Scoops of Sustainability: From Plastic to Plant Food, Protection to Pellets

Clumpies Ice Cream Co. aims to make a positive impact on our community — not just through flavor, but through a commitment to environmental stewardship. As part of our ongoing Green Initiative, Clumpies is committed to reducing waste and finding ways to be more sustainable every day. We’ve introduced composting for both back-of-house and front-of-house food scraps and single use serving products as well as recycling the personal protective equipment — like the gloves we use behind the scenes and while serving.  

The ice cream industry creates a lot of single-use waste, and our scoop shops were no exception. Tired of seeing so much plastic head to the landfill, we knew it was time to make a change, so we switched to compostable products for serving our delicious handcrafted ice cream. Today, nearly everything we serve you is compostable, from spoons and napkins to our iconic Clumpies cups. After you finish enjoying your favorite flavors in one of our scoop shops, make sure to toss your used items in the compost bin instead of the trash. They’re green and easy to spot. It’s a small step but it adds up to make a big difference. 

All the compostable products from these bins, plus our production kitchen food scraps, get picked up by our friends at NewTerra Compost and taken to their facility in Wildwood, Georgia to be converted into nutrient dense soil. Thanks to this partnership, we’ve kept 14,960 pounds of waste out of the landfill. That’s like skipping a 14,838-mile road trip and saving 672 gallons of gas. Pretty sweet, right? 

NewTerra uses an Aerated Static Pile composting method. This process involves piping oxygen into a pile of organic waste, where for the next 30 days, the pile composts at temperatures above 140 degrees. The compost then enters a curing phase for another 60+ days, after which it is screened or sifted down to ¼ inches. Materials remaining on the screen are returned to the compost system either as a bulking agent or bio filter until they break down enough to screen through. Clumpies, in turn, receives a share of the finished compost that we put to use in a dedicated bed at Rock City Gardens. 

While our other initiative isn’t locally based, it is also impactful. Clumpies goes through many gloves daily, which were previously tossed in the trash. Now, we’ve joined the RightCycle™ Program by Kimberly-Clark Professional, where they get sent back for recycling. This is the first large-scale recycling program for lab, cleanroom, and industrial waste. The program turns our single-use, hard-to-recycle gloves into pellets. The pellets are then used to create consumer products like patio furniture, flowerpots and recycling bins. Since launching in 2011, The RightCycle™ Program has diverted more than 940 tons of waste from landfills. Clumpies alone has sent them 3,252 lbs. gloves since joining in 2023. 

Clumpies’ composting and recycling programs were initially only implemented at our commercial production kitchen, but we soon expanded to our three scoop shops – Northshore, Southside, and St. Elmo, as well as our ice cream truck. Not only are our in-shop products fully recyclable, but so are most of the materials used to ship our ice cream Pint Packs.  

In case you didn’t know…you can get our ice cream shipped to you (or a friend!) anywhere in the country in just two days. Each pint pack comes with six flavors of our micro-batch handcrafted ice cream. You can choose from a seasonal Featured Flavor pack, or opt to pick out six of your favorite Scoop Shop Classics. Local delivery is available as well. Each pint is hand packed with dry-ice at our facility at the base of Lookout Mountain using compostable boxes and insulation, then shipped anywhere in the continental United States! 

Clumpies’ sustainability journey is a work in progress, and we’re proud of the steps we’ve taken so far. Our goal is to be 100% compostable with our front-of-house disposables by the end of 2025, and we’re on track to get there with just a few more items to switch over. From composting food scraps and serving materials to recycling our gloves, we’re making changes that add up. While there’s still work to do, we’re committed to doing better for our community and the planet. When you're in our scoop shops, be sure to use the compost bin — and if you're not composting at home yet, we encourage you to join the movement too!