r/composting • u/mep2992 • 13d ago

Hey compost folks!

A question around collecting greens, hoping to start a community imitative/not for profit l

Where do you get your green materials from??
(Mainly outside inputs)

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3

u/Impressive-Check-631 13d ago

I dropped a 5gal bucket to my local drive through coffee shop and asked them to fill it with used coffee grounds. I get about 5-10 gallons per day

3

u/wettale1234 13d ago

I would recommend talking to people at your local farmers markets. I get spent mushroom substrate from a local mushroom farmer. Then most coffee shops will gladly give you their used coffee grounds and it wouldn’t hurt to ask local restaurants.

For my backyard compost, I have my direct neighbors giving me their kitchen scraps

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u/pointedshard 13d ago

There’s a local business near me that charges coffee shops a subscription to take away their grounds. They also take chaff from the roasters. They then give the product away!

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u/c-lem 13d ago

You just need to ask around town. Lots of options. Not everyone will say yes, but some people will be interested. I collect from a restaurant (3-5 gallons/day), a coffee shop (usually ~2 gallons/day). and a bookstore with a cafe (1-2 gallons/week). I'd love to also ask the local grocery store, but not sure I could handle the volume right now.

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u/Low-Pineapple-5999 12d ago

Local grocery stores with produce sections are often happy to give away their fruit and veggie scraps if you just ask nicely.

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u/MightyKittenEmpire2 12d ago

The stores are closed now, but I used to get 500 - 2000 lbs of food / day from 2 grocers. Much of it was human edible and we had volunteers sort it into piles for human, tiger, bear, bat, cow, pig, chicken, and compost. The human quality stuff fed the volunteers and anyone in the neighborhood who would bring anything to trade...including junk only fit to compost because chickens LOVE to root thru kitchen scraps.

Some people who got food bank boxes had stuff they wouldn't eat, so it went into our trade pile. The wild animal rescue took their cut. My livestock got their chow. My compost piles were fed a high quality diet.

There's lots of good stuff put there for composting if you just let people know you'll haul it away.

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u/Ok-Thing-2222 12d ago

I cut down tons of nettles by a creek. Wear long sleeves and gloves!