Make Compost. Hire veterans
From Combat to Compost, Veteran Compost makes it easy to recycle food-scraps and turn waste into compost that helps provide nutrients for the soil. We provide the bins and pick up, and you provide the food-scraps.
How It Works
- You'll be provided with a 7-gallon, lidded, lockable compost bin
- You'll gather all your food scraps and toss them directly into the bin. If it's on your plate, it goes in the bin--bones, meat, egg shells,etc.--you name it.
- No Plastic Lining and No Plastic Contamination
- Once a week, on the assigned day, you'll put your bin out on your porch or in your yard or by your front door
- Once a week, Veteran Compost will swap out that bin for a clean one of the same--a 7-gallon. lidded, lockable compost bin
- We'll take your food scraps to Whitehall Farm in Clifton, VA where they will become a key ingredient in some of the best stuff on earth--Veteran Compost's organic compost and vermicompost.
- Twice annually, you'll receive one 20 lb. bag of organic, Veteran Compost compost, OR
- You may choose to donate that bag of organic, Veteran Compost compost to a local community garden
What our customers have to say.
Our clients love us, and our compost. Here are some testimonials from some of them.
Ready to Get Started?!
Veteran Compost Residential service is only $32 per month, and our On-Farm Bin Swap option is only $15 per month. Click, (or tap) below to sign up!
FAQ
Veteran Compost is about two things:
- Employing veterans and their family members
- Turning food scraps into high-quality compost
Our goal is to fuel our growth with people and material that others pass over.
Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans have an unemployment rate that exceeds the national average. That means that a combat vet has a harder time getting a job than the average person.
Two thirds of the material that gets thrown away in the United States every year is compostable.
So, there’s plenty of people and material to fuel our growth.
Our First Farm
We have a 30-acre farm in Aberdeen, MD. We’re right on the edge of suburban sprawl, but still work the land and compost.
The farmhouse dates to the 1870s and is surrounded by an assortment of outbuildings. The crown jewel is our vermicomposting operation in our barn. It is the only commercial worm composting operation in Maryland. More than a million worms are working around the clock to create great compost.
The fields around the buildings are home to our aerated compost piles. Nothing beats the sight of the steam rising off the piles at dawn. It’s a beautiful thing.
Whitehall Farm
In 1916, at the age of 14, Martin Vazquez left his parents and 17 siblings in Cuba and came to the US. He quickly became a U.S. citizen, and served in the US Army during WWII. After the war, he married Sarah Lee Jamison and together they started Arlington Insulation. The Vazquez’s bought land with every dime they could save, and their biggest purchase was the 200+ acres of Whitehall Farm in 1960-61. They called Whitehall their home until their deaths. The Vazquez’ daughter Nadine, her husband Jeff, and their son Jeremy hope to honor Martin and Lee by preserving Whitehall as open space within an increasingly crowded Fairfax County.
Justen Garrity founded Veteran Compost in 2010. However, the path to that point began much earlier.
Growing up in Pennsylvania and Maryland, Justen spent his time outdoors camping, hiking, and biking. It was through Scouting that Justen learned to appreciate nature and the need for conservation.
Justen received an ROTC scholarship to attend Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA. In 2004, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Management of Information Systems and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army.
Justen spent the next five years on Active Duty as a Combat Engineer Officer. He served in South Korea as a platoon leader, in Missouri as a company executive officer, and in Iraq as an Assured Mobility Officer. He received numerous awards and badges during his time in the Army including: Bronze Star Medal, Army Commendation Medal (three times), Army Achievement Medal, Sapper tab, and parachutist badge.
Following a 15-month deployment in Iraq, Justen decided to transition to the National Guard so that he could be closer to his family. Returning home to the worst job market in decades, he quickly found himself unemployed. Justen was forced to create his own destiny. And so, Veteran Compost was born. A business that is as fulfilling as the missions he had in the Army.
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