12 Days of Chicago Christmas: Local compost

The gift: A compost service subscription with a company that picks up your food scraps on a schedule and brings them to a processing facility.

• Some even offer free finished compost in the spring.

The local choices: Suburbs like Evanston and Oak Park already offer "organic waste" collection as a municipal service. But if your recipient lives in Chicago, you'll need to sign them up with one of these private outfits.

• Companies that provide bucket pickups include Healthy Soil/Urban Canopy, Collective Resource and Waste Not.
• Companies that offer bins to share with neighbors include Resource Center and Block Bins.

Price of subscription: Starts at $10.50-$15 a month per home.

Price of shedding food waste guilt: Incalculable.

Go deeper: More composting services in Illinois.