By Joe Bachman
Multimedia Editor

STEVENS POINT — The Rising Sand Organics composting program has exponentially grown after their first year.

Kelly Adlington and Susanna Baker gave a presentation to council members at Monday night’s city council meeting. They updated officials on the growth of the program and the overall success of composting within the city.

After one year, the customer base has grown from 10 to over 70, including seven local area businesses. They are picking up 80-90 buckets per week which equals up to 1,400 pounds of food waste and compostable items per week.

“We’ve seen a lot of success with it, and our customers are happy with the service.” said Adlington to city officials.

In addition, Adlington announced that Rising Sands will partner with two local elementary schools to compost their food waste. Roosevelt and P.J. Jacobs now join the growing list of those looking for a better, and more environmentally friendly way to dispose of food waste.

“Normally this waste is thrown out in the garbage that the city picked up and went to the landfill,” said Mayor Mike Wiza to council members. “First of all, it doesn’t belong in a landfill. Secondly, us, the taxpayers, were paying to dispose of that in a landfill. By diverting some of these organics to composting, we’re paying less at the landfill.”

A weekly compost pick up is only $11.50 per month, with an option for drop off at a free compost site. For more information, please visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/risingsandorganics/ or their website at http://risingsand.com. To inquire about a compost bucket directly, please email [email protected]