Frequently asked questions

It’s simple!

• Sign up, and we’ll deliver a food-grade 5-gallon Scrappy Bucket right to your home.
• Fill it with your compostable food scraps.
• Every other week, our Scrappy Team will pick it up from your doorstep and swap it for a fresh, clean bucket.

We take care of the dirty work and turn your scraps into local compost instead of landfill waste.

Scrappy Soil currently provides doorstep pickup to homes within 3 driving miles of downtown Granville. Check your address here.

This is Phase One of our service. We’re starting small so we can build efficient pickup routes, reduce driving and emissions, and create a sustainable program that can grow with our community. As more neighbors join, so will our service area.

Live just outside the 3-driving-mile service area? Reach out! Depending on our routes, we may be able to make an exception.

Scrappy Soil is just $25 per month for every-other-week doorstep pickup. Your subscription is month-to-month, with no long-term commitment, and you can pause or cancel anytime.

Everything you need to get Scrappy! You’ll receive:

• A food-grade 5-gallon bucket with a gasket-sealed lid
• A handy lid-opening tool
• Doorstep pickup every other week
• A fresh, clean bucket at every pickup—no bucket scrubbing required
• The option to receive 25 lbs. of finished compost each year

And as a thank you for helping protect our planet, you can choose to receive 25 lbs. of finished compost each year, bringing your scraps full circle.

After you sign up, we’ll email you within 24 hours with everything you need to know, including when your Scrappy Bucket will be delivered and your every-other-week pickup schedule. Once your bucket arrives, you can start filling it up!

Because food scraps belong in the soil, not the landfill! Nearly one-quarter of everything sent to U.S. landfills is food. Trapped in a landfill, those scraps produce harmful methane gas instead of becoming healthy soil.

Composting gives that food a second life, returning valuable nutrients to the earth while keeping unnecessary waste out of the landfill. One little bucket may not look like much, but when an entire community gets Scrappy, it can make a huge difference.

Your Scrappy Bucket loves:

• Fruits and vegetables
• Grains, bread, pasta, and rice
• Eggshells and coffee grounds
• Nuts, seeds, and most plant-based food scraps
• Moldy, spoiled, cooked, and prepared foods—even if they were cooked with oil

When in doubt, check our approved composting list before tossing it in.

Please keep these out of your Scrappy Bucket:

• Meat and dairy
• Pet waste
• Compostable bags and liners
• Compostable paper products and coffee filters
• Produce stickers
• Anything else that isn’t on our approved list

Keeping the wrong stuff out is just as important as putting the right stuff in!

Meat and dairy can absolutely be composted in some commercial composting systems, but they require different processing conditions and can create odors and attract unwanted pests in smaller-scale composting systems. Our local composting process isn’t designed to handle them, so please keep them out of your Scrappy Bucket.

“Compostable” doesn’t always mean it will break down in every compost pile. Many compostable cups, plates, utensils, takeout containers, and other products require specific commercial composting conditions. Some can also contain coatings or chemicals we don’t want ending up in our finished soil. For now, we’re keeping things simple and sticking with the food scraps we know our composting process can handle.

Nope. Even bags labeled “compostable” or “biodegradable” can take special conditions to fully break down. Please put your food scraps directly into your Scrappy Bucket. The gasket-sealed lid helps keep everything contained, and we swap your bucket for a fresh, clean one every pickup.

Absolutely! Moldy banana? Forgotten leftovers? Strawberries that somehow went from perfect to fuzzy overnight? Toss ’em in. Spoiled food is still full of valuable organic material that can be given a second life as compost.

Yep! Cooked vegetables, pasta, rice, bread, grains, and other approved foods are welcome, even if they were prepared with cooking oil. Just remember that meat and dairy still need to stay out.

Coffee grounds? Yes, please! Paper coffee filters? Not yet. Dump your grounds directly into your Scrappy Bucket and put the filter in the trash.

Yes, please! Produce stickers don’t decompose, which means if they make it into your bucket, someone on our Scrappy Team eventually has to dig through the compost and pull them out by hand. The same goes for rubber bands, twist ties, packaging, and other non-compostable items. A few seconds in your bucket saves our team from having to find it later.

Nope! Toss them in as they are. There’s no need to chop, shred, or otherwise prepare your food scraps before adding them to your bucket. Your Scrappy Bucket and our compost pile aren’t picky.

After you sign up, we’ll coordinate with our route drivers based on your location and assign your every-other-week pickup day. We’ll email you your schedule before your first pickup so you’ll always know when the Scrappy Team is headed your way.

