Budding food scrap pickup services across the US want your coffee grounds and eggshells

DETROIT (AP) — Every Monday, Ricky Blanding drives his Ford Ranger pickup truck around Detroit along a carefully planned route. It's especially important for those who can't compost at home, who live in cities without municipal curbside pickup or who can't get to a drop-off location.Composting leftover coffee grounds, eggshells, carrot tops and more reduces the amount of food that goes into dumps where it produces the potent greenhouse gas methane. It also ultimately helps create healthy soil for gardeners and urban farmers.Experts say companies like Scrap Soils are an important part of cleaning up the broader food ecosystem.

Emily Cassidy, research associate at climate solutions nonprofit Project Drawdown, said composting offers the dual benefits of reducing landfill methane emissions and, once the composting process is complete, returning nutrients to soil.“Because methane has such a big impact on the climate in a short amount of time, the more we can reduce methane, it is like pulling the emergency brake on climate change,” Cassidy said.Beyond mitigating climate change, composting can also improve local food production, she said.“That’s a way that we can see that we’re benefiting the environment, because we’re taking food and then replenishing the ground with those nutrients,” she said.Detroit homes and restaurants use the serviceBlanding, a 34-year-old native Detroiter, co-launched Scrap Soils in 2020 to play a local part in solving a statewide food waste problem that mirrors what's happening around the globe. Food waste is a huge source of methane in Michigan landfills, estimates say, and accounts for millions of metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions in the state.In Detroit, more than 70 homes and businesses are signed up for Scrap Soils’ weekly pickups. It's an easier way to compost than making space in one's backyard or driving to a city drop-off site.

Home pickups start at $15 per month, while businesses pay $60 per month or more, depending on volume.One of those commercial…