Each month, we will highlight community heroes that are making a difference in their communities and working to make their local environments cleaner and healthier.
This month, we are taking a look at Compost Queens TX in TX!
Compost Queens TX is a residential and commercial composting service based in TX, serving the San Antonio area. Biobag Associate spoke to Alma Rominger with Compost Queens TX about the organization. Their interview is transcribed below.
What led you to start your composting operation?
We had long known the environmental and garden benefits of composting and did our own composting in our backyard. Learning about the benefits of Bokashi Composting is what inspired us to create Compost Queens. We thought that the ease of use would really help encourage our community to start composting and we wanted to share the magic! We wanted to make it as easy as possible so that more people were able to divert their food scraps and we could lower our community-produced emissions, all while helping to grow food as well!
Who do you serve and how can people get in touch with you if they want to start composting?
We service residents and businesses in the San Antonio area with our composting services and will be selling our Bokashi flakes nationwide in our online store by March 2021.
How much organic material do you typically take in on a weekly basis?
We collect an average of 9,000lbs per week.
Feel free to add any additional information about your operation as you see fit.
Compost Queen’s Bokashi style composting makes it incredibly easy to reduce your food waste. All you need to begin is an airtight container and a bag of Bokashi flakes! We have 100% compostable packaging for our Bokashi Flakes! These bags and labels are completely compostable! Filled with 5 QT of our Bokashi Flakes, these bags will last you through 60 gallons of food waste!
We make our own Bokashi Flakes from upcycled coffee chaff that we get from local San Antonio coffee roasters. We ferment this chaff our own home-grown EM(effective microbe mix) and dry it out for long term storage. Compost Queens' Bokaffee is used to ferment food scraps to make them easier to break down in the soil or in a compost pile. The EM also helps break down the food so that beneficial soil microbes can better thrive!
Bokaffee can also be used to minimize the smell of animal enclosures or litter boxes when mixed with their bedding. Additionally, they can be fed to chickens and horses as a probiotic supplement, which will help aid in their digestion and make their manure more fertile. It can also be added directly to wet soil for a probiotic boost.
Our nutrient rich soil is made from local Bokashi-fermented food scraps and contains an incredible amount of biomass and live beneficial microbes ideal for maintaining soil health. It can be used as topsoil, in potted plants, or as an amendment to help revitalize the soil.
