Composting Strategies for Landowners with Guest Monique DiGiorgio
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Intro from Justin Osborn: Welcome to the Realtors Land Institute podcast, The Voice of Land, the industry's leading land real estate organization.
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JO: On today's podcast, we're going to have Monique DiGiorgio. She is co-owner of a curbside organic and recycling program known as Table To Farm Compost. Thanks for being on today, Monique.
Monique: Yeah, thanks so much, Justin. I'm happy to be here.
JO: So you've been with Table To Farm Compost for what, five or six years now?
Monique: Yeah, so it's an interesting story how I came to run Durango's and La Plata County's only curbside compost business. I was actually managing a non-profit called Local First, supporting local independent businesses, of which Table To Farm Compost is one. And the person who started Table To Farm was moving to a different town. At that time, we had about 100 customers and people were pretty concerned that really what's a pretty unique service in a rural community was gonna go away. And so I stepped in really as a second job to be able to keep things going, and here we are about four years later with 820 customers. So there's quite a story in between that day and now.
JO: Wow, you've grown it quite a bit. That's tremendous. Congratulations. So you mentioned the word rural, and definitely a lot of our listeners are more rural aspect, their clients are rural. So, educate us as to, why should we consider this composting program? How could other people benefit from doing something in other parts of the country as to what you're doing here in Southwest Colorado?
Monique: Yes, absolutely. The first time I heard of the concept of really composting in a residential or commercial environment, it was in the city of San Francisco. And so, many people might think, "Oh, that's the type of service that's provided really in big cities." And while that can be the case in places like Portland and Seattle and San Francisco, the actual municipalities compost and they come by, and just like they pick up your recycling and trash, they pick up your compost bin, and that compost bin is a third very important piece of the waste stream diversion. Well, that same thing can and does happen here in rural Southwest Colorado, and in fact it can be even more impactful here because we're in an environment and a context where we still have agricultural lands. The final finished product of compost can go back on to those lands.
Monique: So if we can connect the dots, household by household for residents and commercial customers to take those food scraps, make them into compost and put it back onto the land, it's the perfect kind of circular economy and circular business for a remote rural landscape like Durango. So I would say, even more so that rural areas across the West and really the nation should and could be using this as a model.
JO: And when it goes back on the land, is it going back on as a type of fertilizer, if you will, or how exactly is that process?
Monique: So compost has all kinds of bad reputations. People don't understand it. Really what it is, it's a soil amendment. So that's a great question, Justin. And what it means is that it's not soil itself. It kind of looks dark brown, it's kind of humusy, and it looks and smells earthy, but it's really a soil amendment. It's made up mostly of organic matter. Because what we do at Table To Farm Compost is we take people's food scraps that's considered nitrogen, we add it with carbon, consider wood chips, leave, something that you might do in your own backyard, when we put those together, the microorganisms do their thing, they're living and breathing and growing, and it creates this soil amendment. That soil amendment is very high in micro and macro nutrients and it's high in organic matter, so that when you add it to the soil, it basically gives you a way to boost your productivity.
Monique: So, on many farms and ranches, they might be using inorganic fertilizers. Those tend to be every year you have to apply those. It's not a living, breathing soil amendment. Ours is an organic amendment, and that means it's made up of things that were all living at one point, and there are actually billions and trillions and more millions of micro-organisms in our compost. So if you look at our compost under the microscope, which I do here at our lab, you'll see fungal growth, you'll see bacteria, you'll see protozoa. All of these organisms in the soil help make nutrients available for plants. Inorganic fertilizers do not do that. It's like it's a completely different thing. So that's what compost really is at the end of the day.
JO: And when it's going back on, is it mostly... Do you see people putting it on a small garden patches or is this going on 120-acre center pivots with alfalfa hay or?
