Since 2015, I have owned and operated a fully-permitted Tier 2 composting facility in Johnson City, Tennessee. We have grown every year and our future looks bright. If you have an entrepreneurial spirit and want to build a greener America, I encourage you to consider starting your own compost business.
This article will give you an overview of why you should consider this industry, how to get started, and what a compost business looks like.
This business will be good for your world and your life! Let’s take a look at the many benefits of a compost business.
Climate and Economic Benefits of Diversion
作为二级堆肥设施,除了树叶、木屑等,我们还能堆肥食物残渣。食物残渣是一种特别重要的材料,要远离我们社区的垃圾流。它们不仅占用宝贵的空间,而且在垃圾填埋场的厌氧环境中产生甲烷。此外,残羹剩饭是一种有效的土壤改良剂和植物营养资源,我们不应该浪费。我们每年扔掉的食物残渣数量巨大。Get this from the EPA:
美国环保署估计,2018年,商业、机构和住宅部门产生了6310万吨食物垃圾,占城市固体垃圾产生总量的21.6%。
[Food: Material-Specific Data | Facts and Figures About Materials, Waste and Recycling | US EPA]
Diverting food scraps and other organics from landfills to beneficial use also confers economic benefits on the community. Our local landfill charges $44.13 per ton as a tipping fee. With surcharges and fees, that comes to $50.54. At my composting facility, I don’t charge a dime for leaves or woodchips, and people who drop off relatively small amounts of food scraps don’t have to pay. Large shipments are charged a flat $20 per ton tipping fee. So our operation gives the residences, businesses, and local governments an economical option for their organic waste disposal needs, and the finished product supports local farmers, landscapers, and garden centers.
Soil Health Benefits
The most important things my agronomy training taught me were the complexity and the impact of soils. I was amazed to learn that healthy, biologically-rich soils with plenty of organic matter promote water quality. You see, the greater number of chemical binding sites and microbial diversity in a healthy soil enable it to hold nutrient compounds in the root zone where plants can get them and prevent those same compounds from becoming pollutants in our groundwater. Moreover, soils with compost have been shown to improve surface water quality and lessen flooding by slowing down runoff, eliminating runoff, and even filtering.
The Natural Resources Defense Council states that “increasing soil organic matter by 1% allows soil to hold an additional 20,000 gallons of water per acre.”
In the last decade, scientists and the general public have realized that increasing a soil’s organic matter content with compost will re-establish the soil’s capacity to act as a carbon sink. That’s right! Compost has been shown to help a soil pull carbon out of the air.
Compost Processing Infrastructure Is Needed to Enable Organics Landfill Bans
Knowing the benefits of compost and the need to keep organics out of landfills, some states and municipalities have enacted organics landfill bans. Many more are studying this option. Years ago, a grocery store chain executive confided to me that he had no problem with such a ban. He said that as long as his competitors also had to separate their organics for composting, he’d be glad to do the same.
But what chance does such a ban have of succeeding if there is no composting facility nearby? That’s where YOU come in! We desperately need to increase our compost processing infrastructure in this country to enable widespread adoption of the practice for food scraps recycling.
Benefits to You, as an Entrepreneur
我直言不讳。你应该考虑这个生意的另一个原因是它对你有好处。让我们来看看。
Good Income
Compost businesses can be highly profitable. Don’t think it is a charity or just a labor of love. Yes, there will be a significant startup investment and ongoing expenses. And there is always great risk in starting a business. Our own journey to profitability has been a long slog, but we’ve made it and are continuing to grow. You can get this business started for a lot less than many other types, and you can scale up as revenue increases.
Meaningful Work
You will be tired and dirty. You will feel the stress of being an entrepreneur, and some of your days and weeks will be very long — but what you’ll be doing is extremely important. That sense of mission is sustaining, and the accompanying sense of meaningful accomplishment will be gratifying. Besides, being dirty and smelly is fun!
