University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
IN-25: Innovation B

In partnership with UW-SP Waste Management Students, the City of Stevens Point, Whitefeather Organics, & Central Rivers Farmshed, the RSO team will cruise around Stevens Point beginning May 2018 picking up 5 gallon buckets of food waste that participating households and businesses leave at their curb. The concept initiated from student groups in the 2017-18 Solid Waste Management II courses, part of the Waste Management program of UW-Stevens Point. They began working with the City of Stevens Point and Recycling Connections Corporation to create a composting and organics diversion program for the city. http://www.risingsand.com/community-curbside-compost/ Full buckets are swapped out for a squeaky clean empty one so that you can throw that sucker right back under your sink and fill it up for the next time we swing by. Each bucket will be fitted with a screw-top “gamma” lid that will seal in any odors and allow for easy handling and cleaning. Rising Sand Organics and Whitefeather Organics are organic farms in Custer WI. Rising Sand will conduct the curbside pickup in Stevens Point. Whitefeather Organics will compost the food waste on their farm. Finished compost will be used for organic vegetable production on both farms. To get started, a Go Fund Me campaign solicited donations to purchase appropriate lids for buckets and a bucket washing system to provide a clean and consistent experience. Each bucket was fitted with a screw-top "gamma" lid that will seal in any odors and allow for easy handling and cleaning. The campaign surpassed its goal and included generous donation from the City of Stevens Point. https://www.gofundme.com/stevens-point-curbside-compost Stevens Point residents can sign up for weekly or every-other-week pickup with rates started at $11.50/month. Restaurants and other businesses can sign up for weekly pickup for $21/month. https://www.uwsp.edu/wist/Pages/MCS%20Instructors.aspx Kelly Adlington graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point in May 2018 with a degree in waste management. While in school she was highly involved in Students for Sustainability, worked for WIST in the Compostability Testing Laboratory, served as the project manager for the Residence Hall Composting Program, and fostered an interest in compost and diversion of organic wastes. Kelly also started working for Recycling Connections during college, a local nonprofit that works administratively in the solid waste and recycling world (you may know her from the waste conference, WIRMC) and also focuses on home composting. Kelly is fortunate to have been included in conversations over the last couple years about organics diversion in the city of Stevens Point. Most recently, this conversation has turned into action and a curbside compost pick up program is slated for commencement late May 2018. Kelly is a co-owner of a new business in the area, Rising Sand Organics Cooperative Farm, which has facilitated development of a plan for curbside pickup. The program is dependent on collaboration with important community entities such as Central Rivers Farmshed, Whitefeather Organics, and the city of Stevens Point. Thanks to these new partnerships, Stevens Point residents will now be offered a curbside compost pickup service with rates starting at $11.50 a month. Kelly is a beginning farmer at Rising Sand Organics, and also hosts a radio show on 90fm (WWSP Stevens Point) called The Tuning Fork that brings news and entertainment regarding community and sustainability to central Wisconsin every other Thursday at 6 p.m.. She is humbled to share her experience starting a curbside pickup program with Midwest Compost School attendees.