Founded in 2022 by Matt and Katie Saunders, 1 Earth Composting has turned food scraps into a growing family business. It\u2019s one that reflects both a passion for environmental stewardship and a practical, community-focused approach to sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cKatie is very ecologically conscious and I worked in restaurants my whole life,\u201d said Matt Saunders. After moving their young family to Hampden, the couple \u201cnoticed that composting isn\u2019t really a thing here. We saw a need and an opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur business is basically the two of us, a truck, and a tractor,\u201d Saunders said. And buckets. Hundreds and hundreds of bright green 5-gallon buckets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For 1 Earth, these green buckets are at the center of everything. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 1 Earth offers weekly curbside pick up for residents in Bangor, Brewer, and Hampden. Each customer is provided with a bucket, which they keep and fill with food waste throughout the week. Then, when it\u2019s just about full, it\u2019s set out for pick up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAll you have to do is make sure your bucket is out that morning,\u201d Saunders said. \u201cWe take care of the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And by the rest, he means 1 Earth composts pretty much anything that isn\u2019t trash. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe make it very easy,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe take anything that would have been on your plate or cutting board, including things like dairy and meat, and then also coffee grounds and filters, or stuff from your yard like leaves, branches, and garden waste.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bangor resident Katie Brydon has been with 1 Earth from the very beginning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHonestly, the hardest part was getting our kids to scrape their plates into the bucket,\u201d she said. \u201cBut now they\u2019re so into it and it’s really fun to be able to talk with them about what it means in the bigger picture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEducation is a huge part of what we do,\u201d Saunders said. \u201cOnce we start talking to people about why composting is important you can see it quickly starts to make a lot of sense to them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s an amazing amount of food waste [in our society] on both the residential and commercial side of things,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd almost all of it is compostable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For folks who don\u2019t live within their service area but travel to Bangor regularly, 1 Earth has two bucket exchange locations where customers can drop off food waste and swap out their bucket. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt’s flexible,\u201d Saunders said. \u201cYou swap it out when you need to. There\u2019s no set time or schedule.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The exchanges are located in the Northwoods Portable Buildings lot at the Bangor Mall and Rize CoWorking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saunders has drawn on his experience in the restaurant industry to help grow the commercial side of the business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat\u2019s a more traditional service,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have Casella-type trash cans for restaurants and we pick them up at locations all around the greater Bangor area.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1 Earth has also expanded their operations through a partnership with RSU 22, collecting food waste from local schools. On average, the program diverts approximately 1,500 pounds of food waste each week from area landfills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last year, 1 Earth composted more than 80,000 pounds of food waste, all of which is being processed into dense, nutrient-rich compost at a composting site in Surry. Working alongside partners from Chickadee Compost, Saunders carefully manages each compost pile by monitoring temperatures and turning materials throughout the year. The result is what Saunders calls \u201cBlack Gold\u201d \u2014 a rich, high-quality compost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEverything we collect becomes compost,\u201d Saunders said. \u201cIt becomes a nutrient-rich amendment that you can put into your gardens and it revitalizes the soil and makes life better for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA lot of people think of food waste as trash, but we don\u2019t think of it that way. To us, it’s a resource. A really valuable resource for the earth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Emily Baer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n