Dive Brief:
- Compost Crusader LLC is a Milwaukee, WI-based food waste hauler founded by Melissa Tashjian -- the latest in a string of new small businesses aimed at diverting food waste from landfills.
- Launched earlier this year, the companies' seven clients have generated 25,000 pounds of waste in August alone.
- The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates the U.S. discarded of 69 billion pounds of food waste in 2012. The scraps were disposed of in landfills.
Dive Insight:
A slew of small businesses have been getting into the food waste game, as communities' increasing awareness of the benefits of recycling food scraps drives higher demand. The rise in awareness brings with it an onslaught of competitors as communities shift to handle their own food hauling and composting.
For instance, Andy Brooks started his food waste recycling business in 2011 with some old bikes to haul the waste. The Boston, MA-based company now employs eight workers and collects scraps from 750 residential customers and 60 businesses with three trucks. Beginning on October 1, the state of Massachusetts will ban commercial food waste at institutions and businesses that generate one ton or more of food waste per week.
Philly-based Bennett Compost picks up organics from more than 1,000 houses and about 20 businesses. The company transports the waste to five local farms for composting. In North Carolina, CompostNow serves 350 customers, while a company called Compost Cab has about 50 customers and more than 30 businesses on its roster of clients.
As popularity grows, the long-term health of these smaller food waste collection firms could diminish. Jerry Powell, the executive editor of Resource Recycling magazine, said that smaller organics businesses only have a certain amount of time -- up to 15 years -- before larger organics haulers take over in the communities. He also stated that the most efficient method of food waste collection would be for the municipalities to operate their own organics hauling.
