Welcome to BioBag’s Community Heroes series! Each month, we will highlight community heroes that are making a difference in their communities and working to make their local environments cleaner and healthier.
This month, we are taking a look at Happy Trash Can Curbside Composting!
Happy Trash Can was founded by Ryan Green & Adrienne Huckabone in 2016 with a mission to support local soil health and close the local food system in Adrienne’s hometown of Bozeman, Montana. Ryan is the “composter in chief” of Happy Trash Can and brings experience in everything from sustainable agriculture and composting in rural Maine to high-density composting in New York City to help run the show, while Adrienne serves as the creative director, operations manager, and everything in between. You can learn more about them and their organization below.
What led you to start your composting operation?
Happy Trash Can: In 2013, Ryan was working with the NYC Compost Project hosted by the Lower East Side Ecology Center doing community composting. The work of the NYCCP inspired us to continue with composting and see if it would be feasible to try it in Adrienne’s hometown, Bozeman MT, where there was no comprehensive food waste composting happening. We launched Happy Trash Can in 2016 and have been growing ever since.
Who do you serve, and how can people get in touch with you if they want to start composting?
Happy Trash Can: We offer a curbside pickup service or a pay-what-you-can, drop-off service to residents in Bozeman, Belgrade, and Livingston, Montana. All our subscribers can get finished compost back! Anyone can sign up or get in touch through our website at www.happytrashcan.net.
In addition to the residential programs, we collect from commercial accounts in these communities. We also sell our finished compost back to local farmers and gardeners.
How much organic material do you typically take in on a weekly basis?
Happy Trash Can: We are estimating we take in about 20,000 pounds each week, & over 1 million pounds every year.
Please give us one fun fact about you or your business.
Happy Trash Can: Not only are we business partners, we are life partners, too! Married in 2017.
Feel free to add any additional information about your operation as you see fit.
Happy Trash Can: Since 2018, we have partnered with Sustainable Generations. We utilize their SG Mobile GORE Cover ASP systems that allow us to effectively and efficiently process the material we collect. We are currently working with Bozeman Solid Waste to process yard waste they collect and help expand their composting program.
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If you would like to be featured in a future edition of Community Heroes, please email us at marketing@biobagusa.com.
