Welcome to "Meet Your Composters," a new blog series that highlights the individuals and organizations driving composting efforts across the U.S. Composting plays a critical role in diverting organic waste from landfills, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and regenerating soil health, and the people behind these systems are at the forefront of that impact.
Each post will provide an in-depth look at composters in our area, exploring how they got started, the challenges they face, what drives them, and why composting is more than just tossing banana peels in a bin. This series is all about celebrating the individuals behind the compost pile: the people who are turning food scraps and yard waste into rich, life-giving soil all while transforming communities along the way.
Let’s break down waste and build up soil, one composter at a time.
Meet Spurt, Our First Featured Composter!
Spurt is a compost manufacturing company founded in 1994 in Zeeland, MI. They are a family-owned business dedicated to finding innovative solutions to the growing challenge of managing organic waste. Spurt services a broad range of clients in Michigan, with facilities located in the Metro-Detroit area, including Wixom and Rochester Hills. Their focus is the community, and they engage in several donation projects to address local resilience and food access in underserved neighborhoods, support soil health education, and give back to those in need.
Their soils are entirely natural, made from recycled materials (yard waste, clean wood, and food scraps) and designed to enhance and maintain plant and soil conditions, with precise formulas created especially for specific uses in the farming, landscaping, and construction industries.
Their President, Bill, has always been passionate about the Great Lakes, which drives a lot of his efforts to protect our natural resources. He is an engineer who has dedicated almost a decade of his life to diverting organics from landfills and manufacturing high-quality topsoil, compost, and other amendments. He believes in making this world a better place for future generations, and as a way to grow and expand the green industry, he currently sits on the Governor’s Solid Waste & Recycling Advisors Group, the Executive Committee of the Michigan Organics Council, on the Board of Directors of the Michigan Recycling Coalition and as President of the Composting Council of Michigan. He is also the founder of Landscape for the Lakes.
We had the pleasure of speaking to Adriana, the Sales and Marketing Director at Spurt, to learn more about her story and all things Spurt.
What inspired your journey into compost manufacturing? Can you tell us about your ‘aha’ moment?
Ever since the 1994 yard waste ban came into effect in Michigan, yard waste has been going to compost sites, turned into compost, and returned to Michigan soils, but the same is not the case for food scraps.
Michigan disposes of 1.5 to 2 million tons of food waste in landfills every year, so we noticed - 10 years ago - that this represented a huge opportunity for the industry, and we believed then that the future of composting would include eventually the diversion of all organics, not just yard waste.
Since then, Spurt has focused on finding solutions to the increasing need for organic waste diversion, with the environment, the community, and the State’s goals at the core of our operations.
What does your facility do, and how does compost manufacturing actually work? What do you wish people knew about this work?
At Spurt we turn organic waste (food scraps, yard waste and natural wood from trees) into compost. We have facilities in Wixom and Rochester Hills, where we use windrow composting as our method at both sites. We control the conditions of our compost piles, monitoring temperature, moisture, density, and other factors to ensure a proper breakdown process.
At large scale, we use heavy equipment, so you’ll see front wheel loaders, shredders, screen plants, excavators, and more. At the end of our process, we test our finished compost, following the US Composting Council's Seal of Testing Assurance (STA) Certification. This is a testing and information disclosure program designed to provide customers with clarity, consistency, and confidence when using compost.
Our process is completely natural, and made with 100% recycled, native ingredients.
We wish more people knew that they play an important role in this process as well. Most of the material we process comes from residents’ homes, when they place their yard waste bags outside for pickup, so we’re all making a difference and fighting climate change.
How is composting making a difference in your local community or region?
When food scraps and other organics are diverted from landfills and put into a higher and better use: composting, we are reducing landfill space, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and once finished compost is applied, we are restoring Michigan’s soils.
Besides composting itself, we also partner with local organizations and urban farms dedicated to promoting positive community engagement, embracing the importance of allocating resources for self-sufficiency, and increasing access to fresh and healthy food to the neighborhood.
What does a typical day at your composting facility look like?
It varies. As a small business, and as composters, we wear different hats. A typical day may start with taking pile temperatures of the piles, screening compost, turning our piles, loading small and big trucks and making deliveries to contractors, farmers and Metro Detroit residents.
Our days often include providing tours at our facility, taking soil samples for lab testing and preparing custom soil blends for specific applications.
Why is composting such an essential part of the solution to our waste crisis?
Because most of the organic waste isn’t recovered. It is sent to landfills where, in absence of oxygen, generates greenhouse gas emissions and takes up landfill space.
What kinds of materials do you accept, and how do you ensure that the compost you produce is clean and high-quality?
We accept yard waste, natural wood from trees and food scraps and BPI-certified compostable products. To ensure quality, we invest in staff training (through US Composting Council), we train our drivers to check for contamination when picking up food waste, we also screen our compost as the last part of our process to remove non-organic materials, and we test and certify our finished products.
What are some exciting developments or changes you’re seeing in composting right now?
There is an increasing effort in Michigan to reach 45% recycling rate and cut food waste in half. Food waste presents a unique opportunity to fight climate change, provide sustainable materials management, and promote social and environmental justice in Metro Detroit.
How can consumers and brands better support composting infrastructure like yours?
Partnerships are essential to the future of the industry. Schools, restaurants and corporate cafeterias can start recycling their food waste. Landscapers, homeowners, and construction companies can choose compost-based products to grow healthier plants.
What are the benefits of composting that more people should know about?
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Compost is always local, you’re always part of a circular economy.
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Compost use is an essential tool when growing healthy food.
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Compost application can have an important impact on the water quality of our Great Lakes.
What’s one small change you wish everyone would make to support better composting outcomes?
Learn about the list of acceptable materials at your local composting site.
What gives you hope for the future of composting?
The increasing understanding of the compost connection to water and soil health.
If your compost pile could talk, what would it say?
This compost pile is reducing landfill space, decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and building climate resilience.
We applaud Adriana and the entire team at Spurt for doing such an amazing job in their field. Whether it’s managing inputs, educating the community, or finding creative ways to reduce contamination, composters like Spurt are doing the essential, often unseen, work of closing the loop on our waste.
As we continue this series, we hope these behind-the-scenes stories inspire more connection, curiosity, and commitment to composting, wherever you are in your journey.
Want to support Spurt’s work?
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Visit https://spurtindustries.com/ to learn more
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Follow them on @growwithspurt to stay up to date with their mission
Stay tuned for our next Meet Your Composters feature. Until then, stay green and let’s get composting!
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