Crossroads Composting Update

Effective November 6, 2023, Crossroads will be closing its Door County Compost Initiative food scrap compost site. Crossroads will continue to support the Door Community Compost Initiative project, through continuing to offer Door Community Compost Initiative buckets for sale and continue to compost its own materials as needed.

This decision came after evaluating the 2023 summer food scrap collection effort. The summer effort highlighted several key factors which resulted in the decision to close the site: proximity to the City of Sturgeon Bay’s industrial compost site for yard waste, proximity to another Door Community Compost Initiative food scrap drop off site, and Crossroads land management goals. Crossroads will still compost its own material to continue nutrient cycling on its preserves, highlighting the importance of diverting food scraps and yard waste from entering the waste stream and building soil health. 

“Composting is a critical tool to help limit the amount of material entering landfills and build soil health. The goals of the Door County Compost Initiative are incredibly important,” said Samantha Koyen, executive director of Crossroads at Big Creek. “However, Crossroads receives federal, state, and private grants all aiming to restore and sustain the health of Crossroads properties. The best way to do that is to control the source of biomass entering our preserves. Using this lens of ecological goals, we made the difficult decision of removing Crossroads as a public food scrap drop off site.”

Restoration Focused

“Land restoration is a key component of Crossroads,” said Nick Lutzke, lands and facilities manager at Crossroads. “When evaluating our efforts with this program, we realized we were not the greatest fit. We will continue to compost materials generated on the preserves and hope to highlight how important composting is.”

Crossroads continues to robustly support the greater Door Community Compost Initiative goals and practices. The closest Door Community Compost Initiative food scrap drop off site is the 57 Farm Store. For other lawn debris such as grass clippings, garden materials, leaves and brush, residents can use the City of Sturgeon Bay’s compost site. For more information about these initiatives please visit:  

City of Sturgeon Bay Compost:
https://www.sturgeonbaywi.org/departments/public_works/index.php

Climate Change Coalition of Door County’s Door Community Compost Initiative: https://www.climatechangedoorcounty.com/door-community-compost-initiative