Yes! GoZERO has the operational and compliance knowhow relating to accumulating, processing, and marketing compost related services and products necessary for managing some or all of the activities required to successfully site and operate a full compost production facility or a supporting depot on a third party’s property.

Doing so is ideal for organizations with large compostable waste disposal needs and constrained budgets, available land, and an interest in allowing GoZERO to manage expansion of on site composting activities and becoming a waste-free leader in the region.

It's part of GoZERO’s long term strategy to proliferate these types of sites and activities in order to increase efficiency and locality engagement in reducing the amount of food waste going to landfill. If you have space and interest, but not necessarily knowhow or bandwidth, we can help.

GoZERO calls these sites “Compost Outposts.”

This Article Includes

Why Compost Outposts
Basic Requirements
Getting Started
Activity Types
A Recommended Path To Full Onsite Food Waste Composting
Example Agreement Sections

Why Compost Outposts

Enjoy cost effective composting disposal services in exchange for operating space.
Enjoy cost and risk mitigation via GoZERO’s involvement.
Discover revenue opportunities through compost related services and product partnerships.
Discover new opportunities to attract research and educational programing and funding.
Create operational efficiencies which aid diverting more organic matter away from landfills and reduce climate impact.
Be recognized as a regional sustainability leader.

Basic Requirements

Potential host sites may include but are not limited to existing city or township service centers, metro parks or other public lands, brownfields, landscape or green waste operation hubs like tree trimmers or supply stores, active or inactive livestock operations, and/or any space that even loosely meets the below requirements.

Site Requirements In Order of Priority

security – Is there reasonable confidence that theft and vandalism will not occur?
24/7 access – Can people and equipment easily come and go outside of regular business hours when needed? Not creating off hours disturbances is a priority. However, operations usually require some flexibility.
a fitting neighborhood – Is the space situated in such a way that agricultural activities and equipment would be well suited? For example, the space is relatively low traffic and not densely residential in nature? Thinking of composting as similar in nature to agriculture, light commercial, light manufacturing, or construction may be helpful.
2,000+ sqft of drivable pavement or gravel – At minimum operations involve commercial truck traffic and hand pushed carts. 2,000+ sqft of outside working surface to manage these and additional equipment and materials is a best practice.
2+ acres of well drained land – For a site which has an interest in eventually hosting actual on site composting, not fewer than 2 acres of well drained land should be available for material reception, compost windrowing, and composting finishing activities.
electric access – If trucks are to be staged over winter at a given site, block heaters may need to be plugged in.
water access – If material is ever unloaded at a site wash water and water to top up tanks may be needed.
storm cover and/or inside space – This is NOT essential. If needed, we may be able to construct our own.

Getting Started

A significant amount of socialization and setup, carefully planned incremental ramp up, and ongoing care is essential to ensuring operations are sustainable. Typically, it’s appropriate to determine activities which best suit a site or organization’s objectives and constraints.

A phased approach – starting with what small things can be easily done in the near term as a means of getting started while also thinking through to a final goal state is recommended. With the beginning and the end in mind incremental phases can be planned, creating space to tailor activities as they are added and develop onsite. In this way right sizing can be done balancing what a host organization desires, a property can support, and a neighborhood service area needs.

Activity Types

Commercial Service Location
Drop-off Station
Equipment Staging
Vehicle Parking
Cart Swapping
Containerized Material Aggregation
Green & Brown Waste Composting
Food Waste Composting & Research
Food Donation & Waste Reduction
Biochar Production & Research
Algae Production & Research
Solar & Wind Power Production & Research
Biogas Production & Research
Permaculture Production & Research

Commercial Service Location

This is GoZERO’s core service. We place 64 gallon carts with anyone who will have us. We help consult on how to get compostable materials to those carts, and we make sure that material is transported to a licensed commercial composting facility on an ongoing, seasonal, or close ended basis.

