Putting the cycle in recycling

As Rose Nelson pedaled her green bicycle with hand-painted orange-leaves through the Barber neighborhood last week, she was stopped by a young couple walking their dog.

Nelson is certainly a curious sight. Twice a week, she hauls six blue tubs in a trailer by bike. A large decoupage sign faces the people she passes: “Drop in the Bucket bicycle powered compost service.”

She explained to the couple that her bins are filled with kitchen scraps from her clients: veggies, fruits eggshells, coffee grounds and paper. She travels through Chico neighborhoods, using Bidwell Park as a main thoroughfare, gathering food waste from tubs off people’s porches. Then, she takes the compostable material to her residence, where she manually turns compost piles.

Nelson just launched her business in May, with the help of the Butte County Business Incubator Program, and so far has a budding 20-client base. She’s working on setting up partnerships to donate material (scraps or soil) to local school and community gardens.

On a clipboard, she keeps close track of the pounds she hauls each week: 100 to 300 between all of her clients. Composting—adding organic material to the soil to help plants grow—keeps materials out of landfills, where they take up space and release methane, a greenhouse gas. That’s hundreds of pounds of nutrients going back into the soil and into the bodies of her community members, Nelson said.

In fact, each person in the U.S. generates about 4.4 pounds of waste per day, and only about 34 percent (1.5 pounds) ends up recycled or composted, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s latest figures.

“People get bogged down because there’s so much happening in the environment and the world and they feel powerless to help it,” Nelson said. “Every small thing you can do can make a difference.”

Nelson’s background makes this venture a perfect fit. She grew up in Durham on a small farm with horses and chickens, and raised pigs and sheep for 4-H.

Being of modest means, her family chose to spend their vacations outdoors: driving an hour or so up into the foothills and camping under the stars. Nelson, 31, developed a love and respect for nature, which grew into a life-long study. Over the past decade, she’s earned her environmental studies degree from UC Santa Cruz, served as an interpretive ranger for multiple state parks in the redwoods and worked as an outdoor educator for at-risk youth at Mono Lake.

Shortly before returning to the North State in December, she embarked on a bicycle tour of the south island of New Zealand.

“I just kind of realized I didn’t want to stop biking,” she said. “Let’s keep it going!”

So Nelson did a bike-along with a college friend who has a successful cycle-powered compost business in Santa Cruz, with 400 clients and three part-time employees. She taught Nelson all the dos and don’ts, then Nelson brought the biz to Chico.

Bicycle composting services have become popular throughout the country. Nelson’s friend modeled her business after Compost Pedallers in Austin, Texas, which has gathered almost 500 customers and composted more than 250,000 pounds since December 2012.

The process is really simple for a lot of these businesses. With Nelson’s service, which costs $5 per week, every client receives a 5-gallon bucket with a lid. She empties it, cleans it and lines it with a new compostable paper bag every week—picking up the scraps on her bike between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on collection day.

Monica Smith, a client who lives near Bidwell Park, told the CN&R that she was always interested in composting but didn’t have her own space for it or a use for the soil it would generate.

The process is simple, affordable and makes her feel good because she is part of a bigger-picture effort to make more environmentally conscious choices that help the community. She’s also enjoyed the opportunity to teach her children about composting, “that we all are a part of the cycle of the earth and we can do our part in the littlest way.”

“You really get to see how much scraps and waste you have and how many vegetables maybe rotted in your fridge,” she added. “You’re taking notice of your own personal waste.”

Nelson said that while she is passionate about her job because of her love for the environment and her concerns surrounding climate change, the people are what make it so special.

“This is the highlight of my week,” she said. “Everyone invites me in and catches up. … It’s checking in, it’s getting to know these people who’d otherwise be complete strangers, building community.

“Hopefully this will inspire people to take small steps in their own life to make the environment better.”