Connecting with the Compost Crowd E53
In this episode of Arizona Good Business Radio, Thomas Barr chats with Kathleen Ventura, founder of Compost Crowd, about her journey from seeing compost pickup services in Columbus, Ohio, to launching a similar service in Northern Arizona in 2018. She shares how she and her husband started with just ten buckets, growing their business across Sedona and Flagstaff, and achieving the impressive milestone of diverting over 600 tons of waste from landfills, underscoring their commitment to sustainability.
Kathleen Ventura | Founder of Compost Crowd
About ten years ago Kathleen Ventura visited her childhood friend in Columbus, Ohio, who happened to be a subscriber of a residential compost collection service. Kathleen was fascinated by the business model and always had it in the back of her mind that Northern Arizona needed a service like that.
About seven years ago, all the stars aligned to give it a go. Compost Crowd was launched in January of 2018 with a big idea out of the back of a Mini Cooper with 10 buckets, 10 lids, a basic website, an LLC, and a payment processing software! Once there was proof of concept in West Sedona, Compost Crowd expanded collection services to the Village of Oak Creek, then restaurants, and, ultimately, to events with zero waste goals.
In the spring of 2019 Compost Crowd announced a pilot for residential collection in Flagstaff that was met with tremendous reception from the community. To date, the Crowd has diverted nearly 600 tons of organic material from the landfill.
Thomas Barr | Vice President of Business Development, Local First Arizona
Thomas Barr is the Vice President of Business Development for Local First Arizona, the largest coalition of local businesses in North America. He advocates for a strong local business community that contributes to building vibrancy, equity, and prosperity across the state. A proud Arizona native and graduate of Arizona State University, Thomas leads the strategic partnerships and business development at Local First through advancing the organization's statewide business coalition and technical assistance resources deployed to entrepreneurs.