Hartford’s Blue Earth Compost Wants to Change What You do with Your Food Scraps
With a mission to try and expand the accessibility of compost in Connecticut, Hartford-based composting company, Blue Earth Compost has been changing the way both residences and businesses dispose of and view food waste.
“Reducing food ‘waste’ is one of the most important things we can do to slow climate change and revitalize the soil we depend on for our food. For five years, we at Blue Earth Compost have been tackling this issue by collecting food scraps from homes, apartments, schools, restaurants, hotels, and grocery stores and hauling it to compost and anaerobic digestion facilities in Connecticut” the company says.
What started as a small residential composting company in 2013 dropping off containers in West Hartford and Hartford area homes grew to having a base of 300 customers and about 70 commercial locations. Over the course of five years, Blue Earth Compost has collected 4.5 million pounds of food scraps, and hope to collect 4 million in this year alone.
“By composting our food scraps, we can ensure that they return to the earth to benefit our soil, air, and water”, the company says.
If you recognize the name Blue Earth Compost, but are not sure where from, chances are you’ve seen them at popular local events like Small State Great Beer or the KNOW GOOD Markets collecting your trash and placing it in the accompanying trash-recycling-compost bins.
Describing Hartford as a city on “the spring of a renaissance,” Blue Earth Compost partner, Sam King felt it was a no-brainer that Blue Earth Compost be based in Hartford, “this business could very easily be in another town but we want to be part of the future of the city and contribute to the city.”
“The Hartford small business community is very close knit – we look out for each other”, Sam explains when describing what it’s like to be a business in Hartford. ”We’re friends with a lot of people like Hartford Prints!, Story and Soil, Hartford Denim co.”
And the company services many other recognizable Hartford area businesses, such as Giv Coffee, Hartford Flavor Co., Stanley Black & Decker, Trinity College and more.
The company takes pride in their ability to create jobs in Hartford for people who live and grew up in the area, and are happy to share that half of their workforce is comprised of second chance employees.
Now, the company wants to take it to another level. They have plans to get their first custom made food scrap collection dump truck on the road, but the costs associated with the truck are unprecedented for their business. With help from the community, they can ensure that they have enough customers and help with on boarding costs and hiring new people to their team.
Their crowdfunding campaign offers discounted memberships and merchandise in order to raise money to get their truck up and running.
Learn more about what their business has done for the environment and how you can help support them here.
