Most people don’t give much thought to their garbage; once an item has been thrown out, it’s immediately forgotten. Since it’s a mindless task, many individuals don’t realize that our trash actually wields great environmental influence. Around 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted globally every year, excess that composes around eight to ten percent of greenhouse gas emissions around the world. While living in “The Last Best Place,” it’s easy to take Bozeman’s expansive skies, stunning hiking trails, and fresh air for granted. Locals and tourists alike love the area for its natural cleanliness, but it’s important to remember that it won’t stay that way forever without our help. With greenhouse gas emissions on the rise, our frostily fun winters are threatened, wildlife suffers, and Montana changes in ways we can’t fix. Although the crisis of climate change can feel out of our hands, everyday citizens can play a large role in reducing the amount of waste harming our Earth in small ways, one of which is composting. A local business, Happy Trash Can is especially dedicated to the cause, with a mission to make composting household waste an easy, community-building experience.   

Founded by husband-and-wife duo Adrienne Huckabone and Ryan Green in 2016, Happy Trash Can collects household, business, and event compostables to be processed and given to local farms, gardens, and other subscribers. Adrienne is a Bozeman native dedicated to preserving the magnificent valley she grew up in. The operations manager and company creative, we have her to thank for bringing Happy Trash Can’s services to the area. Her husband Ryan fills the role of Lead Composter, and has extensive experience working in sustainability in Maine and New York City. Passionate about the environmental impact of compost both locally and worldwide, Adrienne and Ryan started the company with hopes of creating a symbiotic relationship between composters and the farming community, an idea that has become synonymous with Bozeman’s sustainability practices.

In promoting composting, Happy Trash Can aims to cut down on the production of methane, a highly destructive greenhouse gas that can be eighty-five percent more harmful than carbon dioxide. Organic matter in landfills is one of the biggest culprits in methane output, a statistic that Adrienne and Ryan are combatting daily through their hard work. The process begins with participants’ compostable materials being picked up and brought to a location where they can be processed. There, Happy Trash Can sorts through the provided materials and ‘turns’ them (a process that mixes compost ingredients and redistributes dense material). Finally, the finished product is tested to ensure its quality for the farms and subscribers it will be given to. After nearly ten years in business, the group has the operation down to a science. 

Happy Trash Can’s ultimate goal is to promote a closed loop agricultural system throughout the area. Crucial for sustainable farming, closed loop agriculture refers to the procedure of recycling all organic matter back into the farm it came from, encouraging healthy carbon and nutrient levels in the soil. Many farms today rely on unnatural fertilizers produced via fossil fuel energy before their products are eventually disposed of in an environmentally detrimental manner. While the ability to support high production is cited as a positive of these modern customs, eco-friendly and economic ideals can coexist; something Happy Trash Can helps prove every day. The team gives finished compost back to many influential local farms such as Strike, Chance, and Koroko, in an effort to spread sustainability to as many operations as possible. Reporting that their contributions of compostable materials have doubled each year since their founding, the company is now hauling about fifteen-thousand pounds of compost every week. 

A large part of involving individual community members in Happy Trash Can’s mission is education; as sustainability becomes a prevalent social discussion, corporate greenwashing becomes a dangerously common phenomenon. Greenwashing is a deceptive marketing strategy that aims to convince consumers that a company’s practices and products are eco-conscious, while said company continues to engage in operations that exert negative impacts on the environment. This advertising spin helps to promote profits and a favorable public image while preying on a well-intentioned audience. Some famous examples of this misleading strategy include Coca-Cola coming under fire for touting their progress in overcoming packaging waste while being the top plastic polluter worldwide, and Volkswagen admitting to falsely promoting their vehicles as low-emission when, in fact, they were emitting around forty times the allowable nitrogen oxide pollutants. Happy Trash Can constantly notices the immense impact of greenwashing as they sift through contributed materials, discovering items that are marketed as compostable but are actually riddled with microplastics. In response, the company asks patrons to check to see whether or not their objects are BPI Certified compostable, and encourages understanding of the widespread nature of greenwashing throughout the corporate world. 

The best part about Happy Trash Can is how simple it is to get involved; for only fifteen dollars a month, the company will provide a five-gallon bucket to be picked up bi-weekly from residences or businesses, before giving completed compost back to subscribers throughout the spring and fall seasons. These services are available throughout Bozeman, Belgrade, and Livingston, along with select areas in an “extended zone” (Springhill, Hyalite Foothills, etc.) for twenty dollars a month. They also offer the option to participate in a drop-off only subscription on a flexible pricing basis. Compostables can be dropped off at locations like the Bozeman Co-op, Root Cellar Foods in Belgrade, and more. Additionally, Happy Trash Can loves to receive material from businesses and kitchens, and  provides compost bins for events of any size.

To learn more about how you can become a subscriber, head to www.happytrashcan.net. Here, you’ll find information about the company and what kinds of materials they accept. You can even buy finished compost. Help Happy Trash Can keep “The Last Best Place” the best by doing your part to support the closed loop agriculture that keeps Montana soil thriving and beautiful.