10 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before I Started A Compost Business
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- čas přidán 28. 06. 2024
- I started a compost business in 2010. Back then I could count the number of food scrap composters in the Mid Atlantic on one hand.
Composting is becoming a more popular business venture which is great to see. I get requests from people all the time looking for advice to start or expand a compost business. So, this is the first in a series of videos on the business of composting.
I’ll try to stay positive, even though flashbacks of the grind of the early years sometimes pops up 😀
These are 10 things in no particular order that I wish someone had told me when I wanted to start a compost operation.
If you think I missed something or you have questions - leave a comment. I’ll try to follow up with a reply or other videos.
Happy Composting!
-justen
You can learn more about our compost operation and products at www.veterancompost.com
FOLLOW US HERE:
Instagram - / veteran_compost OR @veteran_compost
Facebook - / veterancompost
LinkedIn - / veteran-compost
Twitter - / veterancompost - Věda a technologie
If you are cheap AND handy with building things, build your own screener. Make it a drum / tumble design and run if from a tractor or other vehicle. You can add its own power supply later. The drum design makes it a continuous flow and super cheap, as all you need is hardware cloth / screens, metal rings and basic frame and some cheap wheels and belts. I dont have a business, but Im still building a tumbler right now for my little homestead to save myself a lot of labor
Thank you for your video from Australia.
GREAT content here. I'm a backyard suburban gardener and recently got slightly more serious about my composting - I now have a 4-bay pallet system, which has probably 4-6 yards capacity, in different stages. The bulk of it is leaves and grass clippings, but I throw all vegetable food waste, clean cardboard, shredded paper, and basically anything else I can think of in there too. I have a very sensitive nose, and when the compost is hot and smells right, it's magic, IMO. My kids think I have serious problems. But that compost smell fills me with joy. Maybe I do have serious problems. The thought of making a business out of it has crossed my mind. I don't think it will happen, but these points are great to ruminate on, either way.
Thanks for the kind words! Sounds like you are maxing out the static pile limits (which is awesome), you might want to consider a small scale ASP system like the micro-bin from O2 Compost www.o2compost.com/products.aspx?itemid=3322&prodid=17050&pagetitle=Micro-Bin-Compost-System That tends to be the gateway drug for folks who want to go further down the composting path.....
Thank you for this solid content.
I really dig the small business and commercial composting insights. What you share about product and service differentiation was particularly useful and important. Knowing ones target audience/ market is always key to growth and success, and it’s clear how you are doing that and it’s helpful hearing you talk through that.
Much respect.
Green on green crime.....so true. You can never do enough...
Just always remind them that if they are not planning on shoving a tree up their but and falling into a hole head first to be that plants new compost then neither are they.
It's good that you have supportive friends and family.
Man we definitely have different friends and family!!
🤣
Same I get shot down with every idea lmao.
Not sure if you already do, but Trader Joe’s has a “neighborhood shares” program, where either partially spoiled or bruised produce is donated to local businesses. That should be a consistent flow of food waste
We haven't worked with Trader Joes - we'll have to check that out. We do like working with stores like that because generally material we get from grocery stores is great for composting. A lot of grocery stores try to donate as much food as possible before it goes bad, but we still get tons of material from stores each week. Whatever isn't fed to our chickens ends up on the compost pile!
lol sneaky bad guys, I do love your content :) btw Environmental tech here lol
Thanks so much for this information! Im hoping to start up an ASP operation in the midwest and this is very very useful!
" I do not edit my videos" 🥰
Great honest insight for new comers. Thank you for sharing.
Honest, but also because we lack the talent/ability to edit them 🤣
😂
Composting is the heartbeat of organic gardening😃
My favorite composting is with worms😬😂 I have been composting with worms for close to a decade.
Great audio book
How to make a video that doesn't suck.
@@earthkeepinggreen7763 we'll check it out 😀
Thx for your thorough honesty!! 💯💯💯
Hi Justin,
I just subscribed to your channel.
