Bennett Compost

Bennett Compost is a great business and I have been so happy with them. They pick up compost in a bucket the same evenings we put out our trash, so it’s easy to remember. They are very accommodating as well, and have picked up extra bags of compost (i.e. leaves, remnants of container gardening, etc) at no extra cost a few times as well. They even offer free compost to their customers in the spring/​summer, which is great if you have space to garden. They are reasonable and I filled up my bucket every week with no problem (think coffee grinds, fruit peels, veggie stalks, etc) – so glad these products were composted and not hauled to a landfill. I highly recommend them, especially to the first-​time composter since Tim, the owner, is very helpful with any questions you may have and very accessible.

We used this service for approximately two years before leaving Philadelphia and had an overall terrific experience. Paying only $ 15/​month, our compost was whisked away in the middle of the night once a week, reducing our weekly trash production to one bag, which due to the removal of organics, didn’t stink. We lined the bucket with paper bags from Trader Joe’s, which cut down on the accumulation of grossness in the bottom, as well as mitigated any smell. We kept the container in our kitchen and never had a problem with smell. Occasionally, we would have to wash it out ourselves, but I consider that a small price to pay. If we had a garden, we would have been eligible for compost in the spring, but since we don’t, we were happy enough to know that we were doing our small part to make the city less disgusting.

I love that there are composting options in this city. Any way to avoid waste is amazing and I’m grateful. I wanted to share a few logistical things though:
–The bucket does not have a seal so you have to snap it on very tight and then pry it open while making dinner. Our 5 gallon, orange, Home Depot bucket had a seal so we didn’t have to put it on as tight.
–Some people line their bucket with newspaper, paper bags or a compost bag but I don’t use paper products so I don’t have those. I also didn’t want to invest in the extra compost bags on top of the service.
–The bucket would be swarming with flies on my doorstep and reeking of the leftover, juicy compost material which I then would wash out, leaving the driveway smelly and flies everywhere.
So not to be the bad guy but I wanted to share the overall experience so maybe future improvement on this road to resourcefulness.
Check out these drop-​off sites on the neighborhood map:
There’s also:
and a store in center city that charges $ 7 for drop-​off in a compost bag.

I’ve had a wonderful experience with Bennett Compost. I hate disposing good compostable waste down my garbage disposal and I don’t have enough room in my tiny patio area to compost on my own. I love knowing that my food scraps go to people growing more food! I leave my bucket in the alley way to my apartment every Tuesday around 8pm and by 10pm it’s empty so I can either bring in the bucket that night or in the morning. It’s brilliant. You can start the service and it’s an auto-​pay monthly fee (using pay pal). However, you can pause service any time if you are traveling for the summer for example. The customer service is top-​notch. I love that this service exists in the city. Hopefully someday the city will have it’s own composting system but until then, Bennett is on top of it!

How could you give a guy trying to save the earth anything less than 5 stars. What a great guy, with a wonderful business. We have been using him for a few months now, and could not be happier.

We’ve been using Bennett Compost at our house for a few months now, and we’re absolutely loving it! Our yard is too small to host a compost bin, and our efforts to worm compost were a failure. It couldn’t be easier to compost in the city than this. Tim comes by once a week to collect our compostables, and, like magic, all our food waste is diverted from the landfill and transformed into healthy soil for a local garden.