In 2009, Tim Bennett discovered a gap in services for sustainability-minded Philadelphians.
The then-recent Temple graduate wanted to compost his food scraps to help divert greenhouse gas-producing food waste from landfills. But as a South Philly apartment dweller, he didn’t have space to compost at home.
“I was living in a second floor apartment at 16th and Dickinson” Bennett told Technical.ly. “I thought maybe there was someone who would take [food waste for composting], or maybe someplace I can bring it to, and that didn’t really exist.”
“I thought, well, this probably won’t go anywhere, but I’ve spent $100 on less interesting things in my life.”
Tim Bennett, Bennett Compost
He founded Bennett Compost the same year, with just $100 and no high expectations. Today, the company has 32 employees and collects kitchen scraps from more than 6,500 Philadelphia households and over 125 local businesses each week, turning food waste into usable compost.
Now headquartered in Lawncrest, in the lower Northeast, the 16-year-old company is one of Philadelphia’s enduring examples of a community-driven sustainability startup that has scaled without outside investors, fueled instead by word-of-mouth, neighborhood density and people who want to help the environment.
Why compost?
Composting is the natural process of recycling organic material, such as food scraps and yard waste, into a nutrient-rich soil amendment. It improves soil health and reduces the amount of waste sent to landfills.
Food waste makes up about a quarter of municipal solid waste, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, which found that, in 2019, only 5% of 66.2 million tons of wasted food in the US was composted.
Modeling by the Rocky Mountain Institute suggests that diverting 75% of US food waste currently landfilled to composting could reduce associated greenhouse-gas emissions by 80% to 90% compared with landfilling, based on the EPA’s Waste Reduction Model.
For people like Bennett concerned about the negative environmental impact of greenhouse gas emissions, composting is a way to contribute to an increase in the amount of food waste that doesn’t end up in landfills.
Once composted, the resulting soil amendment is used for agriculture, including home and community gardens. Bennett Compost customers have the option to receive two 5-gallon bags of compost each year, though Bennet said many are happy just to have their bucket of scraps picked up every week.
From a $100 gamble to 10 customers to 100 and more
Bennett saw the potential for an urban composting service in Philadelphia. But he didn’t expect it to take off. He remembered the words of his Temple business professors, who said that while first startups build valuable entrepreneurial experience, they almost always fail.
“I put a hundred bucks in the bank account, and I thought, well, this probably won’t go anywhere, but I’ve spent $100 on less interesting things in my life,” Bennett said.
He started by hanging flyers — the kind with the tear-off tabs — in local coffee shops. That drew about 10 customers. He took that money and spent it on vending fees at a sustainability-focused event in Headhouse Square.
“I had a table, and I made a very homemade sign that said ‘Composting,’ and I set up shop,” Bennett said. “It was one of those beautiful September weekend days in Philly and there were thousands of people … And I left there with over 100 emails.”
In those days, he took the collected organic waste to a nearby community garden. He had made a deal with the person running it: If he could have space for a small compost bin, the garden could have the compost to use for fertilizer. As the service grew, Bennett Compost partnered with more community gardens.
“Today,” Bennett said, “we run two permanent composting facilities under the state Dept. of Environmental Protection.”
One thing that hasn’t changed: Buckets of food waste are collected by environmentally-friendly bicycles in many of the city neighborhoods it serves.
Growing in Philly, with ‘a lot of good people’
Bennett wasn’t born in Philly. He moved to the city from Rochester, New York, to attend Temple, and stayed.
“For a big East Coast city that has density, it’s about as low cost as it gets, much lower cost than New York,” he said.
Philly in the late 2000s was already open to the idea of urban composting, Bennett said.
“It had a good guerilla agricultural scene,” he said. “For all of the things that people complain about, I think there are a lot of good people here who are trying to make the right choices.”
Bennett Compost is highly involved with the community, from hosting weekly cleanups in the neighborhood to urban compost accessibility. Its partnerships include the Tacony/Tookany-Frankford Watershed in Lawncrest, agricultural sciences magnet Walter B. Saul High School and the New Kensington Community Development Corporation.
Over the last 16 years, the number of people who are interested in composting has grown, Bennett said. Where it was once very niche, the company has built up a customer base consisting of a mix of all different kinds of people.
“Sixteen and a half years later, I’m still doing it,” Bennett said. “It’s kind of a crazy journey.”
