John Pitroff, owner of Second Chance Composting, composts for his personal garden. He said this is like a smaller-scale of what he does at Second Chance's 14-acre facility in Vermont.
ADAMS, Mass. — Second Chance Composting hopes to offer everyone in the Northern Berkshires and Southern Vermont the chance to properly dispose of food and organic waste.
Second Chance picks up food scraps and other organic matter and processes it into compost at its facility in Stamford, Vt. It provides service in Adams, Clarksburg, North Adams, Williamstown, Southern Vermont, and other parts of the Berkshires.
"We collect manure from different places, we collect sawdust, we collect woodchips, we collect leaves, we collect yard debris," said John Pitroff, a North Adams native and owner of Second Chance Composting. "We work with landscape companies, tree companies, some farms; like we've taken manure from people. We're willing to work with anybody."
Currently, Second Chance offers pickup bins to haul food scraps on a commercial scale for restaurants, schools, hotels, businesses and events. The organization also started a community composting program this year, which will work with local organizations in several communities to provide scrap drop-off locations for residents at a cost of $2.30 per week.
In Adams, Second Chance has partnered with the Old Stone Mill, which works on several waste-reducing and upcycling initiatives. In Williamstown, Pitroff is working with Wild Soul River.
"You come as much as you need to or as little as you need, you drop them off, and then you go about your day," he said.
While Second Chance had previously offered residential pickup, Pitroff said the composting program should be more convenient, involve less travel and gas use, and allow more people to get involved.
"We want to make it accessible financially and accessible as far as convenience, too," he said.
In addition to the composting, Pitroff said the service wants to do more community outreach and events to teach people about the business and composting in general. Last year, Second Chance worked with the North Adams Farmers Market.
"We offered a free drop-off spot for people every week. That was kind of our first thing in the community to let people know," he said. "We're big on community. We're trying to connect."
Second Chance also hosted a pumpkin-smashing event in North Adams last Halloween, which he said went well.
"It was fun for us, it was fun for the kids, the adults had fun. We got something out of it in terms of material, it was a community event," he said. "That's what we're about."
The town of Adams is hosting a ribbon cutting for the business at 3 p.m. on Monday as Pitroff and the business recently moved to Adams. Those interested in Second Chance Composting can learn more here.