Community Involvement
A lot of us are looking for ways to make our own corner of the world a better place. And we crave a deeper connection with the people around us. I didn’t realize it when I started this business, but being a compost business owner has done exactly that for me. I have so many interesting and involved conversations with people who drop off food scraps, participate in our residential or commercial food scraps collection service, or come to buy compost. Of course, we talk about the environment, waste issues, gardening, and soils … but the conversations inevitably move to the personal. I’m so grateful for them.
Get to Work Outside
Before I started my compost business, I didn’t realize how much I didn’t like working inside all the time. It’s always something I mention when people ask if I’m happy I started (I am). I tell them that working outside — even on blisteringly hot or bitterly cold days — is really good for me. And I love getting dirty every day. A friend of mine once kidded that he didn’t recognize me when I wasn’t dirty from the chest down.
The Business of Compost Business
As fun as this business is, never forget it is a business. You absolutely must treat it as such and develop your abilities as a business owner. This means, among other things, learning about financial statements and bookkeeping. A few words on revenue streams and material streams as they relate specifically to compost businesses follow.
Revenue Streams
This business has two revenue streams: inbound and outbound. Inbound revenue includes money you make for collecting or accepting material. For my facility, inbound revenue sources are the tipping fees I charge to large deliveries of food scraps, and the collection fees I charge to residents and businesses that have us come to their location for pickups. Outbound revenue includes the money you make when people buy your finished product. For my facility, it includes compost sales and delivery charges.
Our experience during the pandemic revealed something important. In times of uncertainty, your inbound revenue will suffer and your outbound revenue will hold or strengthen. Some residential disposal customers decide to quit because of financial worry. Some commercial disposal customers close or suffer a drop in business. On the flip side, many people will start or expand gardening to establish greater control over their food supply, particularly higher-priced items like bell peppers and tomatoes.
Material Streams
堆肥业务需要了解的另一个概念是材料流。你的堆肥设施总是会有一些可以储存的材料,比如木屑和树叶。它也将有材料,必须混合和覆盖在接收像食物残渣。你也会有处于不同加工和固化阶段的材料。网站布局、工作流程和总体吞吐量都取决于材料流。确保你有可靠和及时的资源来提供你需要的所有材料。
For a point of reference, I keep several hundred cubic yards of wood chips and leaves stockpiled on a couple of acres. Mixing and initial processing takes place on a half-acre. Curing takes up a couple of acres.
How to Get Started
开始堆肥业务是一个过程。Here is a brief rundown of the steps you’ll need to perform.
Assess Local and Regional Situation, Markets, and Regulations
Before you embark on getting and preparing a site, you must find answers to a series of questions
Are There Composters in the Region?
If so, what feedstocks do they use? What prices do they charge for disposal and finished product(s)?
Where Do People Currently Get Compost or Topsoil and What Prices Do They Pay?
Are they gardeners, landscapers, farmers … all three? Do they require that it be bagged or will they come by in a truck or with a trailer?
What Are the Characteristics of the Compost That Is Currently Available?
Color, texture, contamination with plastic, coarse material like stones and twigs, and lab analysis.
我必须遵守的地方和州法规是什么?
These regulations will mostly deal with buffer zones and prevention of liquid release. The regulations and the process to become permitted are intimidating for many people, but you can do it! Here are the regulations that I must comply with (pages 132 to 142):0400-11-01.20210308.pdf (tnsosfiles.com).
Related Post:Sustainability 101: Building A Compost Pile
Determine Startup and Operating Costs
Using the answers to these questions and some knowledge of available real estate options, it’s time to come up with some numbers. Estimate the startup costs for getting your facility ready (especially land purchase, site preparation, and equipment costs) and what you’ll be spending each week (especially loan payments, fuel, labor, and maintenance).
Now estimate your revenue. This is the time to be realistic. What production you can expect to achieve each month? How much can you sell? Up to 80% of your sales will be in March, April, and May so budget for many lean months. Make apro-forma profit and loss statement. Now you can decide whether it makes economic sense to proceed.
