A food-scrap compost pile. Photo: Philip Cohen / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Collective Resource Inc., the Evanston company that collects food scraps from homes and businesses, announced in early November 2014 that it had won a competitive F-SCRAP grant from the Illinois Office of Energy and Recycling and the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. The state program supports food-scrap collection and processing, and the company said it would put the money toward capital equipment.
From three customers to hundreds
Founder Erlene Howard started the business after wanting to compost but lacking space in her condominium. Her idea was that more people would compost if it were easy. She began collecting in June 2010 with her own car, later telling local reporters that the first ton took about six months to haul. She started with three customers.
By late 2014 the company reported about 260 residential and 60 commercial customers, with weekly pickups of pre- and post-consumer food scraps from the South Loop north to Lake Forest. Total collection passed 500 tons in 2013, and Howard expected to reach another 500 by year’s end. Years later ABC 7 Chicago reported the operation, by then a cooperative, had topped 13,000 tons.
All six members of the truck crew were hired through the Evanston Youth Job Center, according to the company.
The Evanston price break
The company tied lower prices to Evanston sign-ups. At the time of the announcement it was within 10 customers of 100 Evanston subscribers. Once that mark was reached, a five-gallon bucket would cost $10 for weekly pickup, $15 for every other week and $20 for every four weeks. At 150 Evanston customers, prices would drop by as much as 7 percent. Neighbors could earn more: if five or 10 households on one block signed up, the company planned a further discount of 10 to 20 percent for them.
The program drew interest from Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl and Catherine Hurley, the city’s sustainability programs coordinator. Evanston later moved to a formal arrangement; in 2017 the city entered a franchise agreement with the company for residential composting service, effective Nov. 1 of that year.
Restaurants, events and zero-waste
Commercial clients included Found Kitchen, Hoosier Mama Pie Company and Blind Faith Cafe. Meez Meals, a home-cooked meal delivery service, composted with the company and offered its own composting incentive to its customers.
The firm also offered consulting on zero-waste events, composting education and event staffing. It handled the Evanston Ecology Center’s Green Ball at the Levy Center and the center’s Green Living Festival, converting both to near-zero landfill waste, and said it could do the same for weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, fundraisers and house parties.
Company figures are as reported by the company in 2014; later details come from ABC 7 Chicago and Evanston coverage.
Daniel Okafor covers business, startups and the Innovators section for The Evanston Edge.
