Create a future without food waste, one scrap at a time.
The Dirty Challenge
When Matt, the founder of CompostNow, first entered the world of composting in 2011, his vision was to make it easier for people to reduce their food waste and build healthy soil.
However, he quickly learned that the infrastructure, policy, and support needed to process food waste properly were non-existent. Working at scale, he and his partners would have to roll up their sleeves to become advocates in both private and public sectors.
Success would come by creating the systems, software, and infrastructure necessary to do this critical work. He could hardly spend his time walking on eggshells.
CompostNow has established critical partnerships with both consumers and local businesses and organizations. He has helped define standards that make this work easier for residents and businesses and encourages others to join this movement.
Compost Curious – The Origin Story
Founder Matt Rostetter started the company in 2011. His background was in marketing as a creative director in the Triangle region of North Carolina. He didn’t have a sustainability background per se, but he wanted to find a way to live a more sustainable lifestyle.
He knew he wanted to compost. But he didn’t know where to start.
Like others, he wanted to compost. He saw the benefit but knew it wasn’t easy. Without adequate space, apartment dwellers and others didn’t have a way to make composting happen. Matt didn’t know where to start, but he recognized that he was compost curious.
He was starting his sustainability journey concerned with issues like his carbon footprint; He wondered how he could reduce it. As he searches for opportunities, composting kept coming up to help make a difference.
The city where he lived wasn’t offering the service in 2011. So, if you wanted to compost, it was strictly DYI.
Matt realized that composting had three key pain points:
- Not Convenient
- Not easy
- And everyone thought it was gross
Clean. Easy. Convenient.
Many people like Matt are curious but don’t have an easy on-ramp. They wonder how they can do something to help the planet, one banana peel at a time.
He realized his strengths as a creative spirit and thought he would need help from others with complementary skills.
Early in Matt’s venture, he met Justin Senkeil. According to Justin’s LinkedIn bio:
Matt and Justin frequently met at farmer’s markets and talked for hours about his challenge’s business side. Eventually, Justin joined as CEO, bringing his background and business acumen.
Around the same time, Matt brought in Dominique Bischof as CTO of the software company. Matt and Justin knew their business needed to be data-driven.
Customers would want to see tangible evidence of the impact you can make. The data is required to be transparent and easily visible. The team knew CompostNow had to be software-forward and data-driven.
They made it easy to go to your dashboard and see your impact. CompostNow weighs every bin and can show you how you are doing in making a difference as you track your habit.
No other community composting company was running software to run routes and measure progress and effectiveness. Data could be a big differentiator.
How It Works
For a consumer, if you sign up on the website, first you confirm you are in the service area. If not, CompostNow will provide other community composters in your area. They believe that they aren’t the only solution.
If you are in our area, you pick from three monthly plans ranging from $29, $39, or $49. See the plans here.
The consumer puts waste apples, bones, and eggshells, into the bin without any plastic bag. They swap containers every week – and don’t just dump them. They go the extra mile to change the container to ensure everything gets composted.
You build up credits in a compost bank and can request a bag of composted soil to fertilize a garden, or you can donate it to your community.
The same approach is in place for restaurants on a larger scale.
Category and Growth
The U.S. residential organic compost market size was valued at USD 363.2 million in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.6% from 2022 to 2030
As the pandemic hit, it paused services for many commercial locations, and some residential folks started to cut back too.
But today, CompostNOW’s membership is growing. Over 10,000 strong.
The Biggest Challenge
One of their biggest challenges is that it is still cheaper to throw waste into a landfill than to have it composted. How to raise awareness of the value they offer is a marketing challenge.
Today there are hundreds of composters, including competition from municipalities and traditional large waste service providers. These larger companies are getting into composting at a cheaper rate but don’t offer the same level of service as CompostNow.
The company is examining public/private partnerships with municipalities. They currently work with Wake and Orange counties, but North Carolina has 100 counties. And there is value in owning their processing facility, like they do in Atlanta. But these facilities are capital intensive.
With ten thousand CompostNow community members, the future looks up, and nothing is wasted.
You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. The conversation is free, and we can explore if working together makes sense. Watch a short video about working with me.
Photos and illustrations courtesy of CompoastNOW
