Community Hero November 2024: NewTerra Compost
Welcome to Biobag's Community Heroes series!
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 NewTerra Compost in TN!
NewTerra Compost is a composting service based in Chattanooga, TN who provides homes, restaurants, education centers, hotels, businesses and events a better solution for disposal of food residuals and compostables. With convenient drop off locations across North Georgia and Chattanooga, everyone has the ability to make sure their food residuals don't go to a landfill. For large producers, they offer convenient weekly or biweekly pickup. Biobag Associate spoke to NewTerra Compost about the organization. Their interview is transcribed below.
What led you to start your composting operation?
NewTerra Compost was founded on the idea that composting is a local solution to a global problem. We saw that food residuals were a significant portion of our personal waste at home and when we looked around we found that we were not unique. Wanting to be part of the solution, we started learning more about better ways to handle food residuals and how we could make a solution available to more people. Our mission is to keep organic material out of landfills by making it accessible and convenient for residential and commercial members to compost. This not only reduces greenhouse gas emissions from landfills, but also generates compost that builds healthier soil.
Everything collected by NewTerra Compost is composted on site in Wildwood, Georgia using an ASP (Aerated Static Pile) method. ASP eliminates the manual turning of compost, by pumping oxygen into the pile through pipes. After 30 days of active composting, while holding temps of 140+ degrees, the compost is moved to a curing phase where it will continue to compost and break down for another 60+ days. After curing, all finished compost is screened down to 1/4". Anything that is screened off will go back into the compost system as either a bulking agent or bio filter and will continue to break down until it is small enough to screen through.
Finished compost is returned to residential members and/or donated to partnered non-profits, schools, or community gardens. When available it is also sold by the bag or truck load.
Who do you serve and how can people get in touch with you if they want to start composting?
If you are interested in composting in Chattanooga, consider our curbside compost collection. We provide you with a composting bucket for your home, you fill it with food scraps and compostable material, and we come to collect and replace it every week. Our members will also receive fresh compost every spring and fall as a part of the program. https://accounts.newterracompost.com/subscribe/
Alternatively, NewTerra provides compost drop off kiosks throughout Chattanooga Hixson, Red Bank, Signal Mountain, Ooltewah, Cleveland, and Dade County GA!
As Chattanooga’s only local composting company, NewTerra Compost aims to provide sustainable options for getting rid of waste. We care about our community, and believe that composting should be accessible to all.
On occasion, clean produce is diverted to local farmers who are looking for animal feed. This is considered by the EPA's Food Waste Hierarchy to be a beneficial and productive landfill diversion method.
Feel free to add any additional information about your operation as you see fit.
NewTerra Compost is now offering TerraCycle Zero Waste Bags to all Curbside Composting and Recycling Members!
If you would like to be featured in a future edition of Community Heroes, please email us at marketing@biobagusa.com.
