The organic waste industry is experiencing tremendous growth, causing companies and consumers to take notice. According to Organic Waste Market: Global Industry Analysis and Forecast (2023-2029), the organic waste market is anticipated to reach $51.11 billion by 2029 from $37.31 billion in 2022 at a CAGR of 4.6 percent during the forecast period.
Lauren Click is the founder and executive director of Let’s Go Compost, a non-profit dedicated to making composting free and accessible throughout the U.S. Their mission is to revolutionize waste management, reduce landfill waste, and combat harmful greenhouse gas emissions.
According to Click, the state of the organic waste segment of the recycling industry business is exciting. In recent years, there’s been a huge push within the industry, fueled by growing consumer awareness and demand for environmental sustainability with a heightened sense of responsibility towards our planet.
“It’s inspiring to see more and more individuals and organizations acknowledging the vital role composting plays in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and reducing the burden on our landfills,” Click said. “This shift in mindset is not just a trend, but a collective realization of the urgent need to embrace sustainability. By embracing composting and making it accessible to all, we can reduce waste and actively fight against climate change.”
The industry growth that Let’s Go Compost is seeing is a testament to the power of collective action, starting at the grassroots level.
“This said, I don’t believe this change is solely driven by grassroots efforts,” Click said. Top-down corporate initiatives focused on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards and meeting Scope 3 emission reduction goals (methane and carbon) are encouraging companies to compost at commercial and industrial levels.” Many of these companies understand reducing organic waste and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions are essential business practices, especially for broad stakeholders and investors. This multi-faceted approach has propelled the movement forward from the bottom up and top down.
“Organics recycling activity was quite minimal initially, and only if a business generated a certain percentage or yards or food waste, would it establish organics services,” said Melissa Modica, senior director of relationship management at Waste Harmonics, a tech-enabled managed service provider in the waste industry. “However, in recent years, we’ve observed a big push toward organics recycling throughout the U.S.. It started in California, but we’re now seeing it trickle over more and more to the east coast, with both locations setting strong thresholds and examples for organics recycling.” Waste Harmonics creates customized, technology-driven program solutions that address waste generator expectations and requirements, dealing with single-source management of service suppliers, quality of service, reduction of costs, data and reporting analytics, consolidated invoicing and landfill diversion.
Modica said there has been a significant push for these types of programs within the past year, with new organics recycling laws – commercial and residential – being adopted in Maryland and Washington, District of Columbia, and then later in 2023, we saw similar programs and regulations reaching areas like New York City.
“Organics recycling is booming in a sense and keeps pushing boundaries. It’s growing in terms of adoption and popularity,” Modica said. “Partners are also beginning to look for better or alternative outlets for diversion of their food waste to mitigate the odds that it will end up in the landfill. The business is trending upward and will continue to grow with the continued push to find alternative outlets through new legislative regulations.”
Within the municipality arena, adoption of organics recycling varies, but it is generally on the rise. As Click explained, many municipalities are implementing programs to encourage composting, especially curbside compost collection. Also, the adoption rate is highly influenced by budget constraints, public awareness, and almost always by lack of infrastructure.
“One of the biggest challenges the organics waste industry faces is accessibility. Making composting accessible to all, irrespective of location or income, remains a significant challenge to overcoming barriers to adoption,” Click said. After accessibility, there is a critical need for increased education and awareness to overcome barriers to participation.
Modica added that organics recycling tends to be more challenging for municipalities if they don’t have the outlets for organic waste. When they don’t have the outlets in place to support organics growth, they then need to find a solution, which could cost more than is budgeted or anticipated.
“However, with more legislation being passed, there’s potential for funding to support these programs within municipalities long-term,” Modica said.
Advancements
Click pointed to the need to build composting infrastructure in the U.S. to manage the surplus of organic waste created in the country. While building this infrastructure, she said we also need to ensure that facility and equipment used are net-zero, affordable, and built to last. After infrastructure, public education will be a key component for the future of the industry.
“I like to remain optimistically realistic,” Click said. “I believe the future of the organics waste recycling industry is promising, especially as consumers continue to push companies and municipalities down a more compostable-friendly path.”
And while the waste and recycling industry has seen a push for organics recycling in 2023, we can see a new wave coming in 2024 with the potential for new legislation and bills to pass that will make the parameters a bit stricter going forward.
As Modica explained, with diversion trends on the rise and as programs that emphasize the circular economy concept continue to spread from coast to coast, other southern markets like Florida that have been slower to adopt these programs may be next to jump on board. An emphasis on greener purchasing decisions by consumers and companies has also helped spur the growth of this segment in recent years (e.g., recyclable products versus straight-to-landfill).
Embracing challenges
As with any new industry advancement, organics recycling can be an expensive program. It’s not a low-cost alternative to landfill diversion and as Modica said, it’s important for companies and consumers to understand the full scope of their goals – namely, to find a proper outlet for the organic materials, and then also ensure the organics vendor accepts those materials, as well.
“Since we’re seeing that legislative compliance element start a ripple effect, now many businesses must find space to accommodate an organics retainer or bin, which increases costs,” Modica said.
Education is also crucial to the success of any organics recycling program, whether that involves a municipal-based program or a corporate program.
“It’s not a program where you can simply add a bin and let it sit idle with the hope that it’s being used properly. Rather, there needs to be a full interior and exterior training element to be successful,” Modica said. Companies, for example, need to consider design and translation elements to ensure signage is clear and accessible or, depending on the size of the facility, encourage the formation of an internal green team for consistent monitoring and reinforcement of an organics recycling program. This team can be a voice for the program and support semi-annual trainings to foster increased understanding of waste diversion programs like organics recycling.
Modica expects that we’ll continue to see organics recycling introduced in more states, so as the boundaries continue to be pushed, this will require deeper reflection from industry partners, businesses, municipalities and managed waste services providers to determine how best to actively be a part of the organics recycling infrastructure.
