Lawrence residents and businesses will have a new curbside compost option through Compost Collective KC that accepts food scraps like meat, bones and dairy.
The group is also seeking a conditional use permit from the city to start composting at an existing regenerative farm near North Lawrence.
Compost Collective KC has had a farm hub and compost center in Kansas City since 2017. They already run bin swap spots in Lawrence at L.e.s.s., Great Blue Heron Outdoors, and Morning Fog Bakery & Cafe.
Folks can pay a one-time $10 fee for a bin, fill it up at their own pace, take it to a bin swap site and get a fresh one for $8.
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The collective will launch their Lawrence curbside service Tuesday, Nov. 3.
Basha Baran, the collective’s Lawrence development lead, said that composting options in Lawrence have been limited to household or individual efforts. The city runs a compost facility, but it only accepts yard waste like tree trimmings and leaves.
As an industrial compost facility, Compost Collective KC can be more ambitious about the materials they accept.
“We’re able to compost meat and bones and dairy products and uncoated paper products and all of those pesky little things that say they’re compostable and we all know they’re going to take six years to break down,” they said. “But we do take them.”
The collective accepts waste from withered and moldy flowers to tea bags to paper towels to anything that’s labeled as BPI compostable.
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“If it came from the ground, it can go back into the ground,” Baran said.
They can even take greasy pizza boxes, as long as folks don’t include more than a tablespoon of grease in the bin.
Baran recently moved to Lawrence and also took a job in the service industry. On a commercial scale, she said restaurants tend to create the most food waste.
They said they hope to see a compost bin complementing every dumpster in downtown Lawrence.
The compost collective currently services Burger Stand downtown and some KU housing. Baran hopes that by expanding commercially, it will inspire single households to compost, too.
“When you go into a cafe or a restaurant, and you see that there’s a different place to put your maybe plate scrapings, or even your napkins, or the little compostable straws, and those types of things — when there’s a place to put them that isn’t a trash can, it gets people’s gears turning,” she said.
The Kansas City operation supports 3,000 residents and more than 50 businesses and grocery stores. To date, they’ve diverted 60 million pounds of food waste from landfills and turned almost 10 million pounds into compost.
Baran calls it “black gold.”
“There’s a lot of farms around the Lawrence area that could benefit from having additional compost nearby,” she said. “Compost really helps decrease water usage. It helps decrease any cost of fertilizers. It increases crop yield.”
They said it also improves soil health and carbon sequestration.
“It’s like magic,” Baran said.
The owners of the collective have used the compost on their urban farm, Urbavore. Kansas City clients can then sign up to receive produce they helped grow with their own food scraps.
Baran said they hope to have a similar model in Lawrence.
The collective applied for a conditional use permit to create a compost facility on a family farm called Star Field Abbey just north of city limits at 1701 East 1500 Road. The collective would use a quarter to half an acre for their compost operation.
Baran said they would set up nine concrete bays, with fresh food scraps going in the first bay.
“We cover them with ground yard waste, wood chips, mix it all together, and then once that bay is full, we move it over to the second bay,” she said.
By bay nine, it’s finished compost.
In Kansas City, the collective works with local tree trimming companies to get wood chips. Baran said they plan to get ground yard waste from Lawrence Compost for their recipe.
“When you make that recipe of the food waste to wood chips to ground yard waste, it mitigates pests and odors,” she said. “And it keeps it going in its compost cycle without being some big stinking mess.”
If their plans go through the city and the county, all of Lawrence’s food scraps would stay in Lawrence.
Baran stands by the environmental adage of “small changes make big impacts” when it comes to compost. Every bit of food that goes into a landfill creates methane and leachate, a contaminated liquid that can often be toxic. Saving one banana peel or one eggshell means that much less impact.
“It makes a dent, and the more you think about your waste and where your waste is going, the more conscious you are of how much waste you create and what kind of waste you create,” they said.
She also encouraged people and especially restaurants to save and rescue food before they need to compost it. She said the collective sees a large volume of paper towels, too, and suggested that folks use washable and reusable towels.
Do you have the composting bug?
The collective is hosting two pumpkin drives in Lawrence for folks to compost their jack-o’-lanterns and seasonal gourds for free. Find out more at this link.
Compost Collective KC will go before the city’s planning commission on Monday, Nov. 16, to seek the conditional use permit for the compost facility.
Households and businesses can already sign up for the curbside compost program on the collective’s website at this link.
Service starts at $20 per month for pickup every other week and $30 per month for weekly pickup. It costs $10 to purchase a bin if folks don’t already have one from the bin swap program.
Commercial groups can get quotes by reaching out to [email protected].
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Wulfe Wulfemeyer (they/them), reporter and news editor, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2025. They can be reached at [email protected].
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