{"id":18047,"date":"2014-10-16T10:56:44","date_gmt":"2014-10-16T14:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=18047"},"modified":"2014-10-16T10:56:44","modified_gmt":"2014-10-16T14:56:44","slug":"composting-entrepreneurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/composting-entrepreneurs\/","title":{"rendered":"Composting For Entrepreneurs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"composting<\/a><\/p>\n

According to the EPA, Americans dump over 36 million tons\u00a0of food waste<\/a>\u00a0every year. Not only is that horrendously wasteful<\/a> in a world where billions of people are starving, but decomposing food also creates methane<\/a>, which is ten times more harmful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.<\/p>\n

Entrepreneurs know that every problem creates a potential for profit. According to Fredricksburg.com<\/a>, Melissa Tashjian of Milwaukee<\/a> took the money she had saved for a new kitchen and used it to buy a 25 year old dump truck earlier this year. So far\u00a0she had signed up\u00a07 area restaurants\u00a0who pay her to haul away their food scraps. They put\u00a0waste vegetables, fruit, eggshells, and cheese into a container lined with a compostable bag made of plant material and leave it for Tashjian to collect. She is now carting 25,000 pounds of wasted food\u00a0to a local composting facility\u00a0and\u00a0expects to have 100 or more customers by the end of 2015.<\/p>\n

In Boston,\u00a0Andy Brooks, a former journalist, started a business<\/a> in 2011 picking up food waste from local restaurants using a bicycle.\u00a0Now his business has eight employees and three trucks and gathers organic waste from 750 homes and 50 businesses. Residential service costs $8 a week. Commercial accounts start at $18 a week.\u00a0\u201cI realized pretty quickly that there was a pretty big demand for this,” Brooks says.<\/p>\n

In Philadelphia, Tim Bennett started Bennett Compost<\/a>. He and his crew service\u00a0more than 1,000 homes and 15 to 20 small businesses, hauling their food scraps and yard waste to five different farms for composting.\u00a0CompostNow<\/a> in\u00a0Raleigh, North Carolina has 350 residential customers. In Washington DC, Compost Cab<\/a> counts about 500 homes and a few dozen businesses as clients. “What we’re really talking about is building a more sustainable citizenry, one bag of food scraps at a time,” Compost Cab founder Jeremy Brosowsky says.<\/p>\n

Can Entrepreneurs Handle All of Our Composting Needs?<\/h3>\n

However, a growing number of communities are planning\u00a0citywide or regional organics recycling programs. They\u00a0are already up and running in hundreds of communities, especially\u00a0large West Coast cities and their suburbs says Jerry Powell, executive editor of Resource Recycling<\/em> <\/a>magazine. He says one-man-and-a-truck operations can\u2019t handle large scale operations.<\/p>\n

Powell believes municipalities can do it cheaper and more efficiently by doing it themselves or contracting with\u00a0large commercial haulers.\u00a0\u201cAt which point our business goes away,\u201d said CompostNow founder Justin Senkbeil. \u201cSo this model, nationwide, is probably a 10 to 15 year business model.\u201d<\/p>\n

So is now a good time for you to quit your day job, buy a truck and get into the waste hauling business? Maybe. Or maybe not. A few decades ago, video stores were the business of choice for entrepreneurs but they have gone the way of the horse drawn carriage today. Still, a lot of people made a lot of money renting videos. Entrepreneurs have to be quick on their feet and know how to adapt to changing market trends.<\/p>\n

In Milwaukee, Melissa\u00a0Tashjian isn’t worried. She sees plenty of near-term potential. “One thing there is not a lack thereof is waste,\u201d she said. \u201cIt happens every day, all year. It doesn’t matter what the weather\u2019s like. It doesn’t stop.”<\/p>\n

