Support Star City Compost

Star City Compost opened in January 2nd, 2024 as the first food waste compost facility in the Roanoke, VA area. Since we began operations, we have diverted more than 56 tons of food waste from entering the landfill, transforming it into healthy, living soil for local gardeners and farmers.

In the United States food waste comprises roughly 25% of what we send to the landfill. Once in the landfill, this food waste decomposes without oxygen creating methane - a greenhouse gas 20x more potent than carbon dioxide.

Despite the environmental benefits of composting there is a severe lack of composting infrastructure in the United States with an estimated 5% of food waste actually getting properly recycled into new living soil. We are literally throwing the building blocks of life into landfills causing climate change, instead of turning it back into soil and ultimately plants or food.

With just 15 permitted compost facilities in the state of Virginia and only 6 that focus on food waste recycling, the state is way behind on adapting to support this very beneficial environmentally friendly effort.

Our initial fundraising push in December helped us to raise the $2,500 bank fee, we are paying annually to cover a trust fund we must have in order to operate in State of Virginia. With $3,500 left in our fundraising goal, we are hoping to round our needs to put additional concrete pads at Star City Compost.

After two years of not being able to pay our primary catalyst and worker for the company - Davey Stewards - all while using financial resources from other co-owners, we are asking for the general community to help us cover this expense.

In January 2025, our primary ask for funding is to help us put a concrete pad in front of our aerated static compost bunkers as well as putting a new concrete pad down for our compost screening area. Presently, our tractor is digging into the gravel base gouging divots that are dangerous to work around. Simply put, imagine rolling a 400 lb. trash can over gravel while trying to avoid gouges in the ground that could make it fall onto your leg or ankle. The cost estimate we have for the new concrete pad in that area is $5,500.

We just recently purchased a soil screener, but realize we are in need of a space that will allow for screening finished compost where we won't dig up grass or gravel when trying to scoop the finished compost and put it in our finished compost storage area. We believe bringing this fundraiser to it's total goal of $8,000 and starting to sell compost will help us to afford these critical infrastructure advances

After a year of running the facility we are able to cover all of our monthly expenses and debt payments to operate the business. We are growing the business with nearly 200 residential customers and 8 commercial clients. We are presently recycling between 1.5 to 2 tons of waste per week. With steady growth we will be able to support Davey and a part time employee's salary within the next couple of months.

We plan to send thank you cards to anyone who donates to the campaign. If you would like, Davey might even be able to record a holiday jingle or song and send it over as a cameo type thank you. We could also send a t-shirt if you'd like.

We are so very grateful for the community who believes our existence is an important part of building a more sustainable future for Roanoke and Southwestern Virginia. We are committed to building a business that is a cornerstone of community based, ecological empowerment.

Davey Stewards is the founder and operator for Star City Compost. All funds raised will go directly into funding the new concrete pad ($5,500) described in the video and paying our trust fund management fee ($2,500). The money will move directly into the bank account of Star City Compost that will be utilizing these funds.