Malden announces composting program

  Mayor Gary Christenson in partnership City Councillors Carey Macdonald and Amanda Linehan are excited to announce a curbside food waste collection and composting program option for Malden residents. Beginning on Saturday, April 15, residents will be able to sign up for curbside food waste recycling with Black Earth Compost. This is a paid subscription-based service through Black Earth Compost. To incentivize Malden residents to participate, they are offered a free recycling cart and 30 compostable cart liners, a $50 value, free of charge to the first 300 Malden residents to participate. After paying for your subscription, you will be given a voucher to pick up your free cart and bags.

  For those not familiar with curbside composting, the service being offered is a cart collection process. Malden residents who are already Black Earth Compost customers will also receive a benefit from this initiative. Existing customers will soon see their subscription service discounted as more Malden customers are added with this new initiative.

  Residents who choose to participate in compost pickups are helping Malden in its efforts toward sustainability. Recycling food scraps and other organic material to the soil to be reused is extremely helpful to the environment. With a subscription residents can compost much more than a backyard leaf pile. Things like meat, bones, napkins, cheese, seafood shells and more can all exit the waste stream and enter the garden. Another great benefit is that customers will receive a voucher for a bag of finished compost, redeemable at participating garden centers, or you can donate your portion to Backyard Growers.

  “This is yet another step in the right direction for the Green Malden initiative which has been guiding our city government in facing the countless challenges of climate change,” said Mayor Christenson. “Reducing what goes into our waste stream while creating compost is a win-win for our city.”

  “I’m so thrilled to be able to provide this long-awaited amenity to our city, as countless residents have shared with me their desire to see a low-cost, curbside compost collection service come to Malden,” said Ward 3 Councillor Amanda Linehan. “I know first-hand the role that household composting can play in reducing the amount of rubbish that enters our trash stream, and I look forward to seeing Malden grow more environmentally friendly while reducing food waste and saving taxpayer dollars.”

  “I’m excited Malden is joining other communities in our region to offer a compost option to our residents,” said Councillor-at-Large Carey McDonald. “It’s a great, local way to help make our homes more green, reduce our landfill waste, and do our part on climate action.”

  Black Earth Compost was founded in January 2011, in Gloucester, Mass. Originally a one man, one truck Cape Ann company, it has steadily grown to become the leading full-service compost company in New England. With over 30 trucks, it is dedicated to collecting food scraps from residents, schools, supermarkets, colleges and more, all across Eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island.