EB13

06/01/2026

Happy June! This month marks the beginning of our weekly (4x/month) pick up schedule. With the garden season underway, fresh produce is abundant, and food scraps will require more frequent collection. We will see you on Wednesdays!

05/13/2026

Awesome!

It was a morning celebration at Manz Elementary School on Friday. Students were awarded for their efforts after a large composting fundraiser.

05/04/2026

1st Wednesday is this week and compost-filled are ready! 🪣

Use this compost as top dressing and watch those plants grow! 🪴 🌿 🌻

04/29/2026

My slimy friends are back!

04/29/2026

You have the power to encourage Earth's natural decomposing processes to create one of the keys to a thriving yard. Get the most out of your compost by refining your skills during Composting: The Next Batch. The Next Batch focuses on the finer points of composting and on keeping the nutrients from your yard in your yard. Join us and take the next step with your composting efforts!

You have the power to encourage Earth's natural decomposing processes to create one of the keys to a thriving yard. Get the most out of your compost by refining your skills during Composting: The Next Batch. The Next Batch focuses on the finer points of composting and on keeping the nutrients from your yard in your yard. Join us and take the next step with your composting efforts!

Register at go.illinois.edu/jsw or call our office at (815) 986-4357.

04/28/2026

Join us in celebrating Earth Month with 30 days of simple Sustainable Actions

04/24/2026

Most farms create waste.

This one was designed not to.

In the early 1900s, agricultural scientist Sir Albert Howard was trying to solve a problem that still exists today:
How to stop soils losing their fertility.

His answer was surprisingly simple. It wasn’t about adding more fertiliser alone. It was about stopping the loss of nutrients in the first place.

Howard developed what became known as the Indore Method - a system that treated the farm as a living cycle rather than a production line.

Crops were grown in healthy soil.
Crop residues weren’t thrown away - they were collected.
Animal - and even human - manure wasn’t waste. It was a resource.
Organic waste was composted carefully, turned for air, and transformed into humus. That humus went straight back to the soil. And the cycle began again.

In theory, nothing was wasted.
Every leaf, every stalk, every bit of manure had a role to play. Fertility wasn’t meant to be imported - it was grown on the farm itself.

In reality, it wasn’t a completely closed loop. Food leaves the farm - and when it does, it takes nutrients with it.

Howard saw this as part of a larger problem. In fact, he argued that the system was only truly complete if human waste was also returned to the soil.

Food would be grown…
Eaten…
And then, eventually, returned to the land as compost.

A fully closed loop.

That’s the part most modern systems ignore. We export food from farms. But we don’t return the nutrients.

And over time, the soil pays the price.

So is it really a “farm with no waste”?

Not quite.

But it’s a powerful idea:

What if waste isn’t something to manage… but something we’ve simply designed into the system?

The Indore Method doesn’t just show us how to compost.

It asks a bigger question:

What would our world look like if organic waste was never treated as waste in the first place?

04/19/2026

04/16/2026

1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month is residential pick up day. Thankful the rain took a little break while on the route. Still, the pants got a little wet.