Here in Maine, we're blessed to have a wealth of natural attractions from the coast to the end of the Appalachian trail. We can all be more efficient, sustainable, and conscious of our footprint. Here are a few ways you can improve your neighborhood, reduce your impact on the environment and help contribute to improving our community in an ecologically conscious manner.

Your Trash Can Be Your Treasure

Composting can be a great way to bring life back into soil - utilizing food scraps, recycled paper products free of parabens or plastics, and even some forms of animal waste. There's a number of free online resources that we've found helpful from YouTube Videos or other, but there are also a number of locally owned companies you can connect with who will pick up those stinky peelings for you!

Garbage-To-Garden curently offers pickup services for around $8.99/mth and $99.00/year - see their website for more info

We Compost It! is another great locally-owned business which has been serving homes and businesses alike for years. Their home location is in Auburn, Maine - but they provide similar composting services to most of Southern Maine. They also offer curbside Residential Composting and Pickup for around $8.99/mth. See their website for more info

Mr. Fox Composting is a Maine and New Hampshire based composting service, also specializing in curbside pickup for residential and commercial facilities. Their website is intuitive, and shows their serviceable areas somewhere from Wells-to-Kittery, Maine and from Portsmouth-to-Dover, New Hampshire. Feel free to contact their company for more information.

Cultivate The Community You Hope For

Last but surely not least, we wanted to showcase a company we've been a part of in the past, and still today, either through our own volunteer efforts, or with our employees having managed multiple community gardens, and grow-local initiatives. Cultivating Community is a fantastic organization which supports local gardening communities, immigrants, and they also support local school initiatives among many other activities. Whether you're young or old, you can reach out to them and find a way to volunteer, engage with all types of Mainers, buy their veggies & products through a "farm-share," or other. You can find more ways to get involved, donate, or volunteer here at their website.