Where does the turkey carcass go on Friday morning? Bones, meat scraps and dairy are what most backyard compost systems turn away. Now the town has a curbside food-scrap program with Black Earth Compost, and Thanksgiving on November 26 will be the first big holiday meal since it opened.
Signups opened September 10, 2026, when the town announced the partnership. Households choose weekly or every-other-week collection and pay monthly or six months at a time. The holiday is a good practical test. The program also has an unusual way of setting its price, which makes the number of households that join matter to everyone already in it.
What the Bin Takes That a Backyard Pile Won't
Andover News reported that the curbside program accepts meat, bones, dairy, soiled paper products and certified compostable packaging, along with other food scraps. Most backyard systems turn those items away. Black Earth's itemized compost guide goes further, listing seafood, shells, lobster shells and eggshells as accepted. It also takes cooking oil and grease from residential customers, with its own handling instructions for grease and liquids.
Applied to a Thanksgiving kitchen, that covers most of what's left after the meal:
- The carcass, once the stock pot is done with it
- Plate scrapings, including stuffing, gravy and the creamed onions
- Shells from a raw bar or an oyster stuffing
- Food-soiled napkins and paper towels
- Certified compostable plates and cutlery, if the table was set with them
The guide accepts food-soiled napkins, paper towels and certified compostable tableware. Everything collected goes to one of Black Earth's composting facilities in Groton or Manchester-by-the-Sea and becomes finished compost for farms and gardens.
The Short List That Gets a Bin Left Full
The rules are generous, but they're strict on a few points. Black Earth's pickup FAQ says plastic bags contaminate the bin, and a contaminated bin won't be emptied. The guide also excludes:
- Plastic packaging of any kind, including shopping, garbage and produce bags
- Milk and juice cartons
- Produce stickers
- Takeout containers that aren't certified compostable
- Pizza boxes without BPI certification
- Shredded paper
- "Biodegradable" or "compostable" products without a certification
- Dog and cat waste and cat litter
On a holiday, the produce sticker and the takeout container are the easiest ones to miss. So is the clear produce bag the green beans came home in.
The bin needs a liner, but it doesn't have to be one of Black Earth's. If you buy your own, the FAQ requires a BPI, TUV or CMA certification logo printed directly on each bag. It names BioBag, EcoSafe, Repurpose and UNNI as brands to look for and says they can often be found at Crosby's, Target and Whole Foods. Doubled brown paper bags also work as a liner when the temperature is above freezing, which is worth checking against the forecast on a late-November morning. The FAQ also points out that "biodegradable" bags are not the same as certified compostable bags.
Thanksgiving Week, Day by Day
Each subscriber gets a designated collection day, so a household's Thanksgiving schedule depends on which day that is. Black Earth's FAQ lists Thanksgiving Day among six holidays with a one-day delay for most of its towns, Andover included. The delay applies to customers whose collection day falls anywhere from the holiday through that Saturday. Here's how that works out for the week of November 23, 2026:
- Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday pickup. No change. A Wednesday bin goes out before anything is roasted, so the carcass waits a full week, or two on the every-other-week plan.
- Thursday pickup. Moves to Friday, November 27. That's the best-timed slot of the week, since the bin goes out the morning after the meal.
- Friday pickup. Moves to Saturday, November 28.
- Saturday pickup. Also shifts one day under the same rule.
The FAQ also says that on holidays outside its list of six, bins go out on the regular day even if town trash and recycling collection is delayed. The town trash schedule and the compost schedule run on separate rules.
The standard bin holds 13 gallons, which is fine for an ordinary week but may not hold a meal for twenty. For heavier weeks, Black Earth offers a second-bin service plan, plus yard waste stickers for occasional overflow. The FAQ suggests putting out a stickered yard waste bag with the bin and says this "works great for parties with lots of soiled paper products."
What the Subscription Costs, and Why the Price Can Move
These are the published rates as of the September 10 announcement:
| Plan | Monthly billing | Six-month prepay | Prepay per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly | $21.99 | $119.99 | about $20.00 |
| Every other week | $17.99 | $94.99 | about $15.83 |
The gap between the two plans tells you more than the totals do. Prepaying for six months, weekly service costs $25 more than every-other-week service and roughly doubles the number of pickups. Over about 26 weeks, that works out to around $4.60 per pickup on the weekly plan and about $7.30 per pickup on the every-other-week plan. For a household that fills its bin every week, weekly service is the cheaper way to pay per pickup. A smaller household that fills half a bin in two weeks has the opposite math.
The rates can also change, and this is the part of the program built around neighbors. Patch reported that once Andover reaches a high enough number of subscribers, the price drops for participating households at their next renewal, and that the town said pricing will keep decreasing as participation grows. In effect, it's a group purchase run town-wide. Each household that signs up moves everyone's next six-month bill closer to a lower rate.
That's why the early numbers matter. The town is giving free starter kits to the first 300 households that enroll. Each kit has a 13-gallon curbside bin and a supply of certified compostable liners, delivered to the home. As of November 3, more than 100 households had signed up, according to Melissa Eusden, Andover's director of sustainability and energy. Subscribers also get an online account for managing service, reporting missed pickups and buying more liners. Each spring they receive a voucher for a free one-cubic-foot bag of compost, redeemable at participating stores.
The Pumpkin Smash Was Part of the Same Push
The town's first Pumpkin Smash was held on November 3 in the Recreation Park parking lot at 147 Abbot Street. Black Earth collected the smashed pumpkins for composting, and Andover News reported that the town partnered with the company for both the event and the new residential program. Participants were asked to remove candles, glitter and paint first. Those are the same contamination rules the curbside bin follows.
"This kind of program has been requested by the community for many years," Eusden said in a statement reported by Andover News when signups opened. The program materials say food waste makes up 40% of household trash and that waste overall accounts for 3% of Andover's greenhouse gas emissions. Thanksgiving falls less than three months after signups opened.
Households can check their address and enroll through Black Earth's Andover signup page. The town has more program details at andoverma.gov/compost. A household that enrolls in time for its first pickup to land after the holiday can put the carcass out with everything else. A Thursday customer's bin goes to the curb on Friday, November 27.
At DiPietro Group Real Estate, we follow the small town programs that shape an Andover week, from Halloween on Downtown Trick or Treat night to collection day the morning after Thanksgiving. If you're settling into Andover or thinking about your next move here, schedule a free buyer or seller consultation and we'll walk you through the town details along with the market.
