Question 1

Is composting cheaper than trash for a Rapid City business?

Accepted Answer

It depends on what's in your dumpster today. If food scraps are 30%+ of your trash by weight (typical for restaurants, grocery, and hotels), pulling organics usually lets you downsize the dumpster or drop a weekly pickup — and that downsize often offsets the compost subscription. We model it during the walkthrough using your current hauler bill.

Question 2

Do I cancel my trash hauler when I start composting?

Accepted Answer

No. Composting is additive — you still need landfill service for plastics, glass, metal, and PPE. But because food waste is so heavy, you can usually downsize the dumpster, drop a weekly trash pickup, or both. The compost subscription replaces weight, not the trash service itself.

Question 3

Is composting just a feel-good move, or does it actually help with code compliance?

Accepted Answer

It directly helps. Rapid City Municipal Code 8.16.010 treats uncontained food, oil, grease, and odor-producing organics as a citable nuisance. A sealed compost bin swapped on a schedule is one of the cleanest ways to keep those materials out of your dumpster and off the pavement — exactly the conditions the ordinance targets.

Question 4

What about 'compostable' plastic cups and PLA containers?

Accepted Answer

Those don't break down at our facility, so they belong in the trash — not the compost bin. The compost vs. trash decision is about the food, paper, and natural fiber that actually breaks down in a regional composting environment.

Factor	Trash only	With composting
Per-pickup cost	Charged by container size and lift count, plus overweight fees.	Flat per-bin cadence pricing. No overweight fees on the compost line.
Dumpster weight	Food scraps are the heaviest material in a commercial dumpster.	Pulling organics typically lets you downsize the dumpster or drop a pickup.
Odor at the loading dock	Bacterial breakdown in a hot bin = the smell your neighbors complain about.	Sealed, lined bins swapped on schedule — odor stays low between pickups.
Pests (rats, flies, raccoons)	Open or overflowing dumpsters are a pest magnet.	Sealed totes break the food-access pattern pests rely on.
Rapid City code (RCMC 8.16.010)	Uncontained food, grease, and odors are citable nuisances.	Scheduled removal is the cleanest path to staying out of a 7-day abatement clock.
Audit & ESG paperwork	No diversion data — trash is trash.	Weight ticket every pickup. Signed diversion letters on request.
Where it ends up	Rapid City landfill. Buried under plastic, generates methane for decades.	Regional composting partner. Returns to local farms and gardens as soil.
Climate impact	Landfilled food waste releases methane — ~25x more warming than CO₂.	Aerobic composting avoids most of that methane and builds soil carbon.

Compost vs. trash — what actually changes.

The questions Rapid City operators ask before switching.

Ready to compost what you can't sell?