Green Ellsworth is partnering with Chickadee Compost and the Ellsworth School District Food Services Program to offer a pilot food scrap collection service for Ellsworth residents. Starting immediately residents along Surry Road, Main Street, Oak Street, Christian Ridge Road, Route 1 (from Christian Ridge to Surry Rd) of Ellsworth can sign up for weekly curbside food scrap pickups starting in October. 

The first 50 households to sign up will receive a free 4-gallon lidded compost bucket. 

Additionally, residents inside or outside this service area may sign up for depositing their food scraps at a drop-off shed at Fogtown Brewery (25 Pine Street), and at further drop-off locations to be rolled out as the pilot project unfolds.  

Chickadee Compost will also be rolling out phased compost collection at all three Ellsworth Schools.

All types of food, including meat, shellfish, and dairy can be composted. Households participating in curbside pickup will put their lidded buckets out curbside each Wednesday morning by 9 am, and their buckets will be dumped into bins during the day. To keep buckets clean, we encourage use of a paper bag or newspaper as a liner for the bucket. 

The cost of the curbside service is $20 per month per household, or $235 if paid annually. Free buckets will be distributed to households September 24th, with weekly pickups commencing on October 1st.  The cost for drop-off collection at Fogtown Brewing is $15 per month per household.

Anyone who signs up after the first 50 will have the option of buying a Chickadee Compost 4 gallon bucket for $12, or they are welcome to use their own from home, as long as it has a tightly fitted lid. 

All households participating in either the curbside pick up or Fogtown drop-off locations will have the option of receiving a free 5-gallon bag of finished compost each spring and fall. 

Chickadee Compost is a community composting company based in Surry. They currently serve 170 households on the Blue Hill peninsula and on MDI, and provide food scrap collection services for local restaurants, schools, Blue Hill hospital, Fogtown Brewing, Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry, and other local food related businesses and organizations. Since 2022, they have composted 1.5 million pounds of food scraps in our region, and sold hundreds of yards of high quality compost for local farms and gardens throughout Hancock County. 

Green Ellsworth’s Waste Management Action Team is organizing this pilot in conjunction with its broader mandate to reduce both the amount of waste produced within our city and the expense associated with waste disposal.  Our goal is to shift the 40% of our waste which is composed of food scraps and organics out of our waste stream (and out of trucking long distance to landfills or incineration) to the more productive creation of compost by a local business.  The goal is to transform what was previously “trash” into healthy soil and locally grown food. See the Wasted Food Scale diagram below to learn how you can help reduce the environmental impact of wasted food.

Click here to sign-up for curbside or drop-off food scrap collection..