Grocers, supermarkets, and produce markets
Produce waste pickup for Houston grocery stores
Culls, trim, and unsold fruit and vegetables are the entire accepted list here. On most composting sites that reads as a restriction. In a produce department it is simply a description of the waste. Weekly sealed-drum pickup at $10 per barrel hauled, composted on farms in Harris, Fort Bend, and Montgomery County.
The problem is not that produce is waste. It is that it sits.
Culls go in a dumpster, the dumpster gets emptied on a schedule set by a hauler rather than by the produce, and by day four in a Houston summer everyone within thirty feet of the loading dock knows about it. That is the actual complaint most stores have, and it is a scheduling problem wearing a disposal problem's clothes.
Two things change it here. The container is a food-grade drum with a gasket-sealed lid instead of an open dumpster, and the exchange is weekly on a set route day instead of whenever the compactor fills. Nothing removes odor completely and staff habits still matter, but a sealed drum swapped on a schedule is a different object from an open dumpster in August.
Why it does not sit on the farm either
Carbon goes down before food arrives, not after. Clean wood chips from tree services are received and staged on the receiving farm ahead of any produce, so incoming material gets layered into a carbon bed the day it lands rather than waiting in a pile for the next delivery. Wood chips and manure can sit. Produce cannot, and the operation is sequenced around that.
That is also why the wood chip side of the business exists at all.
What goes in the drum
Every item below is still subject to one condition: it has to arrive separated from packaging. Depackaging on arrival is not a service offered here.
Accepted
- +Produce culls, trim, and overripe or unsold fruit and vegetables
- +Vegetative food material kept source-separated from packaging
- +Bulk dry goods such as flour, grain, and expired shelf-stable produce, depackaged
- +Clean wood chips and untreated woody material
- +Coffee grounds
Not accepted
- −Meat, bones, fish, and dead animal material
- −Dairy
- −Post-service plate scrapings and any back-of-house food waste
- −Pan grease, fryer grease and oil, including grease-trap waste
- −Paper (towels, napkins, filters)
- −Plastics, including "compostable" bioplastics
None of the items above are accepted, in any quantity. Deli, hot bar, and back-of-house kitchen waste stay on the store's existing disposal.
Fit
What makes a store a good fit
Volume matters less than condition. A small market with a clean cull bin is an easier account than a large store whose produce waste goes into the same compactor as everything else.
A produce department that already culls
If trim and culls already go into a lug or a cart before they reach the compactor, the hard part is done. The drum just replaces the last step.
Waste that is mostly plant, not plate
Overripe fruit, wilted greens, trimmed tops, and unsold produce are the whole accepted list. Deli, hot bar, and back-of-house kitchen waste stay on the existing disposal.
Somewhere outside to put a drum
Drums sit outside near the dumpster or another approved exterior spot, so exterior access matters more than store size does.
How a store account runs
- Free measured audit. 1 week of drums on site, weighed, so the barrel count comes from real material instead of an estimate.
- Drums placed outside. 55-gallon food-grade drums with gasket-sealed lids, positioned near the dumpster or another approved exterior spot.
- Weekly exchange. weekly drum exchange: full drums hauled and weighed, clean ones left.
- Monthly reporting. monthly measured diversion summary; modeled environmental estimates labeled separately
- Composted on a farm. Material is sheet-composted on partner farmland in the service area and the finished compost stays on that land.
$10 per barrel hauled, no contract. Route fit, exterior access, and material condition are confirmed by address before service starts.
Questions from store and produce managers
Do you pick up food waste from grocery stores in Houston?
Yes, for stores whose produce waste is kept separate from packaging. OnFarmCompost runs a weekly drum route across Harris, Fort Bend, and Montgomery County at $10 per barrel hauled. Culls, trim, and unsold fruit and vegetables are the accepted stream. Meat, bones, dairy, and post-service plate scrapings are not accepted, so a store's deli and hot-bar waste stays on its existing disposal.
Why only produce and not the whole back room?
Because the destination is a farm rather than a permitted facility. The material is sheet-composted on working farmland, and keeping the feedstock vegetative is what allows those farms to receive it without changing the landowner's regulatory footing. For a grocery that is a smaller distinction than it sounds, since culls and trim are the bulk of the produce department's waste to begin with.
What about the plastic wrap on everything?
It has to come off before the drum. Depackaging on arrival is not a service offered here, and a load carrying film, clamshells, or bags does not qualify. In practice this is the thing that decides whether a store is a fit, more than volume is. A produce department that already culls into a clean lug is most of the way there.
Does produce waste in a drum smell worse than a dumpster?
It should smell better, for two reasons. The drums are 55-gallon food-grade containers with gasket-sealed lids rather than an open dumpster, and they are exchanged on a weekly schedule rather than filled until collection day. Nothing removes odor completely, and drum condition and staff habits still matter.
What does it cost?
$10 per barrel hauled, with no contract. Every account starts with a free measured waste audit and a one-week trial, so the barrel count comes from weighed material rather than an estimate. Pricing is per barrel actually hauled, which means a slow week costs less rather than the same.
How much can you take?
Less than a landfill and more than a community garden. Receiving capacity is finite and is confirmed per address before service starts, along with exterior access, drum placement, and route day. A county name does not guarantee service, and a store that does not fit the route is told so rather than put on a waiting list.
What happens to the material?
It goes to partner farms in the service area and is sheet-composted on the land it will feed. The finished compost stays with the farm. There is no compost yard in the middle, nothing is bagged, and nothing is resold.
Do you take wood chips and other material too?
Yes, separately. Clean wood chips from tree services are received at partner farms as the carbon side of the same compost, and manure removal is quoted per job for stables and small livestock operations. Those are different arrangements from a store route.
Measure one week before deciding anything
The audit is free and it produces weights, not projections. If the numbers do not justify the service, that is a useful answer too.