Terms of service
Plain language, because you are agreeing to it at signup with one checkbox. Two things below are the ones that cost money, so they get their own callouts.
Have your buckets lidded and staged in the location on file when the Earth steward arrives on your scheduled collection day. If they are not out, the lids are off, or the Earth steward cannot get in, we charge a $75.00 surcharge for that day.
The first incident is always waived. Every incident is recorded with a photo and the Earth steward’s arrival and departure timestamps, and you can see all of it in your account.
This is the sequence for an account paying by card. An invoiced account is chased on its invoice instead, and we talk to you before anything changes about your service.
- On the day of your pickup, once the Earth steward records your stop, your card runs for the buckets collected.
- The next business day, if it declined, an automatic retry runs.
- If the retry declines, we call you. That pickup has been done and not paid for, and its amount is added to your next charge.
- We still come the next time. The Earth steward services your stop normally while we work the problem with you. Every account gets exactly one of these.
- If it is still unresolved after that pickup, service ends. At the next stop the Earth steward collects every bucket and leaves none. Any bucket not returned is billed at replacement cost.
Service
We collect organic waste from your business and haul it to our community compost site in South Brooklyn. You keep lidded 5-gallon buckets with compostable liners. On each collection day the Earth steward weighs every full bucket, takes it, and leaves the same number of clean ones.
When we come
You tell us which days of the week a swap is possible at your address, and we will not schedule you outside them. If we cannot cover the days you need, we will contact you rather than quietly putting you on a day that does not work.
Signing up does not book a date. We fit you into a run that suits both your days and the route, and email you your first collection date once it is booked. Your first visit is a delivery of clean buckets and is not charged. You can see your scheduled collections in your account at any time, and you can change your days, your cadence or your bucket count whenever you like.
What you are charged
There is no contract, no subscription and no monthly minimum. Every charge covers the buckets actually collected at the rates on the pricing page. Put out more than you planned and you pay for what we took; put out fewer and you pay for fewer, down to the minimum for your borough.
A readiness surcharge, where one applies, goes on that same charge with the photo and timestamps from the stop. If a stop could not be completed, nothing is charged for it, and anything it did produce rides on your next charge.
How you pay
You choose one of two, and you can switch at any time. Either way we keep a card on file, and either way it is never charged without your agreement: on a card account that agreement is the one you gave at signup, and on an invoiced account the card is security only.
- Charged after each swap. Your card runs on the day of each collection, once the stop is recorded. We email you an invoice marked paid straight afterwards.
- Invoiced. One invoice after every collection, due on receipt, payable by card or by electronic deposit; both are printed on the invoice. Your card is not run on a schedule. It stands as security against buckets that are not returned and invoices that go unpaid.
Every invoice we raise is kept on your account, whichever way you pay, and you can open or download any of them at any time.
Buckets
Buckets and lids remain our property and are on loan to you for the service. Nothing is charged at signup and no deposit is taken. When service ends we collect every bucket. Any bucket that is not returned, or that comes back damaged beyond use, is billed at $10.00.
Changing or skipping a pickup
Change your bucket count or skip a pickup until 5pm the day before. Put out an extra bucket after that and the Earth steward will still take it; you are charged for what was actually collected either way. Nothing is charged until a pickup is done, so a skip costs nothing and a changed count is simply what the Earth steward expects to find.
Contamination
Non-organic material in a bucket contaminates the whole load. The first two times we photograph it, collect it anyway, and email you what we found. Persistent contamination ends service.
Cadence
Weekly, bi-weekly or monthly, at any bucket count. Above about 4 buckets we will suggest bi-weekly rather than monthly, because four weeks of that much food in a bucket can attract pests, but the choice is yours. One-off collections for events are arranged separately and quoted on their own.
Ending service
There is no contract and no minimum term. Tell us when you want to stop and we will come and collect the buckets. Collections already performed are still payable, and any bucket not returned is billed as above.
Hauler identification
Hauler of record: Earth Stewards Enterprises LLC, a New York limited liability company. We collect source separated organic waste only, using a zero emissions vehicle.
Nothing on this site or in the reports we generate asserts regulatory compliance on your behalf. Your own obligations as a commercial waste generator are yours to meet.