Lanette is a a special lady who understands the waste industry like she understands the regenerative agricultural movement, very well. In this episode, she shares how she’s able to process upwards of 25 tons per week of food waste, and her journey from the very beginning.
Episode 27. Neil Seldman - Institute of Local Self Reliance
Listen to this great episode with Neil Seldman, one of the most knowledgeable people on the history of environmentalism and waste in the United States. This article, Monopoly and the U.S. Waste Knot, influenced Charlie to change the direction in his career, and focus on community composting as a solution to breakup the centralization of waste management.
Episode 26. New Earth Farm - John Cline
John is a self-proclaimed novice when it comes to composting and running a micro-hauling company. That didn’t stop him from starting New Earth Farm’s community composting initiative in St. Louis, MO. He asks the right questions, and doesn’t jump into decisions. Although, community composting is a passion, for it to be successful, you can’t think of it as a hobby, and John is doing a great job.
Episode #25. Tim Bennett - Bennett Compost (Philly, PA)
Bennett Compost in Philadelphia, PA sets an example for the rest of us community composters who may have only started in the last few years. Tim Bennett and his team have grown to over 5,000 composters, and have partnered with the City to aggressively target and recycle food scraps. They also do a fair-share of their collections by bicycle!
Take a listen to this week’s episode as Charlie talks with one of the greats.
Episode #24. Brenda Platt - Institute of Local Self Reliance
Brenda Platt directs ILSR’s Composting for Community project, which is advancing locally based composting in order to create jobs, enhance soils, sequester carbon, reduce waste, and build more resilient and healthy communities. She has worked 33 years fighting trash burners and promoting waste reduction, reuse, recycling and composting, particularly recycling-based jobs.
Happy Holidays from O-Town Compost - (Check out this musical parody)
O-Town Compost driver, Christy Folk, is also talented at making music videos!
Episode #23. Java Compost
Married and with three kids, it’s incredible what the owners of Java Compost have accomplished in the 2+ years since they began. After New Jersey declared a statewide Organics Recycling Mandate they are in an ideal position to push composting forward in their region.
Buckle up for another episode of The Community Composting Podcast.
Episode #22. Mother Compost - Gwen Nolan
Gwen and her team of food waste slaying bad asses, are the community composter’s of Philly’s mainline. Find out what it’s like to start a compost business with kids and little sleep. Hope you enjoy this week’s episode!
Make Your Holidays Green! - O-Town Compost Gift Cards
The holidays don’t have to be a time for over-consumption putting more strain on mother earth.
Help O-Town Compost spread the community composting movement, and get your special someone a gift card for our convenient composting service. It’s the gift that the environment can approve of, and keeps on giving, as food scraps turn into rich soil.
Episode 21. Cowboy Compost - Fort Worth, TX
A key partnership with the City of Fort Worth has put Cowboy Compost in a position where they are diverting a significant amount of food waste from the landfill. Listen as co-founder, Miguel, talks about his philosophy on running a community composting business.
Episode #20. Dirt Hugger Compost (Dallesport, WA)
Pierce and his co-founder started Dirt Hugger not having experience driving a front-end loader, or having an idea which avenue of composting they wanted to focus. Most of us community composters start with a buck-shot of ideas, and it’s important for us to narrow it down.
Dirt Hugger Compost is turning thousands of tons of organic waste from Oregon and Washington into a beautifully rich compost, and distributing it to gardeners in the Columbia River Gorge.
Episode #19. Jack Tirakyan - The Compost SuperPAC
The Next Three Elections - (‘22, ‘24, ‘26) Will Define the Next Three Decades of Climate Solutions. We’re excited to be partnering with The Compost SuperPAC , because we believe that composters’ voices need to be heard in American politics.
Compost Now Available for O-Town Subscribers
In addition to the free compost giveback for O-Town Compost subscribers, finished compost is now available for purchase!
To order 50lbs of premium O-Town Black Gold, login to your customer portal and order the product titled “O-Town Black Gold Compost,” for $15. We will deliver it on a normally scheduled pickup day, and it comes in a compostable Kraft paper bag. Please tear up before placing in your bucket.
