funding that allowed the RDF to start baling operations. That decision put the power in the hands of the many, meaning in part that residents seriously stepped up efforts to separate recyclables from trash so that the town could then bale and store materials.

From there, Martin would sit in his lair and wait for the market to bear numbers like $105 per ton for cardboard and $75 per ton for newspaper. When he liked the price he could get for a particular material, he’d pounce, and exchange the cardboard he had squirreled away for the highest price a bidder in China or Mexico or elsewhere was willing to pay. It’s the old buy low, sell high strategy, and in this way, millions have been made.

Which begs the question, why don’t all towns do this? Martin cannot fathom it. He’s been invited to sanitation departments all over the state to talk about Wellesley’s recycling program, and inevitably, his gospel of separating materials for high sales and maximum positive environmental impact is dismissed as unworkable in other towns. Sometimes officials cite a lack of space. Other times they point to the sloth of their residents, who apparently would rather worship the false idol of single-stream recycling, even knowing that a full 22% of their recycling prayers go unanswered through waste when using such a system.

Now we will have to do without Martin and just be thankful that he can’t take those millions with him on his next adventure (real estate, he’s thinking). Martin’s tenure with the town ends next month, and Wellesley must scramble to find someone just like him. Here’s the job description:

Superintendent of Recycling and Disposal Facility
Town of Wellesley
Under the general guidance of the Director of Public Works, the Superintendent of the Recycling and Disposal Division and the Recycling and Disposal Facility (RDF) manages all aspects of the town of Wellesley’s solid waste disposal, reuse, recycling, composting and other services to the residents and businesses of the town. The Superintendent is responsible for maximizing the revenues received, and minimizing the costs incurred by the town through the disposal of solid waste and the sale of recycled materials and compost. The Superintendent ensures the division’s compliance with all applicable federal, state, local and departmental laws, regulations, policies and procedures. Minimum requirements include a bachelor’s degree in civil or environmental engineering, business administration or equivalent. Two years experience, five preferred, of solid waste management or equivalent. Two years of supervisory and budgeting experience. Knowledge of recyclable materials markets, Commonwealth of Massachusetts solid waste regulations and operation and maintenance of vehicles and equipment. Excellent oral and written communications skills are a must along with a valid state driver’s license. Hiring range is $71,350-$109,850, DOQ. To apply, submit a cover letter and resume to the Human Resources Department, 525 Washington St., Wellesley, MA 02482 or email as a Word document or PDF to [email protected] by Jan. 22.

That’s a big recycling bin to fill. If this job description had been in place when Martin sought the Superintendent title, he wouldn’t have stood a chance. Bachelor’s degree in engineering? Nope. How about business adminstration? Nope. Valid driver’s license? Probably. I didn’t ask.

Instead, Martin went to the school of common sense, work ethic, enthusiasm, and vision, and Wellesley and its general fund have been all the richer for it. Farewell, Gordon Martin, and thanks for all your years of helping us recycle, reuse, reduce, and repurpose and above all, for watching the market like a hawk.

Also of interest…

Bootstrap Compost service worms its way into Wellesley

Here’s why Wellesley RDF ended plastic bag recycling

Why Wellesley RDF is closed most Sundays

Unmistakable reference to Wellesley dump