The Community Compost Program is an initiative offered by Waste Loop in partnership with Winton Mfg. Compost works. With this program, you can drop off household food waste at three organic waste drop-off locations. Winton’s new commercial composting facility at Cole's Corner will turn your food and yard waste into local, high-quality, nutritious compost that will be resold within the community.
To become a member, begin by taking our Compost Questionnaire. This is an educational tool to help you understand how this program works, and get you excited to begin! Don’t worry, there are no wrong answers. You will also enter your contact and payment information for the monthly subscription. A complimentary 5-gallon bucket is included in part of your membership to help you start composting!
Now for the fun part! Consult our list of approved compostable items on what you can and cannot add to your bucket. Be sure to share this with each household member so that you can help one another to keep contaminants out of the bucket.
Find a new home to store your compost bucket. Under the sink, in a closet, or in a garage are great locations as long as it is kept cool and out of direct sunlight. Keeping the lid secure will help keep odors in, and pets and other pests out! Washing your bucket often with soap and warm water and letting it air out will help keep odors to a minimum.
Take your bucket to one of our drop-off locations. Its contents will be taken up to Winton Mfg. Compost Works to be composted.
Now that you have successfully diverted your food waste from the landfill, it is ready to get turned into compost! Take your filled bucket to one of our Drop Off Locations and imagine all of the plants that will benefit from the compost generated from your home food waste. We recommend washing your bucket after emptying to minimize odors.
Sage Mountain Natural Foods
Mon-Sat 8 am-8 pm
Sun 11am-8pm
Leavenworth Farmer's Market
Thursdays 4 pm-7 pm
Leavenworth Recycling Center
Wed. 4:30-6:30
Sat. 11 am-3 pm
More locations to come, so stay tuned!
Save your dollars by diverting food waste that would otherwise go to the landfill, and giving it the opportunity to be recycled into a new resource - compost!
By choosing to participate in this program you are supporting Winton Mfg. Compost Works and Waste Loop. Your locally spent dollars help grow the community and ‘close the loop’ closer to home.
Your trash that is not compostable and still destined for the landfill will be less smelly. No more dripping trash filled with moldy food means the chore of taking the trash out won’t be as gross!
Methane Gas is a greenhouse gas that is released into the atmosphere when food decomposes in a landfill. This is because it isn’t given the proper environment and attention to turn it into a safe decomposed soil amendment. Methane Gas is 80 times more potent than Carbon Dioxide, making it a lead contributor to climate change according to the EPA.
This is where the real magic begins! Winton will collect the food waste from the Drop Off Locations and haul it up to their site up in Cole’s Corner. From there, they will form piles that will heat up and provide excellent habitat for microbes to break down pathogens and convert it into safe, nutrient-dense compost. Their state-of-the-art composting system tracks and monitors the piles during every step of the decomposition process to ensure the highest quality product. When the pile is fully broken down, it is available for you and your neighbors to use in any project you need! Your vegetables, perennials, ornamentals, and houseplants among other plant friends will thank you!
We understand that it might be difficult to commit at this time, so here are some ways that you can still do your part, do the work yourself, and have fun learning about this process! Here is a great article to learn more about how to begin composting and how it can help combat climate change.
Learn more about how composting combats climate change and helps our planet by visiting this helpful article from the US Composting Council!
Ready to sign up? Start by taking our Compost Questionnaire!
Winton Mfg. Compost Works is a state-of-the-art commercial composting facility located in Leavenworth, WA. Winton is equipped to accept yard waste, food waste and agricultural byproducts from our community in order to transform it into high-quality compost. Through computer-monitored technology and advanced membrane covers on active compost piles, Winton efficiently manages the natural process of decomposition. Their hard work pays off with a nutrient-dense compost product that is an essential component of healthy soil and, in turn, healthy plants.
Waste Loop is proud to partner with Winton Mfg. Compost Works to bring this composting service to our community. A big thank you to the team at Winton for partnering with us in this initiative!