It’s a dirty job, but an Albuquerque man is willing to do it, hoping to make the city a cleaner, greener place.
“I was kinda surprised Albuquerque didn’t already have a program like this,” said Brad Weikel, owner of Little Green Bucket (LGB).
Weikel got the idea for this convenient composting business from cities like Denver and Austin, which have programs similar to this.
“It just seemed like it was time for Albuquerque to get one,” said Weikel.
Every week, Weikel will drop off a little green bucket at his customer’s homes. They fill it with food scraps, and at the end of the week Weikel will pick up the full bucket and replace it with a new one.
Then, he takes it to Soilutions in the South Valley. There, the food is turned into soil.
“I was very excited to see this happening,” said Danie, one of LGB’s 10 pilot customers.
Right now, Weikel is only taking customers who live in the Sawmill area, but he hopes to expand soon.
“Based on what I’ve seen so far, there’s a lot of demand around the entire city,” said Weikel.
Weikel says most people’s biggest complaint about composting is the smell.
“Smell is often a concern that people have, especially if they are composting at their home,” said Weikel.
Weikel is taking care of that for his customers. Instead of people having decaying food transforming back to soil in their own backyard, Weikel picks it up just as it starts to smell, and takes it to Soilutions for the rest of the process.
He also lines the buckets with wood mulch, to mask the smell.
“It is there to provide a little bit of a happy smell,” said Weikel.
Right now, the service costs about $35 a month. In the future, Weikel plans to offer a bi-weekly option for $20 and a “neighborhood pick-up,” for multiple customers in the same area, for an even less expensive price.
For some customers, the price is well worth it.
“It’s going toward making more beautiful gardens and beautiful food,” Danie said, “Otherwise it’s wasteful just to be throwing half of your food away into the trash.”
For more information on the Little Green Bucket, click here.