Pictured below is a commercial service location with Hilliard City Schools as carts are being emptied before being washed and lined with a certified compostable liner.

Drop-off Station

This is a derivative of our core business. Either on a subscription supported or locally sponsored basis individuals are invited to bring their compostables from home to centrally staged carts for GoZERO to service just like commercial carts. A station can be hosted by a commercial composting customer or stood up independently.

Pictured below are two locally sponsored residential drop-off stations with the cities of Worthington and Dublin, Ohio respectively where on a weekly interval individuals drop off food waste passively with no active oversight and GoZERO then collects food waste and services carts. Note: cart filling beyond the point they can close complete is not recommended. However, it can be taken as a proxy indicator of a popular program.

Equipment Storage

This is the most primitive, low intensity outpost tier. It involves making a space available to store GoZERO’s 64 gallon rollout carts for access while in the area. A single parking space is a minimum amount of space, and if not entirely secure carts can be cable locked together. An additional storage chest, shed, or similar may be added if acceptable. Water and electric access are not essential here.

Pictured below is one of GoZERO’s very first cart staging sites in Madisonville, OH. Having the ability to deploy or pull back a few carts in a given neighborhood to a site like this helps with day-to-day efficiencies, makes the work easier for drivers, and cuts down on total miles driven.

Vehicle Parking

This is also a very passive low intensity outpost tier. However, a little more space and security would likely be appropriate. Equipment plus a truck (40’ long), trailer, or similar may be parked at a site like this for short or longer periods. Something the size of several parking spaces (1,000 sqft +/-) would be appropriate here, and at least electric if not also water access would likely be needed.

Pictured below are two GoZERO trucks staged at the London Correctional Institute. Electric is supplied for plugging block heaters in during cold weather, and water is available to top up onboard water tanks.

Cart Swapping

The concept here is that, in order to encourage efficiencies and engagement, a local operator with a smaller vehicle like a pickup truck and landscape trailer would pull several empty GoZERO carts from this location, swap them for full carts at near by commercial service locations, and return the full carts to this location to be serviced by a larger GoZERO truck. The compostable materials are aggregated / transferred without ever leaving their containers to be serviced all at once rather than only a couple at a time, dispersed across the neighborhood. A couple parking spaces is as much as would be needed.

Pictured below are carts staged for swapping at Greenspeed Products in Dayton, OH. Several carts are set up either empty (ready to be deployed into the community by a local cart swapper) or full (ready to be emptied and serviced by a GoZERO truck). Still others are stacked waiting to be set up as the need arises as new locations start composting services in the area. Swapping full carts for empties around the neighborhood reduces the number of stops the commercial truck has to make in an area, and thereby improves efficiency.

Containerize Aggregation Station

Somewhat like a traditional solid waste transfer station, compostable material from smaller truck loads would be unloaded and then reloaded (immediately or on some interval) into larger loads for transportation to composting facilities which may be further away than would be feasible to drive smaller loads. So long as material remains containerized through the process and containers don’t exceed 50yds, no permitting is required. It may be appropriate to establish more complete operational amenities here. Regulatory considerations begin to be a factor but are less intensive than that of a full composting facility. 2000 square feet are typically appropriate at a minimum.

Pictured below is GoZERO’s first containerized aggregation site. Several routes worth of material can be consolidated before transporting to a licensed composting facility. This greatly reduces the total miles driven and improves efficiencies.

Green & Brown Waste Composting

Be in touch for more information.

Food Waste Composting & Research

This is the most intensive type of location, but it can be relatively small and straightforward. It’s best to involve the state EPA, local health department, and zoning authorities upfront in development. If you have a space that could be appropriate for food waste composting, let's talk. It is GoZERO’s vision to see food waste composting facilities become a very commonplace thing. 2 plus acres are usually needed.

Pictured below are food waste composting windrows at Andre Farms. Significant amounts of green waste and brown waste are used in the process of composting food waste.