Deal enables waste farmers to refine its composting plans.

• Author: Taylor, Mike
• Position: SMALL biz

DENVER-BASED WASTE FARMERS STARTED OUT A little more than two years ago primarily as a compost collection and consulting service. Early clients included Snooze Eatery, Dazbog Coffee and Crowne Plaza. But founder John-Paul Maxfield says the collection aspect was just a means to an end.

The ultimate aim was to become an agriculture company further up the vertical chain that would refine compost - mostly discarded food and manure-into organic potting and planting mixes.

The company moved closer to that aim in mid-December with the announcement that Alpine Waste & Recycling, the largest independent waste and recycling company in Colorado, had acquired Waste Farmers' 96 commercial routes.

Alpine was the first company in Denver to offer commercial composting service, in early 2007, and the company expects these additional 96 accounts to add $312,000 revenues per year.

Even though compost collecting on those routes was generating six-figure revenues for Waste Farmers, Maxfield says. "There's companies that do it better, and we always knew that."

Not only that, but "It was $3,000 a month in insurance and $115,000 for a truck," he adds. "I'm excited to finally be able to highlight the fact that we are and have been from the start a sustainable agriculture company. It's nice to finally be out of the collection side of things."

Maxfield wouldn't disclose the price on the deal with Alpine but he said that money, along with additional capital the company is seeking, will help Waste Farmers to develop its compost refinement process and packaging for sales in lawn and garden stores.

Waste Farmers is selling composted products in bulk now and has a one-acre operation in Commerce City. The facility has been dubbed a "Microbe Brewery." in part because of the microbiological process involved in the compost refinement, but also as a nod to the state's more famous microbrewery industry, since Maxfield also views Waste Farmers as a "craft manufacturer."

Maxfield describes the compost market, up until now as a chicken-and-the-egg conundrum: "The compost that's been created has been created by people who receive 90 percent of their revenues from processing and only 10 percent from the product," he says. "So the product's never been very good." Hence, the market; has remained...