Compost Crew drives 50% growth in 2020

Compost Crew announced its results for 2020, the best year on record for the Maryland-based firm.  In the most recent fiscal year, Compost Crew grew its business by over 50%.

“I’m proud of what the team has been able to accomplish, despite the headwinds of the COVID-19 pandemic,“ said CEO Ben Parry. “With DMV residents spending more time at home and generating more food scraps, demand for our residential composting services was especially strong.”

More than 1,500 additional homes in the Maryland, District of Columbia and Northern Virginia area signed up for Compost Crew’s convenient curbside food scrap collection services in 2020.  The company extended its service area into Reston, Virginia and Ellicott City, Maryland and experienced particularly strong growth on its Baltimore and Northern Virginia routes.

While dozens of commercial clients put their services on hold due to COVID, the company added strategic new clients for its commercial collection services including JBG SMITH, Medstar Health and Episcopal High School.  The company also expanded its relationship with important commercial clients like Brookfield Properties, MOM’s Organic Market and Goodwin House.

Compost Crew continued its efforts to partner with local municipalities to bring composting options to communities around the DMV.  In 2020, the company opened food scrap drop-off sites on behalf of municipal governments in Fairfax County, Virginia; the Town of Berwyn Heights, Maryland; and the City of Greenbelt, Maryland.  In addition, Compost Crew worked with Chevy Chase Section 3 and Chevy Chase Section 5 to launch residential curbside collection programs.  

“Compost Crew made it easy for the City of Greenbelt to launch a food scraps drop-off program to help our residents divert more food scraps from the landfill,” said Kevin Carpenter-Driscoll, Environmental Coordinator with the City of Greenbelt.  “The company’s prior expertise with similar programs and its reliable service have helped make this a success for our community.”

In all, Compost Crew diverted nearly 2,500 tons of food from landfills and incinerators in 2020, saving valuable landfill space and avoiding approximately 4.4M tons of greenhouse gases (CO2-e) created by food sent to landfills. For its efforts, Compost Crew was named the best composting service in Washington, DC for 2020 by Treehugger.

To help meet the region’s rising demand for processing organic waste into compost, Compost Crew introduced an innovative new modular composting facility.  The Compost Outpost℠ can be rapidly deployed in a range of locations to promote distributed composting.  The first Compost Outpost was built on One Acre Farm in Dickerson, Maryland.  Construction took less than two months.  The company is partnering with local officials to pave the way for zoning legislation to support additional composting options.

To address the growth in its customer base, Compost Crew expanded its fleet to 11 trucks – the largest dedicated organic waste hauling fleet in the DMV area.  The company opened a new truck depot in Prince George’s County to reduce the amount of time drivers and trucks spend on route.

Compost Crew grew its staff by 25% in 2020, including two new members of its leadership team.  Dan Israel joined the company as Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing.  Israel previously held a number of marketing and general management roles at Google and Vlocity.  In addition, Musa Collidge-Asad joined the company as Head of Strategy and Finance. Collidge-Asad has extensive leadership, strategy and investment experience, including with the World Bank Group. 

Compost Crew has been actively supporting compost advocacy efforts at the state and local levels. It helped organize a composting roundtable with Montgomery County, took a leading role in the newly formed MD Compost Advocacy Coalition to work on state legislation, and established collaborative partnerships with Western Fairfax Christian Ministries, Ward 4 Mutual Aid and the Baltimore Community Fridge.

About Compost Crew

Compost Crew Inc., A Benefit Corporation is the leading organics recycling company in the DMV. The company provides simple and convenient composting solutions to thousands of businesses, organizations and residential customers throughout Maryland, Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C.