A stinky business model?
Mar. 8th, 2013 09:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wasabi_poptartThere's a new thing in town called http://compostcab.com/, which is basically a trash collection service for composting. They supply the bins (and ostensibly the worms), you fill it with your food scraps, and once a week they come pick it up right off your porch. No muss, no fuss ... all for the low price of $32 a month. And this is where it gets dodgy.
Yeah, I know trash collection and recycling ain't free. But I've been paying property tax for ten years, income tax for twenty-five years, and sales tax my whole life, so I figure I finance at least my share of those services ... I pay a water bill, which goes up every quarter even though my consumption remains minimal (honestly, the city uses its taxpayers like ATM machines) and a gas and electric bill, which we won't even get into ... I have no problems paying for these services because it's something I use. But! Compost is something else entirely. Compost is valuable. Compost makes the fruits and veggies and flowers grow. So while I would be very happy to give it away for free (or, even better, trade it for a share in a local CSA), I really take umbrage at the idea that someone would charge me to take away my compost, then turn around and sell it to farmers. They're totally double-dipping.
Apparently this service is already wildly popular in DC. Maybe people there don't realize they're being taken for a ride, or maybe they don't want to have to deal with the mess and the smell, or maybe there's no easy way to get it to a CSA on the Metro ... but this is Baltimore, where we have no public transportation, farmers markets every day of the week, and rats the size of small dogs. Besides, it looks like they offer a weekly drop-off service at the Dupont Circle farmer's market, but no indication of how much you might have to pay for that privilege.
What do you think? Is a weekly composting pick-up service something you would pay $32 for?
Yeah, I know trash collection and recycling ain't free. But I've been paying property tax for ten years, income tax for twenty-five years, and sales tax my whole life, so I figure I finance at least my share of those services ... I pay a water bill, which goes up every quarter even though my consumption remains minimal (honestly, the city uses its taxpayers like ATM machines) and a gas and electric bill, which we won't even get into ... I have no problems paying for these services because it's something I use. But! Compost is something else entirely. Compost is valuable. Compost makes the fruits and veggies and flowers grow. So while I would be very happy to give it away for free (or, even better, trade it for a share in a local CSA), I really take umbrage at the idea that someone would charge me to take away my compost, then turn around and sell it to farmers. They're totally double-dipping.
Apparently this service is already wildly popular in DC. Maybe people there don't realize they're being taken for a ride, or maybe they don't want to have to deal with the mess and the smell, or maybe there's no easy way to get it to a CSA on the Metro ... but this is Baltimore, where we have no public transportation, farmers markets every day of the week, and rats the size of small dogs. Besides, it looks like they offer a weekly drop-off service at the Dupont Circle farmer's market, but no indication of how much you might have to pay for that privilege.
What do you think? Is a weekly composting pick-up service something you would pay $32 for?
