Wonder what grocery stores do with unused and expired produce? How about food scraps our restaurants end up with? Compost Crusaders to the rescue! Business owner Melissa Tashjian hauls 60,000 pounds of organic materials each month from business, office and residential buildings.
"We take all our material to the farms composting in Caledonia," says Melissa, owner of the female run business. "They are experts in processing it, recycling it and turning it into a finished product called compost."
She started small, by helping community gardens compost their organic waste and soon realized many businesses around Milwaukee wanted to compost, but didn't have the resources. Thanks to the expertise from her boyfriend and master diesel mechanic Matt, Melissa now has a garbage truck and 27 clients, making pick-ups a few times a week from local restaurants and grocery stores.
"The businesses that are doing this sought us out," Melissa explains. "They are really the inspiration for making this come together." Melissa says that businesses are pleasantly surprised how cost effective it is to compost. Compost Crusaders provide the recycling bins to customers too.