Site Selection, Purchase, and Preparation
您的网站将在很大程度上取决于法规所施加的限制。一处房产可能看起来很棒,但如果邻居的住宅离你很近,或者有一条溪流穿过,你潜在的处理区域可能太小了。使用谷歌地球消除无用的属性,在你浪费大量的时间去遍历它们之前。当然,你想要一套离客户尽可能近的房子,但又不要太靠近人口密集的地区,否则价格会高得离谱,也不会招致邻居的投诉。
Once you pick a property and buy or lease it, money will be flying out the door. You need to get it prepared and permitted as soon as possible so you can start to get some revenue. Line up as many contractor commitments and go through as much of the permitting process as possible before your purchase. Then, the race to opening day is on!
The biggest site preparation chores are grading, on-site roads, and surfaces. The food scraps reception area and initial processing area will need an impermeable surface such as concrete (expensive) or asphalt (also expensive, but less so). Stockpiling of chips and leaves and curing of compost can probably be done on somewhat level bare ground, but be sure to check your regulations.
If there is a composting facility nearby, you’ll have to determine the feasibility of an additional one in the assessment phase of pre-launch. If you can access enough feedstocks and differentiate your operation via price or some characteristic of the disposal service or finished product, you can compete. It’ll be more difficult, however. There are many areas that have no facility at all. That’s the key purpose of my website and this article — to increase the geographic range of composting services and products to new areas.
Equipment
Acquire any necessary equipment while the site is being prepared. The regulations will probably require you to have all equipment onsite before you accept any material. So again, be ready to start as soon as possible. I was able to get up and running with a truck and a skid steer. That’s about as lean as you can expect.
Operations
以下是你每天和每周要做的一般手术。
Stockpiling
现场始终保持充足的膨胀剂(木屑)和碳(树叶)。小心不要堆得太高,因为这样做会有火灾的危险。把你的桩保持在14英尺以下,桩与桩之间要有足够的15英尺宽的空间。这将防止堆过热,在发生火灾时,将允许消防部门进入那里,挽救一天。我们的设施从来没有发生过火灾,并计划保持这种情况!
Reception
Reception of putrescible waste (food scraps) will need to be on an impermeable surface such as asphalt or concrete. Within an hour of reception, mix that material with at least twice as much bulking agent, and carbon and cover with a layer of leaves a few inches thick.
Mixing and Forming
Mix the material every day until you have enough to form an aerated windrow. To do this, assemble a perforated 4-inch diameter pipe on the processing surface. Connect this to a blower on a timer. Cover that with 8 inches of coarse wood chips, and cover that with 6 feet of mixed material. Then, cover the windrow with 6 inches of leaves to insulate it.
Processing
Have the blower kick on for about a minute every 25 minutes or so. Adjust this over the course of a month to aim for an internal temperature that holds over 131 degrees Fahrenheit for three days, and then stays between 110- and 120-degrees for the rest of the month. It won’t always be so precise, but that’s the range you want. Every week, re-wet the material with about 100 gallons of collected rainwater to 25 feet of windrow.
Curing
After a month of processing, move the material to a curing area. It does not need as much oxygen anymore, but you should turn it weekly. Let it cure for about four months. When mature, its internal temperature should match ambient temperature or be slightly (about 5 degrees Fahrenheit) elevated.
Screening and Sale
Your material is now compost and ready for screening and sale. Screening is a very satisfying step. If you are operating on a limited budget like we are, it is also time consuming. Note that screening may spark a short-lived temperature spike so you should wait a week or so after screening before you sell the compost.
About the Writer
乔·霍夫曼是霍夫曼堆肥的所有者和经营者,这是田纳西州约翰逊市的二级堆肥设施。他拥有威斯康辛大学农学学士学位。In March 2020, Joe launched the websiteCompostBusiness.com以支持当前和有抱负的堆肥企业家为使命。本文中的主题在那里得到了更全面的研究。Feel free to contact him with any compost or business questions or comments atmrjoehoffman@gmail.com.
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