We are South Lake Tahoe's official curbside, food waste collection service. We make it really easy for you to reduce food waste at home. We established a pilot program at the end of 2022 and throughout 2023 and 2024, we diverted over FOUR TONS of food waste from the landfill, with less than 1% of year-round households participating in our curbside pick-ups.

Why is this good?

Over 25% of the waste that ends up in landfills is food waste. It takes up space and doesn't break down properly, seeping harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Also, when you properly dispose of food, less of it ends up in your household trash which deters wildlife from feeding from our household trash.

How does it work? It's as easy as 1, 2, 3.

1. You sign up and we drop-off a composting kit at your doorstep which includes a countertop compost bin and then a FREE, 5-gallon bin that is provided by STR for STR customers.

2. We educate you on what you can put in your bins (all of your food waste, even meat bones and spoiled food, but food only can go in there!), and then you start saving the scraps at home.

3. When your countertop bin is full, you empty that into your 5-gallon bin until it is full and then we come pick it up and haul it away to STR's main food waste collection dumpsters.

What happens to the food scraps?

STR hauls the food waste down to South Carson to Full Circle Compost where our partners Cody Witt, and his dad, Farmer Craig, operate large scale composting piles and break the food waste down into soil and sell it back to large scale landscaping projects and they sell the organic stuff right here at Tahoe Sand and Gravel. When you participate with our program, this year we are offering a Spring soil give-back so you can sample the soil in your gardens!

Why donate?

This is a subscription-based program that is meant to be affordable. To keep it affordable, we need donations to expand. Every dollar helps, so thank you so much for donating! 🌱

Tahoe Composts