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Thursday, October 29, 2026Oct 29

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Chattanooga ends curbside compost program for residents

Staff file photo / A bucket of composting food waste is pictured at NewTerra's composting site in Wildwood, Ga. The city of Chattanooga is ending a pilot program with NewTerra for curbside compost pickup.
Staff file photo / A bucket of composting food waste is pictured at NewTerra's composting site in Wildwood, Ga. The city of Chattanooga is ending a pilot program with NewTerra for curbside compost pickup. Staff file photo / A bucket of composting food waste is pictured at NewTerra's composting site in Wildwood, Ga. The city of Chattanooga is ending a pilot program with NewTerra for curbside compost pickup.

Chattanooga’s foray into curbside composting pickup has officially ended.

The city-funded pilot program began in September, offering composting pickup services through a private company. Households in a few specific neighborhoods could sign up and have a composting curbside bin delivered to them. Then the company, Georgia-based NewTerra Composting, would pick up their food leavings every week.

That program wrapped up Tuesday.

But another part of the curbside pilot will extend for at least a year. The city will continue to fund a partnership with Overlooked Materials, which provides glass recycling pickup in the same neighborhoods that were able to sign up for composting pickup, mostly in Brainerd and Belvoir. City officials have said the program could be expanded citywide.

The decision to phase out the composting half of the pilot was based on the cost, said Jerramy Wood, who leads the city’s Public Works Department.