Monique: Yeah, it's really interesting, the science of applying compost in so many different settings. And I'll just mention that, I said that Table To Farm Compost in the last five years has grown from 100 customers at 830 customers, so obviously the scale and the amount of compost that we've been creating has been growing exponentially, and we hope that's gonna happen even more. So whereas the first year I had maybe a couple of cubic yards of compost that could be given back to our customers as dividends, and yes, they can use it for their garden, they can use it indoor as a top dressing for household plants and that kind of thing. Well, now we have hundreds and hundreds of cubic yards on the farm, and so we are looking at how to utilize compost on farm applications.
Monique: So many of our farmers will buy compost and either mix it into a potting soil or they're directly apply it onto their gardens, again, as kind of a top dressing and all that good nutrients come down. You can also make actually a compost tea. So the center pivot question you had was a really, really good one, 'cause we've thought often that if we were able to make a compost tea, you can actually just connect that right into a center pivot. And so, instead of applying compost across the land, let's say in an even 1 inch application, you could actually create a tea out of it and you could spray it onto your property. So there's all kinds of ways that you could use the compost, and the more and more of it that we have, the more that we're looking to get more compost on the ground, and that's really the future of what we're doing here.
JO: And that's so cool to think about the idea of a tea. When you first said that, I was kinda like, "Oh, that sounds disgusting. I would not wanna drink that." But then, as you're explaining it, it obviously makes sense that, yeah, if you could hook that up through your irrigation system and distribute it amongst your crops, I wonder what type of results could you expect. I mean I'm sure it depends on the crop and the location, but would you expect a 5% more product or 20% more product or how much... What kind of return could somebody expect to see from without doing compost compared to with?
Monique: Well, that of course is the million dollar question. I do have to say that the Colorado Department of Agriculture regulates us and we are not allowed to guarantee a particular production increase. But anecdotally, what I can tell you is that compost is an investment over time. So as opposed to inorganic fertilizers that may last, let's say, one growing season, and then really the soil is depleted after that, when you put compost on the ground, you're actually investing in that microbial growth and organic matter and you're gonna see production increases over the years. And part of what I'm being trained to do actually through the soil food web is to help support those types of studies, Justin, on people's properties. So, okay, let's look at a farm that has a particular weed issue and they're having some productivity issues. So if we apply an inch of compost evenly, let's say twice over a year long process, we would actually go on and see, okay, how is that helping with the productivity of the plants?
Monique: It should also mean that you're out-competing weeds. Compost has all kinds of benefits that I think aren't always articulated when people first think of it. It helps with water conservation because of the organic matter that's in it. So now, all of a sudden, you're putting basically a soil amendment on your property, on your field, your farm or in your backyard that's helping to conserve water, it's bringing nutrients into the ground that's making it available for plants, and it's actually helping those plants pull carbon and sequester carbon down into the ground, and the ultimate benefit is gonna be a healthier, better, more productive plant. I probably wouldn't give you a percentage, but I'd like to do... So there's studies out there that could tell you, in this particular scenario, it was a 10% or 20% productivity increase, but it kind of depends, case by case.
JO: So walk me through the process. Let's say Tammy and I wanted to be your 831st customer. Do we get a bin and we're throwing our banana pills and our orange pills and then you're picking it up at our curb once a week or once a month? Walk me through the process.
Monique: Yeah, so it's very convenient. Basically, you go to our website, tabletofarmcompost.com, and really in five minutes or less, you should be able to set yourself up. You just need your physical address, which is where we're gonna come and drop off your bucket, you put in a credit card 'cause it's a monthly subscription, and in a couple of minutes, all of that data comes into our database and within a week we drop off a five-gallon green bucket at your house. Throughout the week, you add food scraps, only the organic matter goes into the bucket, and then on your pick-up day, when you sign up, we tell you what your pick-up day, at 8:00 AM, you put that bucket out, and just like your trash or recycling would get picked up, we empty that green bucket. We also give you sawdust to keep the buckets clean. So you put a little bit of sawdust on the bottom, and that actually keeps your buckets really clean, and the compost process is kind of starting in your bucket. So it really is quite easy, and that's all you need to do.
