Curbside composting available in La Crosse within weeks

Curbside composting is the next sustainable practice coming to La Crosse. And sooner than one might think.

Just weeks after locals started brainstorming on how to collect food waste to compost, they’ve basically come up with plan.

Harter’s already collects yard waste every week from April through November for those who pay a little extra. Turns out, they’ll take food waste in the same bins, says Pam Hartwell, executive director at the Hillview Urban Agriculture Center in La Crosse.

“They’re totally fine with it containing food waste, as long as it’s really vegetative matter and not protein and not diary and that kind of thing that can really mess up a composting system,” Hartwell said, adding that during the winter, those looking to compost in the city after yard waste season ends will likely be able to take their waste to the city’s composting site on Isle la Plume.

The ability to take food waste to Harter’s skips the need for a special composting service, Chartwell added.

“We can actually, I think, utilize the service that already exists in our community and get curbside composting to work,” she said. “We’re sort of fine tuning the details with those organizations and then we’re going to put out a big educational push on it.”

All in all it can’t get much easier than that for Hartwell.

“This could be a really easy solution but could also screw it up really quickly if people put the wrong stuff in there,” she pointed out.

Hartwell says an education program starting soon will clue people in on what to compost. She says big stickers on the bins will also show what can get composted.