Table to Farm Compost, a local business that composts food scraps and delivers the end soil product to local growers, is expanding its subscriber list through a partnership with the city of Durango, with a market study and by doing education efforts.
Marty Pool, sustainability manager for the city of Durango, said in a report to Durango City Council that Table to Farm Compost has grown its subscriber count by about 250 since launching a market study in September.
The market study, formerly called the Curbside Compost Market Study, incentivizes people to subscribe by offering three full months of free composting service in return for taking two surveys, one at the beginning of the free trial and another at the end, she said.
Pool said he expects the surveys will provide meaningful user data about what works well and what challenges people might have in adopting composting at home.
Nicole Hanson-Riley, digital communications manager for Table to Farm Compost, said she anticipates program cost and lack of education about composting will be revealed as barriers to entry through the market study.
“We’re hoping people will stay on after they try our program, and if they can’t, we’ll figure out why they’re not able to,” she said.
She said the response was “huge” when the market study and free trial launched. Table to Farm Compost had about 100 new subscribers in the first week and a half of the market study and more and more people have signed on since.
“We’re doing a consumer-based social marketing approach,” she said. “I envision it as grassroots – you go door-to-door and you’re personal and just making it kind of a norm in your community. It seems like that also helps grow and spread the word.”
The market study is being conducted in two phases. The first phase began in September and will end with another big push to spread the word in early November. The Table to Farm Compost, along with Pool, will review survey responses, make adjustments to the surveys and launch them again in the spring of 2023, she said.
Although Table to Farm Compost hasn’t dived deeply into survey responses yet, Hanson-Riley said one thing the team has noticed is that program participants are pretty evenly split between homeowners and renters.
The city contracted with Table to Farm Compost through a public-private partnership in order to work together toward making composting a communitywide activity, she said. Pool has helped with marketing, education and outreach materials and helped design the market study’s surveys.
The market study was paid for by an $119,000 RREO (Recycling Resources Economic Opportunity Program) grant from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, supplementing the logistics and materials costs associated with providing three months of free services to hundreds of people, she said.
“I think we’re just so happy to be spreading the word in our local community. And we love that we’re a closed loop,” she said. “You give your food out and you can get it back in the form of compost.”
People interested in giving Table to Farm’s composting program a whirl can take the survey and sign up for service at https://tabletofarmcompost.com/marketstudy/
“Finish signing up on our website and then we will deliver you a green bucket and you can try it out for yourself,” she said.
Table to Farm Compost launched in 2016, Hanson-Riley said. Its goal is to “take your food scraps and turn them into a living soil that sequesters carbon from the atmosphere down into the ground supporting plant health and microscopic life that keeps the soil food web alive and healthy,” according to the official website.
Taylor Hanson, co-owner of Table to Farm Compost, said the business’ goal is to get the Durango community hooked on composting its food scraps.
“And the reason is that food scraps are creating methane in the landfill. And methane is 72 to 84 times as potent as carbon dioxide,” he said.
He said nutrient-rich compost also pulls carbon from the atmosphere and helps healthier plants and produce grow. Composting ends up being a way to contribute back to the agriculture community. His business partner, Monique DiGiorgio, described the Table to Farm’s business model as a loop.
“The whole life cycle at Table to Farm matches the carbon life cycle,” she said. “When we divert the food scraps from the landfill we reduce emissions. And then when we make the compost and put it in the ground we’re actually pulling carbon into the soil and introducing organic matter and microorganisms into the soil.”
The compost produced by food scraps is sold to local farmers, who sell their healthy produce to consumers.
“I’m diverting my food scraps and that’s going to help basically create a product (compost) and that’s going to grow food here locally that might end up literally back at your table if you participate with one of the CSA’s that purchases compost from us,” she said.
She said the number of local farmers buying compost from Table to Farm Compost grows each year.
cburney@durangoherald.com
Nicole Hanson-Riley’s full name was not included in a previous version of this story and “CSA’s” referenced by Monique DiGiorgio were misnamed.
