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 explains the community focus of Compost Crowd, from educating residents on waste reduction to engaging in local initiatives like pumpkin drop-offs and watershed cleanups. Highlighting partnerships with groups like Local First Arizona’s Green Business Boot Camp, Kathleen emphasizes that Compost Crowd is a collective movement for change, while also celebrating recognitions as a green business leader and sharing plans for expansion into Prescott Valley, a vision Thomas applauds for its positive impact on Arizona.
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. 
Brock Delinski and Kathleen Ventura are the husband/wife team that co-founded, own, and operate Compost Crowd. They collect and wash the buckets, answer the emails, run social media, staff their booth at the farmers market, and everything in between. They feel honored to be doing meaningful work that contributes positively to their community and the climate crisis.
Sustainability efforts of the business, of course, include diverting food scraps from the landfill – which avoids the anaerobic breakdown of organic matter in the landfill that leads to the emission of methane, a Greenhouse Gas with 87x the warming potential of CO2 on a 20-year timeline, plus returning these valuable nutrients to the earth decreases the need for synthetic fertilizer, erosion, and water use in agriculture.
Beyond that, within the business they reclaim water used to wash buckets and use eco-friendly soap, optimize collection routes for fuel efficiency, choose used vehicles rather than brand new in their operations, and partner with a local farm striving for an organic certification.
Follow Compost Crowd on Facebook and Instagram.
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About Your Host
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.
As the Vice President of Business Development, Thomas guides the direction and execution of Local First’s key initiatives and partnerships, as well as the collaboration of 60+ staff implementing work in entrepreneurship programs and access to capital, rural and tribal community development, and local food economic development. He speaks to groups both locally and nationally, presenting the impact of Local First through demonstrating the organization’s effectiveness in building economic opportunity for more than 20 years.
Outside of Local First Arizona, Thomas has contributed his time throughout his career to many causes and organizations including the American Independent Business Alliance, Arizona Commission on the Arts, Equality Arizona, Heritage Square Foundation, Phoenix Legal Action Network, and Young Nonprofit Professionals. He currently serves on the small business advisory council for Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, as a member of the multicultural advisory board for ONE Community, and as a member of the board for Tempe Tourism.
Thomas is a 2018 Phoenix Magazine and 2020 Phoenix Business Journal 40 Under 40 honoree, alumni of Arizona Leading for Change, and alumni of Valley Leadership Institute’s 40th cohort.
Connect with Thomas on LinkedIn and Twitter.
