It makes a whole lot of sense that a start-up compost facility, with the goal of closing the loop on organic waste, began right here on our own island.  We’d like to introduce Aveterra.  We are a small local business trying to make a difference by partnering with the City of Bainbridge Island and our local Bainbridge Disposal to provide composting technology, recipes for soil amendments and business consulting services for our community.

We are a community that cares.  Twenty-two thousand of us call this special place home including our CEO, Mollie Bogardus.  Mollie grew up on the Island and has raised her own family here . With a love of horses, and a background in sustainability, it made perfect sense for her to pursue a compost facility that could take care of Bainbridge’s needs.

Like Aveterra, Islanders believe and understand the need for community based composting.  Currently, we dispose of most of our island’s organic waste 45 miles away, requiring extensive trucking at great carbon cost.  We then turn around and use more carbon to import soil products back onto the island.  Unbeknownst to most, equine waste also poses a significant challenge.  If it’s not trucked off the Island to the landfill, it oftentimes sits behind stables only to seep into the ground water and impact nutrient runoff.  This waste stream creates algae blooms and damages fragile ecosystems right off our shores.

We want to improve all of this.  In a relatively small footprint facility, we will harness the strength of a scientifically proven composting process and turn our local waste into a nutrient rich soil amendment for sale and for use right here on our island.  This is just the beginning.  Please stay tuned and follow our progress.