Starting this Saturday we will have our compost for sale at the Packing District Farmer’s Market on the corner of Orange Blossom Trail and Princeton St. It’s the inaugural farmers market, and will feature The Farmacy selling local and organic meat, dairy, and produce from Central Florida farmers.
Of course, subscribers can still order their Fall share of compost for free anytime before October 8th! Same instructions, go to the shop in your customer portal and select the item titled “Fall 2021 Compost Giveback” for $0.
Directions to The Packing District Farmer’s Market:
Episode #18. Kona Compost - Heather Guidice
Heather brought Kona Compost to Bucks County, PA and has big plans for expansion. Right now residential composting is her main service she offers, but with a potential commercial composting facility coming to town, she is looking to get more involved in diverting from restaurants, cafes, and other big generators.
Episode #17. Field Culture Compost - Matthew Nesbitt
Being one of the few dedicated composters in Alabama, Matthew, is positioning his company to be a success. Lucky for him, he won $100k in prize money from the business accelerator program he was part of when starting up. Listen to the episode to find out how he spent the winnings, and plans to take Birmingham, Alabama’s food waste by storm.
It's Time For the Fall Compost Giveback! 🌱🌶🥕🥑
We’re doing the giveback a little differently this season.
O-Town Compost subscribers now have the option to go to the shop in their customer profile, and order their 20lbs share of O-Town Black Gold finished compost! Once ordered, you will be receiving it on the next regularly scheduled pickup date. Please don’t forget to put out the empty bucket after you’ve used your compost!
Subscribers have until 10/15 to order their free share of compost for the Fall until our next giveback in March 2022.
Follow the instructions below to order your share of free compost. Happy planting 😉
Step 1. Login to customer portal
Step 2. Select the ‘Shop’ tab on the menu at the top
Step 3. Order the free item titled “Compost Giveback - Fall 2021”
Episode #16. Common Ground Compost - Meredith Danberg-Ficarelli
Tune in as Charlie interview’s Meredith from Common Ground Compost. She’s one the country’s top waste industry experts, and is based out of NYC, which has a major trash problem. Hope you enjoy!
Episode #15. Bootstrap Compost - Greater Boston's Food Scrap Go-Getters
Charlie’s vision for O-Town Compost and starting a community composting organization in Central Florida was largely inspired by Bootstrap Compost in Boston, MA. As a college student, Charlie was a subscriber and replicated the business model.
Enjoy the episode as Charlie talks to his longtime hero, Igor Kharitonenkov, co-founder of Bootstrap Compost!
4 Roots Farm Campus - Orlando's Sustainability Incubator
We’re declaring Orlando as the country’s “The Green Silicon Valley.” Not for innovative new technologies that make life digitally faster, but by bringing back the community-model of local dependence and giving it a contemporary spin.
O-Town Compost, The Farmacy, and 4 Roots formed a unity to make a better food future in Central Florida by repairing the broken food system and making sure that our organic waste is going back into creating more food. It’s the old circular economy that businesses love to use as a buzz phrase, but rarely is achieved in totality. The 4 Roots warehouse, located in The Packing District, now serves as a co-op workspace for Feed The Need, The Farmacy, and O-Town Compost.
Our subscribers, by now, have probably received a flyer to The Farmacy’s online shop making anyone’s mouth water for the organic food easily available. Unlike the meat, dairy, and produce you buy from Publix or Aldi’s, The Farmacy sources all their food locally within 50 miles or so, maintaining the nutritional value for people to consume and reap the health benefits. It’s preventative medicine. The carrot sitting on display in Publix may look like a carrot, but, biologically, it’s dead and was most likely grown with synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides. You can order online from their website, or find them every Saturday at the Winter Garden Farmer’s Market with their massive farm stand.
O-Town Compost assures that any unsold produce doesn’t find it’s unfortunate end in the smelly landfill. It’s very easy for us to place our bins in the large commercial cooler, or along the donation bagging line to catch any spoiled food. The operation inside the warehouse has been thought out from beginning to end, which we want to become the new norm for Central Florida. Since, we formed our partnership with 4 Roots and The Farmacy, we have diverted over 5 tons of food scraps just from the warehouse alone!
O-Town Compost Leads The Fight Against Food Waste
Credits to Rob Greenfield Films