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 Windy Hill Compost in IA!
Windy Hill Compost is a composting service in Brayton, Iowa. They work to reduce food and yard waste sent to landfills to instead create an amazing soil amendment. The Biobag team connected with Craig Keiser to tell us more about the organization. Read their responses below.
What led you to start your composting operation?
After spending some time traveling to beautiful, but often poor countries and seeing firsthand issues with waste management and lack of recycling options in many of these areas, I knew I wanted to do something to help our planet and transform how we deal with our waste. After my wife and I started our own at-home composting with a simple bin around 2013, I decided I wanted to learn more about turning food waste composting into not only a business, but to provide a way to help others properly manage their waste and give something back to our planet and communities. I attended the Midwest Compost School in 2019 and 2021 where I was able to learn more about the science and business side of composting. I also sell screened buckets of the finished compost, and it is very popular with gardeners in the area.
Who do you serve and how can people get in touch with you if they want to start composting?
Windy Hill Compost services the towns of Atlantic, Exira, Elk Horn, Harlan, Brayton, and surrounding smaller and rural communities in western Iowa. I'm very willing to accommodate folks within a reasonable distance for curbside pickup service. I'm working to spread the message about how important composting is any way I can, including an educational component. I have done several presentations at libraries, museums, schools and other group events. I also offer curbside pickup services and there are five free drop-off sites with 3 in Atlantic, IA, 1 in Exira, IA, and 1 in Elk Horn, IA. These sites allow folks to drop off their food scraps and other compostable materials free of charge. So far, not too many issues of contamination and folks are filling them up quickly! They can reach out to me on Facebook & IG @WindyHillCompost, email is [email protected] and my phone is 402-676-0689.
How much organic material do you typically take in on a weekly basis?
It of course varies with the time of year, but on average I collect around 1 ton per week between curbside customers and the drop-off sites. This amount does not include the carbon/brown material that I mix the waste with.
Feel free to add any additional information about your operation as you see fit.
To date, between all curbside services, bucket swaps, and free drop-off sites, the communities that compost with Windy Hill Compost have kept around 48,000 pounds out of our landfills. Usually, I weigh the containers, but some estimates are made. I really enjoy participating in our local farmer's market, Produce in the Park in Atlantic, IA. I offer free bucket swaps each week and it's always fun to chat with local produce farmers and other vendors. I also get a lot of people that want to talk about all things compost!
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