Right outside your door! Leave your Scrappy Bucket in an easy-to-see, easy-to-reach spot near your front door or usual entrance. No need to haul it to the curb. We come right to you.

Have your Scrappy Bucket outside by 6:00 AM on your scheduled pickup day. We recommend putting it out the night before so you can sleep in, get your beauty rest, and let the Scrappy Team handle the early-morning dirty work.

Nope! That’s part of the service. At each pickup, we take your full Scrappy Bucket and leave you with a fresh, clean one. We take care of the dirty work while you help take care of the planet.

Your food-grade Scrappy Bucket has a gasket-sealed lid designed to keep food scraps contained and curious critters out. Keeping the lid securely closed and following our approved composting list will help keep things clean and manageable between pickups.

First of all, look at you go—and thank you for being a super food recycler! If you regularly fill your bucket before pickup day, you can request a second Scrappy Bucket for an additional $10 per month. More scraps saved from the landfill is a good problem to have.

No worries. You can keep using your bucket until your next scheduled pickup, or reach out to our Scrappy Team to arrange a time to drop off your full bucket and pick up a fresh, clean one.

Absolutely. If you’re heading out of town or simply don’t need a pickup, just let us know ahead of time and we’ll skip your stop. Your regular pickup schedule will resume on your next scheduled date.

Occasionally, holidays or Mother Nature may require us to adjust our pickup schedule. If your scheduled pickup is affected, we’ll let you know about any changes and when to expect the Scrappy Team.

Things happen! If your Scrappy Bucket is lost or damaged beyond normal wear and tear, we can replace it for a one-time $7 replacement fee. Just reach out to our Scrappy Team, and we’ll get you a new one.

Absolutely! There are no long-term commitments with Scrappy Soil. You can pause or cancel your subscription anytime. Just reach out to our Scrappy Team, and we’ll take care of it.

Your $25 monthly service fee is automatically charged each month through our secure payment partner, Stripe. No invoices to remember or checks to send. Just keep filling your Scrappy Bucket, and we’ll take care of the rest.

Yes! Become a Neighborhood Pickup Location:

• If 5 or more neighbors drop their Scrappy Buckets at your home on pickup day, you’ll receive 50% off your monthly service.
• Get 10 or more neighbors dropping off at your home, and your service is free!

It helps us make our pickup routes more efficient while helping even more of your neighbors compost. Everybody wins.

Yep! If your household is extra Scrappy and regularly fills one bucket before pickup day, you can request a second Scrappy Bucket for an additional $10 per month. Thanks for being a super food recycler!

Easy! You can securely update your payment information through your online payment portal or give our Scrappy Team a call, and we’ll be happy to help.

This is where the magic happens! After we collect your Scrappy Bucket, your food scraps are transported to The Compost Farm in Alexandria, Ohio, where they’re combined with other organic materials and carefully managed as they break down into nutrient-rich compost. Instead of becoming waste, yesterday’s banana peels, apple cores, and leftovers get a second life as healthy soil.

We work with The Compost Farm in Alexandria, Ohio, keeping your food scraps close to home. We love knowing that the scraps collected from our community are being transformed into compost right here in Central Ohio.

Most food scraps can be transformed into finished compost in roughly 2–6 months. The exact timing depends on things like temperature, moisture, weather, and how the compost pile is managed. During that time, billions of tiny microorganisms get to work breaking down your scraps and transforming them into nutrient-rich compost ready to give back to the soil.

Yes! As a thank you for helping protect our planet, Scrappy Soil members can choose to receive 25 lbs. of finished compost each year, bringing their scraps full circle.

Need more for your garden? Contact our Scrappy Team at info@scrappysoil.com, and we can help coordinate the purchase of additional finished compost from The Compost Farm.

Food scraps don’t simply turn into compost when they’re buried in a landfill. Without enough oxygen, they break down and produce methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. In fact, food makes up about 24% of the material sent to U.S. landfills and is responsible for 58% of landfill methane emissions. Composting keeps those valuable nutrients out of the landfill and puts them back where they belong: in the soil.

Healthy soil made with compost can:

• Add organic matter and nutrients
• Hold more water during dry conditions
• Improve water absorption during heavy rains
• Support plant growth
• Reduce reliance on synthetic fertilizers

Spread the scraps!

• Tell your neighbors
• Share Scrappy Soil with friends
• Become a Neighborhood Pickup Location

The more households that participate, the more food scraps we can keep out of the landfill and turn back into healthy soil. This is one of those wonderfully simple things where lots of small actions can add up to something really big.