Image credit:<\/strong> Shutterstock<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Entrepreneurs across America are starting businesses to haul food waste to composting facilities, reducing the 36 million tons that goes to landfills now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":18051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[7352,7353,567,7357,7349,7355,840,7348,7358,2544,7360,7351,1775,6202,1111,7356,7359,7354,3957,7350],"yoast_head":"\nSmall Composting Businesses Across the US<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Entrepreneurs across America are starting businesses to haul food waste to composting facilities, reducing the 36 million tons that goes to landfills now.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/composting-entrepreneurs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Small Composting Businesses Across the US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Entrepreneurs across America are starting businesses to haul food waste to composting facilities, reducing the 36 million tons that goes to landfills now.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/composting-entrepreneurs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sustainablog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-10-16T14:56:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/composting-business.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Stephen Hanley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Stephen Hanley\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/composting-entrepreneurs\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/composting-entrepreneurs\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Stephen Hanley\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/870fd183849b78d5224d0a6812c87ac6\"},\"headline\":\"Composting For Entrepreneurs\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-16T14:56:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-10-16T14:56:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/composting-entrepreneurs\/\"},\"wordCount\":531,\"commentCount\":6,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Andy Brooks\",\"bennett compost\",\"boston\",\"compostcab\",\"composting business\",\"compostnow\",\"entrepreneur\",\"food waste composting\",\"jeremy brosowsky\",\"Jerry Powell\",\"justin senkbeil\",\"Melissa Tashjian\",\"milwaukee\",\"north carolina\",\"Philadelphia\",\"raleigh\",\"resource recycling magazine\",\"tim bennett\",\"washington dc\",\"waste hauling\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Business\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/composting-entrepreneurs\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/composting-entrepreneurs\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/composting-entrepreneurs\/\",\"name\":\"Small Composting Businesses Across the US\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-16T14:56:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-10-16T14:56:44+00:00\",\"description\":\"Entrepreneurs across America are starting businesses to haul food waste to composting facilities, reducing the 36 million tons that goes to landfills now.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/composting-entrepreneurs\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/composting-entrepreneurs\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/composting-entrepreneurs\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Composting For Entrepreneurs\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/\",\"name\":\"Sustainablog\",\"description\":\"Since 2003, Sustainablog has been one of the pioneers of sustainability news online.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Sustainablog\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cropped-sblog-logo_3b.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cropped-sblog-logo_3b.jpg\",\"width\":200,\"height\":142,\"caption\":\"Sustainablog\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/870fd183849b78d5224d0a6812c87ac6\",\"name\":\"Stephen Hanley\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4ccbe8a963ed00ce0928772f76beb349?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4ccbe8a963ed00ce0928772f76beb349?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Stephen Hanley\"},\"description\":\"writes about the interface between technology and ecology from his home in Rhode Island. You can follow him on Google + and on Twitter.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/myrhodetrips.com\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/SteveHanleyRI\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/author\/stephenhanley\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Small Composting Businesses Across the US","description":"Entrepreneurs across America are starting businesses to haul food waste to composting facilities, reducing the 36 million tons that goes to landfills now.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/composting-entrepreneurs\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Small Composting Businesses Across the US","og_description":"Entrepreneurs across America are starting businesses to haul food waste to composting facilities, reducing the 36 million tons that goes to landfills now.","og_url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/composting-entrepreneurs\/","og_site_name":"Sustainablog","article_published_time":"2014-10-16T14:56:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":480,"url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/composting-business.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Stephen Hanley","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Stephen Hanley","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/composting-entrepreneurs\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/composting-entrepreneurs\/"},"author":{"name":"Stephen Hanley","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/870fd183849b78d5224d0a6812c87ac6"},"headline":"Composting For Entrepreneurs","datePublished":"2014-10-16T14:56:44+00:00","dateModified":"2014-10-16T14:56:44+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/composting-entrepreneurs\/"},"wordCount":531,"commentCount":6,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization"},"keywords":["Andy Brooks","bennett compost","boston","compostcab","composting business","compostnow","entrepreneur","food waste composting","jeremy brosowsky","Jerry Powell","justin senkbeil","Melissa Tashjian","milwaukee","north carolina","Philadelphia","raleigh","resource recycling magazine","tim bennett","washington dc","waste hauling"],"articleSection":["Business"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/composting-entrepreneurs\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/composting-entrepreneurs\/","url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/composting-entrepreneurs\/","name":"Small Composting Businesses Across the US","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-10-16T14:56:44+00:00","dateModified":"2014-10-16T14:56:44+00:00","description":"Entrepreneurs across America are starting businesses to haul food waste to composting facilities, reducing the 36 million tons that goes to landfills now.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/composting-entrepreneurs\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/composting-entrepreneurs\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/composting-entrepreneurs\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Composting For Entrepreneurs"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/","name":"Sustainablog","description":"Since 2003, Sustainablog has been one of the pioneers of sustainability news online.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization","name":"Sustainablog","url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cropped-sblog-logo_3b.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cropped-sblog-logo_3b.jpg","width":200,"height":142,"caption":"Sustainablog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/870fd183849b78d5224d0a6812c87ac6","name":"Stephen Hanley","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4ccbe8a963ed00ce0928772f76beb349?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4ccbe8a963ed00ce0928772f76beb349?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Stephen Hanley"},"description":"writes about the interface between technology and ecology from his home in Rhode Island. You can follow him on Google + and on Twitter.","sameAs":["http:\/\/myrhodetrips.com","https:\/\/twitter.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/SteveHanleyRI"],"url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/author\/stephenhanley\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18047"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}