Casella completes acquisition of Grow Compost

Company plans to reopen Moretown facility

December 17, 2021 | By Emmett Gartner | Correspondent 

Grow Compost along U.S. Route 2 in Moretown has been closed to the public since September. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti

Now that its purchase of Grow Compost in Moretown is complete, Rutland-based Casella Waste Systems is planning to reopen the facility and expand its capacity, according to Casella Vice President Joe Fusco.

Casella purchased Grow Compost from owners Lisa Ransom and Scott Baughman on Sept. 1 and shuttered the Moretown facility’s doors later that month, ceasing to offer the drop-off service that many local residents came to rely on over the past decade or so as a convenient way to dispose of food scraps and contribute to the compost operation. 

Fusco did not disclose the final purchase price, which he says is company policy.

The change in ownership came a little over a year after Vermont’s recycling law began requiring that people no longer dispose of food with regular trash headed to the landfill. The new requirement has sparked an uptick in backyard composting and a proliferation of new small businesses offering pickup services to dispose of food scraps.

Since the summer of 2020, local residents have come to rely on new paid pick-up services such as like Roots Compost and Transform Vermont Compost Connection, as well as municipal drop-off services like those offered at the Stowe Transfer Station, which accepts 5-gallon compost buckets for a $1-per-bucket fee.

Some, like Waterbury Center resident Andrea Barber, however, have been relying on a combination of methods to handle food scraps including help from friends since the closure of the Moretown facility.  “In the past, I’ve given [food scraps] to friends with pigs, and they will take vegetable remains and other stuff,” Barber said.

But the generosity of neighbors doesn’t cover all of Barber’s compost needs. Friends won’t accept the bones, fats, and meat scraps that have accumulated in Barber’s compost bins since the Moretown facility closed. 

“It was just easier when I could put everything in a bucket and drive it up to Grow Vermont and dump it into the baskets that they had. That was very nice and convenient.  It gave me a place to go so I didn’t have to worry about bones or attracting animals,” Barber said.

Under the state’s recycling law, bones and meat scraps are allowed to be disposed of in trash that goes to the landfill. 

Barber’s frustrations were shared by many who created a flurry of social media posts looking for alternatives in the wake of Grow’s abrupt departure. The facility for years accepted food scraps from residential customers while managing large-scale collections from restaurants, food service operations and food retailers that all fed into its production of high-quality compost it sold retail and wholesale to garden centers and other outlets. Since Casella purchased Grow in September, the Moretown facility’s future has been unclear.

“It’s kind of troublesome that the local place went away and there was no warning to my knowledge,” Barber said. “I drove up there one day and it was closed. I hadn’t realized what was going on.”

Fusco offered some clarification on the company’s next steps in a phone interview.

“What’s next for us in the Waterbury area is looking at the permits that we need in order to really bring the composting facility in Moretown to the next level,” Fusco said. “I think we’ll sell off the remaining compost in the spring, of about 2,500-3,000 cubic yards, and then the intention is to grow that facility.”

The next steps would be to receive state approvals, which would dictate timing for reopening. “We should have more details around the end of March 2022,” Fusco said.

The company envisions a weekday operation with hours of approximately 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The goal will be to accept clean food waste. “So if it’s edible it can go into the compost,” he said.

By expanding the facility’s size, Casella will be able to serve a larger area of customers and offer more products for sale, Fusco explained. He did not offer details as to what services will be offered when the facility reopens, although he did say that Casella’s planning process is considering how to offer drop-off and pick-up for residential customers.