Support Star City Compost: Financial Assurance and Safety

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.

Part of the reason for this is the very high cost of building the infrastructure to support a permitted facility, as well as the difficulty in obtaining a permit. Their are additional burdensome fees imposed by the State of Virginia to provide financial assurance for potential closure of the facility. Every year our little company must pay $2,500 to a bank in exchange for holding a trust fund of roughly $8,000 that the state would be able to seize for cleaning up the facility in the instance that we completely abandon it. Check out this article for more information.

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.

The additional ask for funding is to help us put a concrete pad in front of our aerated static compost bunkers. 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.

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 6 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 just recently purchased a soil screener! So, soon we will be able to start selling compost to the general public as well.

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.