Monique: I would say, anecdotally from my personal experience, I used to compose in my backyard, but now I use the service 'cause it's so convenient. It takes all that stinky organic manner out of your trash. So my trash and my recycling bins do not smell. The people on my block that have Table To Farm Compost buckets, the bears do not come to our bucket. I'm just saying they don't, because you're taking the organic matter that would basically break down and be stinking and you're putting it in a separate bucket with carbon. So generally, it ends up, all of your trash and everything that you're doing from a waste management perspective, ends up being cleaner and easier and just honestly more fulfilling. Now, the other piece is that when you sign up, you get three five-gallon dividends of compost every year. So it's gardening season, so you can go into the portal on our website and you can request one or three compost dividends and we drop those off on the same day that we come and pick up your food scraps. So that's another pretty huge benefit, and a lot of people take advantage of that.
JO: So are you set up as a co-op then?
Monique: So Table To Farm Compost is actually an S corporation. So we are a for-profit corporation. When I say dividend, we're using the terminology that, yeah, like a traditional co-op might use in terms of like, "Hey, you're contributing this, you get this back." So it's a similar model, but we are not a cooperative.
JO: And are these scattered across the country, or is there similar platforms across the country or is this something just specific to Southwest Colorado?
Monique: So, there are many curbside compost businesses across the nation. I mean, it is a small but growing group. Typically, it tends to be like one or two that you might have heard of in almost each state, and our trade association, the US Compost Council is doing the work to increase the awareness of composting and help businesses like Table To Farm get going. But in our neighboring state, Arizona, I don't believe Flagstaff or any of the major cities and Arizona have a curbside compost. I don't think Utah does, and actually I know New Mexico doesn't. So yes, there are quite a few states and cities that have a company like ours, but it's not everywhere. So it's kind of a unique situation, I think, in Durango to have the service.
JO: Well, definitely sounds like a window of opportunity for our listeners that are in our neighboring states to get something like this rolling to benefit the community.
Monique: Yes, absolutely.
JO: So are you hooked in with any large, I'll say, commercial accounts? I mean, I've got kids at the high school, kids at the middle school. I would think that there's a huge opportunity for the waste that happens there. The hospital is another thing that comes to my mind. Are those options?
Monique: Yeah, so we just permitted the first and only Class III compost facility in La Plata County, and I'm telling this to you as a way to explain where we would like to head in terms of your question on commercial accounts and just the amount of material that we're processing. So as a Class III compost facility, were regulated by the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment, and then La Plata County, we have a Class II commercial permit. So this is huge, and for your audience that understands the regulatory and permitting process, it's a big deal, because once you're permitted to do that, that means we have a resource in our community to grow compost and scale it up. So remember how I said, "Oh, when I first bought the business and we had 100 customers, maybe I was making 20 cubic yards a year?" I mean, it was probably more like 10. We are now permitted to have on-site 18,000 cubic yards at any given time, and that means that throughout the year, we might be going through two processes of compost, which I can get on to the science if you'd like me to later, but let's call it 30,000 cubic yards a year.
Monique: So, yeah, that means we want every single piece of organic matter, whether it's coming from the brewery, Niner, the restaurants in town, residences, everywhere, coming to our facility, 'cause that's the only way we're gonna be able to ramp up. The actual production of compost is making sure that everybody contributes and that we can meet our goals. There is a cost to composting. So our biggest barrier, we find, is just, first education, and then I think businesses and local governments understanding why it makes sense to pay for compost. I think there can often be a misperception that like, "Oh, we're picking these resources up for free and we're making something that we can sell, and so therefore it should all be free." And it's like, that's not really how it works on planet Earth. It costs us a lot too.
