Bike-powered Durham compost company bought by Raleigh rival

The fleet of bicyclists who gather compost from downtown Durham homes and business for Tilthy Rich Compost will have a new name on their T-shirts: CompostNow.

Raleigh-based CompostNow acquired Tilthy Rich this week. The businesses diverted almost 900,000 pounds of waste from landfills in 2016, according to a news release from CompostNow.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

CompostNow customers set out bins full of waste once a week. CompostNow vans (and, since the acquisition, bikes) pick up the waste once a week. The company keeps track of the amount of waste each customer turns in, and after about five weeks of contributing, customers start earning compost to use or share.

According to CompostNow’s website, the waste ends up at a compost facility run by Brooks Contractor in Goldston, an hour south of Raleigh. Brooks uses the “windrow” method, said Nick Morrow, CompostNow’s head of growth. The method means Brooks can turn not only food waste but also pizza boxes, bones and dairy into compost.

CompostNow added one employee through the acquisition (Tilthy Rich’s general manager Kat Nigro) and 18 contractors. Most of Tilthy Rich’s bicyclists were contractors because they only worked a few hours a week, Morrow said. CompostNow did not let go of any members of the bicycle fleet.

The acquisition will grow CompostNow’s revenue by 10 percent, Morrow said. In addition to Raleigh and Durham, CompostNow also services towns including Asheville, Carrboro and Apex.

This story was originally published June 7, 2017 at 5:34 PM with the headline "Bike-powered Durham compost company bought by Raleigh rival."