🔒As MIRA trash plant readies for closure, food-scrap hauler Blue Earth Compost sees major growth opportunity with new Hartford HQ, fundraising campaign

In an effort to position itself as the leading answer to Connecticut’s trash conundrum, the largest food-scrap hauler in the state is looking to expand its reach and operations as ways of getting rid of garbage statewide dwindle.

With the upcoming closure of the state’s largest trash-burning plant in Hartford, the pair behind Blue Earth Compost want to mainstream their food-scrap collection services to provide “curbside composting for all,” while working to save municipalities and businesses money on trash removal, said Director of Business Development Samuel King.

By picking up food scraps set in separate containers by residents and businesses, including hospitals, restaurants and universities, Blue Earth CEO Alexander Williams said his company has diverted more than 20 million pounds of food waste from the trash stream since he and his father bought the company in 2014.

Blue Earth hauls waste to composting sites and an anaerobic digester at Quantum Biopower in Southington, where it’s turned into both compost that can be given back to its customers and renewable electricity.

Over the last eight years, Blue Earth has grown from 20 customers to a combination of 1,500 residential customers and more than 250 corporate clients in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York.

The company’s fleet has also grown, from one Saturn Vue in the early days, Williams said, to a half-dozen waste and dump trucks, with a seventh in the works. One of those is an electric vehicle from XOS in Los Angeles, Williams said, and is considered the first of its kind in the state. The company wants to have a zero-emissions fleet by 2030.

In March, Blue Earth nearly quadrupled the size of its headquarters to better accommodate operations, moving from its 4,000-square-foot space on Main Street to a 15,000-square-foot facility on Midland Street.

While the business lost about one-third of its commercial clients during the early part of the pandemic, King said it gained residential customers, and since 2019, Blue Earth has more than doubled in size.

Last year the company had its most successful year yet, King said, growing by 45% with a 15% profit margin. And its commercial client base has returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Lack of capacity

Blue Earth sees even bigger growth opportunities ahead with fewer options for garbage disposal looming. The Hartford waste-to-energy plant, which is run by the Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority (MIRA), handles about 33% of the state’s trash, but it’s slated to cease operations no later than July 31. That will force Connecticut to transport more of its trash to out-of-state landfills, a costly move. (Connecticut generates about 2.4 million tons of trash annually; 1.4 million of that total is handled by in-state incinerators like the MIRA trash plant, according to the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.)

“There just isn’t the capacity [in Connecticut] to absorb one-third of the state’s trash,” Williams said. “That’s a huge problem.”

“There’s a massive amount of improvement we can make,” he added.

In an effort to scale the business with the hope of picking up more of the food waste slack, Blue Earth has launched a community fundraising campaign aiming to raise $500,000 through crowdfunding platform Wefunder. The company is selling 20% of its equity, available to both accredited and non-accredited investors, with a $100 minimum investment.

“We’re trying to shout as loud as we can, ‘hey, we’re over here,’ ” said King. “We’re about to hit a huge growth spurt, and that’s what this fundraiser is all about. We want to be innovative and we want to be ahead of the game.”

The funding will be used for increasing curbside composting; multiplying commercial sales; opening a second location in Stamford to more easily serve customers in southwestern Connecticut; and adding five to six additional jobs to its 10-employee team by the end of the year.

Blue Earth is also looking to add composting equipment in Hartford to increase its food-scrap processing capabilities.

An application with the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) for a composting unit that could process up to 25 tons of food scraps per month is in technical review, according to the agency, with approval expected in coming weeks.

“They’re an innovative business with a social consciousness that’s providing a critical service when Connecticut needs it most,” said DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes. “They’re a great example of a company right here in Hartford that’s been scaling up a food-scrap collection program for residents.”

Financial sense

The subject of removing food waste from the trash stream has also made its way into the state’s political landscape. Last spring, the General Assembly voted to require businesses that generate 26 tons or more of food scraps to divert them for recycling.

Diverting food waste not only helps the environment, Dykes said, but makes sense from a financial standpoint as well. For example, MIRA’s tipping fees, or the fee paid to dispose of waste in a landfill, have risen 40% over the last five years, she said, to $111 per ton. In contrast, Dykes added, Quantum charges $65 per ton to manage organic waste.

“That’s a significant savings on tip fees. At the same time, it’s a great environmental story,” she said. “It makes all the sense in the world, environmentally and economically, to be scaling up organic diversion.”

Middletown city officials have noticed a cost savings and trash reduction since it began working with Blue Earth last January, according to city Recycling Coordinator Kim O’Rourke. The city awarded Blue Earth a contract through an RFP process to help with Middletown’s Feed the Earth initiative. Using Blue Earth was less expensive than a traditional waste hauler, she added, and the program allowed downtown Middletown restaurants to compost food scraps instead of throwing them away.

During the program’s first year, 132.4 tons of food scraps from 45 different restaurants have been hauled by Blue Earth and diverted from the city’s trash stream.

“It’s really the biggest jump in recycling we’ve had in years. There’s huge potential there,” said O’Rourke. “If we could capture the food from the waste stream, that would really help us solve the waste crisis.”

With more than two dozen towns already exiting their contracts with MIRA, King said Blue Earth wants to be ready to help fill the gap.

“Trash is just a lack of imagination,” said King. “It’s a lack of creativity on the part of the system.”