Monique: I have the staff to drive the vehicle, to pick up the resources, bring them back and bring them through what is a very scientific process to make compost. So I think there needs to be a bit of a paradigm shift in people's thinking that compost is just free, 'cause we pay for our trash and we subsidize our landfill, and we pay for recycling. So it's a similar thing, and I think the more that we start composting, those other costs to society should be going down because where we're moving, let's call it 30% of material if we go to the landfill, that will be compost in instead. So it's all linked together, so I think we need people to start seeing it differently. So I hope in a couple of years from now, Justin, that all of those institutions that you mentioned are using our service. We are working on it, so.
JO: Wow, that's very enlightening and educational and a little convicting I got to say, that 30% of my waste that's going to the landfill could be going to you instead.
Monique: Yeah. So typically, on average, a residential household will create 20 pounds of food scraps a month. Those 20, that adds up.
JO: Well, yeah. You put a 16-year-old athlete in there that's eating me out of my grocery budget, I'm sure that's probably more like 40% or 50% in my house.
Monique: Exactly. So we're an active community here. We always say that what's in your compost bucket is a nice reflection of how well you're eating. And I get it, sometimes there's just not as much as there might be on any average day, but if you're eating healthy and you're really trying to have whole good foods, there's gonna be a lot more than you think in your compost bucket. There's often like, "Oh, I don't create that much compost." Well, when you start setting it aside and putting it in the bucket, it's gonna be more than you think.
JO: So you mentioned this new facility. What size of... How much land did you need in order to build this facility?
Monique: Yeah, so our facility is located just north of Elmore's Corner on County Road 236, and it's four acres. So we went from one acre to four acres, which four acres is a great size. There are other comparable compost facilities in Colorado that are maybe an acre or two, and you can do a lot on an acre or two, but we were lucky enough to work with the farmer there that would set aside four acres for us. So it's a nice sized facility. And I mentioned the science of compost, so people might be aware of vermicompost or using worms to compost, we use the thermophilic process. So that means that we manage the piles, carbon and nitrogen ratios in open air windrows, which basically are these long windrows about 7 feet high and 8 feet wide, and we add air into that process so that the heat and the temperatures get up to sometime around 150 degrees. That kills the pathogens and basically ends up in a process that create safe compost that you can use on your garden or on your property. And we manage those temperatures in a certain way so that the compost is created with a seal of testing assurance from the US Compost Council.
JO: Awesome. Well, this is so educational. We're always thinking about as realtors, how we can best serve our clients, and this is just another tool that I can put in my tool box for a farmer or rancher that may have some land set aside, and I didn't realize you could do it on only four acres. But something like that, in other parts of the country, they could turn around and lease it out to somebody that's got a similar operation to yourself and help offset some of their holding cost.
Monique: Yeah, and then the other thing I would say from a realtor standpoint, we are starting to work more with HOAs. And even though we have 800 customers, there is just a lot more we could be doing. So whether it's a small residence, an HOA or if it's a larger property, whether it's the actual subscription of picking up, having us pick up compost or if it's the end application of the product, there are all kinds of ways where, yeah, it could connect to your conversation.
JO: Awesome. Well, I've got a couple of ending notes here Monique that I'll go through. Do you have anything else that you wanna drop in before we start wrapping up?
Monique: Yeah, I would just end the conversation by saying, for all the reasons, that compost is a valuable soil amendment, for all the reasons, we want organic matter out of the landfill so it's not creating methane and greenhouse gas emission. I would say, from a climate standpoint, which may not be your first priority, compost hits the climate crisis at three areas. It reduces methane by taking organic matter out of an anaerobic landfill and creating a soil amendment that then goes on the ground and actually pulls carbon into the ground and helps to grow food at the end of the day. So, for all of us that care about planet Earth, 'cause we're on it and we need it, it's a pretty amazing thing.
JO: Wow, very well said. Well, I'd like to thank you for joining us today, Monique. I hope our listeners will use the information you provided to help better serve their clients. And for more expertise on land real estate topics, be sure to check out our RLI blog, follow us on social media, and of course, tune in for upcoming episodes of The Voices of Land Podcast.
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