I'm never going to do more than make compost for my own garden.
I bought a Can-O-Worms in 2009 and my garden is happy.
But I appreciate what you are doing and I hope your channel takes off.
I started mine back in September of 2020 and it's been a slow go.
Good luck to you 👍
Thanks! If everyone was doing a little composting at home - the world would be a better place. If you want to see any specific compost topic, let us know and we'll make a video about it
Excellent advice. Many of the 10 things apply to almost any type of business. There are always problems and Murphy's Law. I feel that your business has reached a high level. I could envision you and your partners selling the entire operation for a pretty penny if you wanted to.
Great content! Well resented. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks bro
Thanks for the insight. I have become interested in vermicomposting and as I have been researching the topic, I have been observing how one's capacity to screen the material is a huge differentiator in the scale one can achieve.
Screening is definitely the bottleneck in most composting and vermicomposting operations. Luckily there are some good DIY options to get started, but as you grow you'll want to invest some time and money in a screening solution that doesn't hold you back. We have been using electric trommels for our worm castings, but we might try out some sort of shake deck screener in the future to see if that tech is any better....
Thank you so much for the information here. We are thinking about starting a composting operation on some land my family owns in East Texas not too far from some major cities and have been trying to work on the economic model for it. This video along with others definitely helps me make sure I take things into consideration that I hadn't before. One question I have is whether or not you have looked at composting via Johnson-Su bioreactors. They seem to be a mostly "build and forget" type of model which would have a lot lower production costs for high quality compost.
Those reactors are pretty cool and look to make some great compost. If your goal is to make small-batch compost, they would work well for that. But, for scaling up production or processing larger amounts of production (tons per day) - Aerated Static Pile or Windrow composting are probably more cost-effective.
Very helpful! Did you have to get a permit to pick up food waste scraps from homes and/or businesses? Do you have specific bins (i.e. yard waste bin) that you give the homeowners that work with your trucks? Do your homeowner customers follow the instructions or do they dump plastic and other non-compostable things in your bins?
We haven’t had to get any collection permits. But, we hold Compost and Stormwater Permits for our facilities. We also have to have licensed facility operators and are required to register our products with the Maryland Department of Agriculture. We provide the bins and signage to customers so that they know what to put in our bins. Generally, residential customers are very compliant since they are paying for the service and are obviously “true believers” in composting 😀
If some one doesn't like what you are doing, you must be doing something right!
Good to know..
Excellent advice! Thanks for taking the time to post your experience. Any suggestions on where to look for used screeners? We are a small operation and not looking to grow much beyond what we are but would love to have a better product and save time doing it. Thanks!
I would start with Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist. We found one of ours there. Another we found from talking to a composter at a tradeshow and found out that they had an excess one that they wanted to sell off. You could also check out government surplus sites, sometimes items from university farms or municipal compost sites pop up there. The final option would be to build something yourself, and theres a whole CZcams rabbit hole of homemade screeners you can go down for ideas on that!🤣
@@veterancompost thank you, much appreciated! I did head on down that rabbit hole. Looks like for now home built will be the way we go.
Would you have a suggestion for a grinder that would handle about a gallon kitchen waste at a time? I "play" with vermicomposting and would like to break down the organic material before mixing it. Thank You for your videos.
For a small scale pre-processing we would recommend getting a cheap used blender. Or upgrade the one you have at home and let the old one be for “worm feed” 😀. When we feed worms food scraps directly we just try to increase surface area (examples- lay banana peel flat, chop up an apple versus putting a whole apple in the bin, etc)
great video. Did you say no yard waste? What are your browns?
