Blue Earth Compost’s Community Round lets regular people invest in a green future
THE COMPANY’S EQUITY CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN, AIMING TO RAISE $400K, COMES TO A CLOSE THIS SATURDAY, APRIL 22ND.
A Hartford business, Blue Earth Compost, has been tackling the enormous issue of food waste in Connecticut for years now. When Blue Earth Compost started, picking up pails door to door in minivan, the idea of an organics collection service was pretty niche locally and around the county. But the writing has been on the wall that this would change. Up to 50% of material put at the curb for trash or recycling is compostable and studies say that 40% of the food that we grow in the United States is wasted. Most of that waste is generally put in landfill or burned in a trash to energy incinerator. If food waste were a country it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world.
Increasingly it’s believed that one of the best ways to mitigate climate change is how we manage our soil. When food is composted much of the carbon in the food is able to end up back in our soils, creating a better carbon cycle. The carbon cycle is the delicate balance between carbon in the ground and in the air. We're experiencing climate change because too much carbon is in the atmosphere. When we compost food scraps we sequester carbon into the soil, as well as, enriching the microbes and health of the soil and the crops grown from them.
Blue Earth Compost makes composting accessible to homes, businesses, and municipalities by offering collection services. The company has received local and national recognition for their work and is largest food scrap collection company in CT. At the moment, it would seem that they, and their industry are really just getting started.
Members of the Blue Earth Compost team pose for a photo.
Right now, Blue Earth composts about 4,000 tons (nearly 9 million pounds) of food scraps per year, but in Connecticut alone about 540,000 tons are generated. The room and need for growth is huge.
For the past several months, Blue Earth has been running a “Community Round” on the equity crowdfunding platform WeFunder. The campaign allows individuals to invest as little as $100 to own a piece of the growing business in a growing industry. At the time of publishing they have raised $388,295, from 305 investors with the goal of reaching $400,000 by the time the campaign closes on Saturday April 22nd, Earth Day.
