Insights, updates, and announcements

Greener Living Inspirations

Help us get to 100!
Mary Beth Schaye Mary Beth Schaye

Help us get to 100!

At 87 owners, we are so close. We just love the idea of having a nice, round 100 by our annual meeting. But, we’d be just as happy to exceed that goal. If you buy even a quarter-share now, you can join us to celebrate at Robert Crown Community Center on Wednesday, March 13th, 7:00-8:30 pm.

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Restaurant Raffle 2024: Win While Helping Local Businesses
Mary Beth Schaye Mary Beth Schaye

Restaurant Raffle 2024: Win While Helping Local Businesses

It’s our fourth year of holding a restaurant raffle to support our composting community. Winters are historically slower times for restaurants and cafés. We’re sponsoring a raffle where you can win a gift card from any of the food-related businesses listed below. The raffle begins now and runs through March 15th.

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Park Ridge Update: Franchise Agreement Extended
Mary Beth Schaye Mary Beth Schaye

Park Ridge Update: Franchise Agreement Extended

Good news! The Village of Park Ridge has extended our franchise agreement for another two years—through April 2026. These franchise agreements really work. We know that composting, in general, is becoming more mainstream. But we also know that the communications that municipalities do on our behalf give you more confidence in our container-swap service and reach more people.

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Here We Grow Again: Expanded Composting Options
Mary Beth Schaye Mary Beth Schaye

Here We Grow Again: Expanded Composting Options

We’re delighted to announce that beginning November 1st, we’ll be hauling all of your food scraps to The Green Era Campus. There is so much good news about this change, but let’s start with this: Anything that is certified compostable, whether it is CMA or BPI, is accepted at this facility. If compostable is written on it, we can collect it.

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Maximizing
Mary Beth Schaye Mary Beth Schaye

Maximizing

We’re usually all about reducing, reusing and recycling over here. Don’t worry, we haven’t changed our tune. In my own life, I’ve been thinking about how I can get more use out of what I have. I’m trying to be creative in how I apply the concept of maximizing.

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Why We Need You to Become an Owner
Mary Beth Schaye Mary Beth Schaye

Why We Need You to Become an Owner

We’ve adopted bylaws, elected officers and authorized the issuance of common stock. Now our work begins to explain to the community why Collective Resource Compost Cooperative needs more owners. The more consumer-owners there are, the better it is. The money you pay for your composting service helps mitigate climate change and supports a values-driven, democratic business model that addresses inequality, keeps wealth in the local economy and builds community around sustainability.

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Smoke Signals: Messages from the Future?
Climate Change Mary Beth Schaye Climate Change Mary Beth Schaye

Smoke Signals: Messages from the Future?

I think that here in Chicagoland, we feel like we’re protected from the worst effects of climate change. Though Lake Michigan sometimes feels like an ocean, it isn’t one and we’re not as vulnerable to sea level rise as cities like Miami and New York.

The smoke from the Canadian wildfires has been a wake-up call. It’s got me thinking about borders and how they’re man-made. We can draw lines on the land and even divide up the air space, but the air itself is not aware of these.

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Sourcing Compostable Disposable Products
Blog Mary Beth Schaye Blog Mary Beth Schaye

Sourcing Compostable Disposable Products

We highly encourage our zero-waste event customers to use reusable plates, cups, and utensils whenever possible. However, if you choose to purchase disposable products when using our services, we ask that you select compostable products. Following is a guide to help you find the compostable disposables that are right for your event.

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Blog, Composting Community Mary Beth Schaye Blog, Composting Community Mary Beth Schaye

Composting at Condo, Co-op and Apartment Buildings

Many of you originally learned about our service when we were out tabling somewhere, like an eco-fair or farmers market, so you know that one of the first questions we ask is, “What kind of building do you live in? Single-family home? Multi-unit building?” And without fail, the people who live in apartment or condo/co-op buildings answer in a really dejected tone as though there’s no hope for them to ever be able to compost. I’m here to tell you that there is hope, people! In fact, our founder Erlene Howard created this service because she lived in a condo building and wanted to be able to divert her food scraps.

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