We use wood chips from arborists as our carbon source. We don’t have to own a grinder and all of the expenses and risks that go along with them. In our area we can get the chips for free, or sometimes even get paid to receive them. Plus we avoid the chemical risks that go along with yard debris
To your point about commercial businesses that adopt your service based on principle but really look at your service as another expense is a great point.....it all boils down to money.....on the other hand the challenge is the opportunity and while i dont have the full answer, i have a glimpse of a vision that is mostly a pipe dream, but the point is we as a society have to complete the circuit.what i mean is our food supply and food growing system is all wrong. We need to move away from big factory farms that dump chemical fertilzers to grow food and move back to using a system that relies on the food scraps going back to the farmers to feed the soil or the livestock that the resterraunt needs to feed its customers. Right now the food is flown in & trucked in from far away, the chef isnt required to send it back because the farmer doesnt operate that way. In our closed loop the chef supplies the farmer with the fertilizer, instead of a big chemical company. The chef literally has no incentive to send his scrap to you in order to make the fertilizer aka compost that the farmer need to raise the produce. If it is possible to create local food supplies that operate in a cyclical way and cut the reliance on sysco and northern haserot, farmers would raise the meat , fruit, and veggies locally, sell to the local restaurant or market to feed the local population, and those people would send their waste to you, and you compost the waste to send back to the farmers as "fertilizer" to replace the nutrients in the soil that grew the food the first time..... To put a fine point on it, the use of chemical fertilizer brought in fromoutside the local ecosystem is the outlier that is disrupting our loop from re connecting itself
Hey thanks for the great tips. I did notice you say you're compost is manure free. Im wondering what are the drawbacks to composted manure? I have a massive amount of manure that I compost and want to start selling but now I'm starting to think that may not be a good idea?
We started our first compost piles back in 2010 with just horse manure and bedding - its great material for composting. The two things to keep in mind if you are going to compost manure 1. Make sure you get hot enough to destroy weed seeds (131-160F) 2. Watch out for persistent herbicides. The risk of herbicide contamination is what got us away from handling manure. But, we hope to get back into it at our next compost facility.
@@veterancompost thanks so much for getting back to me I appreciate the advice. Cheers.
My question is more on the marketing side. How did you get your name out there for the residents? What tips and tricks do you use to get them to join your services.
For residential customers, we target the early adopters - the folks who really want to compost and don't mind paying for the service. Having a website and social media presence are helpful so folks can find you and learn more about the service. Our guys wear company Tshirts and our trucks/vans have our logo on them - so you would be surprised how many people contact us because they see us in their neighborhood and want to sign up.
Thank you for the reply. Will definitely be looking into it.
I have a confusion here. Should not manure based compost be considered quality one? As manure is one of the main compost ingredients
We do like manure-based compost, if you have a reliable source of manure. Our only caution with manure is that persistent herbicides are a risk to even a well-run compost operation because they are so destructive to plants and they can’t be eliminated by the compost process.
Thank you! and you do edit lol
Paperwork? You mean Gov't regulations.
How big a of space would I need to start my own business?
If you look up "community composter" on the internet - you can find lots of stories of folks who started a compost business out of their garage or backyard. With a simple aerated box system like the Microbin from O2 Compost, you could handle a good amount of material quietly in a small space like a backyard.
Great insight! Thank you. Do you have to let environmentalists in? Is it a regulation ? Can you just lock the door ?
That's a tough one. We run a transparent operation, and we welcome any of our customers or our regulators anytime they want to check on our operation and see what we are up to. We have a great team here that strives to run a nice site. With environmental groups - we always try to be friendly, positive and constructive. But, if folks don't reciprocate or already have their minds made up - its a tough call whether or not to invite them for a tour.....
30 cal for vegan greenie freaks. They compost too.
one thing i hate about videos like this is is not seeing examples of the business and seeing a dude just talk about it. this isnt radio, use video clips, i know what you look like, your info is very informative ,but a video plateform should show more of an example?
"my biggest struggle is labor" = capitalism has made it that if I don't exploit labor to the bone another competitor will and put me out of business.
I can’t speak for every composter out there - but we offer a living wage, free dental insurance, 401K match, paid time off, etc. Even so, we have a hard time finding folks that want to work. A couple of weeks ago a guy ghosted on us after 2 hours on his first day - he went to his car during a break and just drove away….