Free Compost on St. Paul's East Side Available Every Spring!

Erik Altmann

Erik Altmann

— 1 min read
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Free Compost on St. Paul's East Side Available Every Spring!

If you live in St. Paul, there’s a yard waste site on the East Side that I visit every year around April. It’s tucked away off Phalen Blvd. & Earl St, the Frank and Sims Yard Waste Collection Site (1150 Sims Ave, St. Paul, MN 55106) offers FREE compost for residents! Yes, that’s right, FREE COMPOST.

Now here’s the catch: you gotta bring your own supplies.

So this year, I put the back row down in our SUV, grabbed a dozen+ containers and a shovel, lined the back with some old bed sheets to catch any extra dirt, and paid it a visit Monday afternoon.A couple of items of note:

  1. It can be EXTREMELY busy on the weekends. If you can sneak over there on a weekday (note that this location is closed on Tuesdays) you might avoid a long line and big crowds.
  2. There’s a finite amount of compost! You snooze, you lose. So get there early in the season and grab what you need.
  3. You may need to sift through the compost a bit to ensure random one-offs (paper scraps, plastic, etc.) don’t make their way into the compost you're bringing home.

There are several other locations throughout Ramsey County that offer free compost for pickup. You can see a complete list on the county website.

I’ve never visited any of the other sites, so if you have, drop me a line and let me know what your experience was like!  

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