When a celebrity dies, many people write something about their first encounter with them or how their work influenced their lives. Ken Dunn was a legend in Chicago’s waste hauling and resource recovery world and an important character in the origin story of Collective Resource Compost Cooperative.

It’s that time of year, when our household waste production begins picking up speed. We can help recycle your leftover candy wrappers with Zero Waste Bags, and we can compost your pumpkins free-of-charge with your regular composting service. Check out a local pumpkin smash event near you!

We recently purchased two brand new electric vans for our compost pickups, and that prompted us to look at ways we could reduce our reliance on fossil fuels such as gasoline and natural gas by exploring clean energy options in our everyday lives. Here are a few for you to consider.

We love seeing so many of you at our Spring Finished Compost Giftback. We appreciate your enthusiasm for circularity, for using the compost you helped create in your own gardens. So, we’re curious to know how your garden is growing. Tell us about it!

On July 1st last year, we officially began operating as a co-op. We really appreciate all of the people who have stepped up and become owners since then. Now seems like a good time to list the owners who have joined us so far. But first, we want to, as succinctly as possible, explain how becoming an owner benefits the co-op, all of the employees, and all of the owners.

We’re celebrating our 14th birthday on June 16 and we have a gift for you! 10% off for new annual or quarterly subscriptions. $25 referral credit for current customers.*  More people composting would make us happier than carrot cake and way happier than balloons. When describing how the company came to be, our founder Erlene Howard likes to say the lightbulb went off. The lightbulb, in this case, being the idea that if composting were easy, more people would do it.

You may have already seen our announcement on social media, but here’s a little more info on our new collaboration with TerraCycle: Zero Waste Bags. It’s a service to help you recycle hard-to-recycle items from your doorstep, on your time frame. We are adding this service onto our other offerings. Why are we doing this? We see such a need for this in our community.

We’re offering free finished compost as a gift to our loyal customers and owners! Collective Resource Compost Cooperative customers can claim a gift of up to 10 gallons of finished compost. Collective Resource Compost Cooperative owners can claim a gift of up to 20 gallons.

At 87 owners, we are so close. We just love the idea of having a nice, round 100 by our annual meeting. But, we’d be just as happy to exceed that goal. If you buy even a quarter-share now, you can join us to celebrate at Robert Crown Community Center on Wednesday, March 13th, 7:00-8:30 pm.

Good news! The Village of Park Ridge has extended our franchise agreement for another two years—through April 2026. These franchise agreements really work. We know that composting, in general, is becoming more mainstream. But we also know that the communications that municipalities do on our behalf give you more confidence in our container-swap service and reach more people.

As the sun sets on 2023, we’re pausing to reflect on a few causes for celebration from this past year.

We’re usually all about reducing, reusing and recycling over here. Don’t worry, we haven’t changed our tune. In my own life, I’ve been thinking about how I can get more use out of what I have. I’m trying to be creative in how I apply the concept of maximizing.

Collective Resource Compost Cooperative. It has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? On July 1st, 2023, we became a hybrid co-op that includes three levels of ownership: Worker-Member, Consumer-Member and Supporter-Owner.