New name, same dependable service
You may be aware that our founder Erlene Howard has been planning to retire at the end of 2025. We’ve been working on this transition for months and finally have news to share. We believe this solution is the best option for serving our customers and supporting our employees.
We’re so grateful to all of the people in our composting community: those who’ve just discovered us, those first few customers and all of you in-between. We’re particularly grateful to those who stepped up and became owners of our co-op. We’ve enjoyed the opportunity the co-op structure provided in strengthening our community through sustainability. We thought it would be the vehicle that would smooth her transition into retirement.
We hit an unexpected bump in the road. Finding a suitable replacement to take on her many tasks proved difficult and the best solution we found for supporting our mission is to merge with The Urban Canopy. Our relationship with The Urban Canopy and its founder Alex Poltorak has been one based on cooperation and collegiality, not competition. He began the company in 2011, with a vision of creating a sustainable and equitable food system. Over the past 14 years, Urban Canopy has grown a similar container-swap composting service, which they call Compost Club. Like us, they participate in many farmers markets, but they also operate an outdoor farm on the south side of Chicago with a community supported agriculture (CSA) local food box delivered to homes. We feel that both the customers and employees will be in good hands with this local, independent company.
The merger officially happened on November 1st. We’re taking the month of November to more fully plan and integrate staff, so nothing will immediately change in your service. This transition will happen in phases in December and January, please look out for communications with more specific details in the weeks to come.
Your service will continue without interruption, but we’ll be switching to a new software platform. This may change the day of the week that your service occurs. There will be improvements in the member portal as you’ll have access to a centralized place to see any billing information, initiate customer service communication, see past and future collection data and dates, shop for available products to add on to your container-swap service, and much more.
We hope to minimize any issues you may experience during this transition, but please feel welcome to contact us if you have any concerns or questions at customerservice@collectiveresourcecompost.coop. We greatly appreciate your support and we’re excited about the opportunities this merger will bring to our community.
We’ll be adding to this list of FAQs as the questions begin rolling in.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Will my service be interrupted?
A: No. You may get an extra pickup, at no charge, as we blend our schedules. Information about any changes will be sent in advance, as well as service reminder texts and/or emails.
Q: Will the prices change?
A: Prices remain the same in our franchise communities of Skokie and Park Ridge until those contracts end. We started a new agreement in Evanston on November 1st. New pricing will take effect when the customers are moved to the new software system. Prices in Evanston will have a flat monthly rate of $30 for weekly service, $23 for biweekly service, and $20 for monthly service. Prices in other communities will have a flat monthly rate of $40 for weekly service, $30 for biweekly service, and $20 for monthly service.
Q: Will the pickup frequency choices change?
A: Weekly and biweekly will stay the same. The pickups done every 4 weeks will now be done once a month.
Q: Will the list of acceptable items for composting change?
A: No. We’re hauling to the same commercial composting facilities.
Q: Should I sign up with The Urban Canopy/Compost Club right now?
A: No. When The Urban Canopy/Compost Club is ready for the payments to come through their system they will send you an email inviting you to your new member portal.
Q: Should I still email customerservice@collectiveresourcecompost.coop with customer service concerns?
A: Yes. You should continue to use that email address until we contact you with a new one.
Q: What will happen if I have a recurring payment?
A: It depends on which payment method you’re using. If you’re paying with a credit card through our website, your unique Stripe ID can be easily transferred. If you’re using Zelle or ACH, you may need to switch to paying with a credit card through Stripe.
Q: Will my annual or quarterly payments transition over?
A: Yes. Any pre-payments will be integrated into the new software platform. You will automatically continue to receive service through the date you’ve already paid through.
Q: Will my driver change?
A: Yes, probably, but all of CRCC’s current drivers will continue driving for The Urban Canopy’s Compost Club.
Q: Will the buckets/totes look different?
A: Yes. When the two companies have fully integrated, we’ll be using bright yellow 5-gallon buckets and 35-gallon totes with Urban Canopy branding.
Q: Will you continue to offer TerraCycle Zero Waste Bags?
A: Yes. If that will change, we will let you know.
Q: Will Winter Gap service still be happening?
A: Yes. Everyone signing up for Winter Gap this year will still receive service as usual.
Q: Will you still provide event composting?
A: Yes. The process is similar. You’ll fill out an intake form that gives us the details to provide you with a quote.
Q: Will you still provide finished compost in the Spring?
A: We will still provide finished compost. The way we give back compost to our community may look different than the Spring event we’ve done in the past, but the program will continue in some capacity.
