About The Compost Co-op

The Compost Co-operative is a worker-owned business.
Our customers are valued investors in the community.
We are committed to building with others a local economic infrastructure that is socially just, economically sustainable, and environmentally sound.

Mission

Driven by racial and environmental justice, the Compost Co-operative builds ownership opportunities and thriving-wage jobs while joining local efforts to address changes in the climate. Developed by people with experience of the criminal legal system, the Co-op continues to be inclusive of workers who face barriers to employment.  

Vision

The Compost Co-operative works to increase economic democracy, reduce food waste and methane emissions, enrich local soil, and implement transformative justice solutions to inequality and the prison system. 

Values

The Compost Co-operative values respect, integrity, love, communication, co-operation, transparency, accountability, collaboration, constructive criticism, laughter and joy! 

Support

We have received generous support -- in the form of partnerships, awards, grants, and loans -- from Arise for Social Justice, Capital Impact Partners, Claneil Foundation, Common Counsel Foundation, Common Good, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, Cooperative Development Institute, Cooperative Fund of the Northeast, Franklin County CDC, Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution, Franklin County Sheriff's Office, Just Roots, Haymarket People's Fund, ICA Group, Markham-Nathan Fund for Social Justice, Martin’s Farm Compost, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation, Western Mass SURJ, and many individual supporters in the region and around the world.

Newsletter Archive

So many people have contributed to the development of this business, beginning at the Franklin County Sheriff's Office in the mid-2010s. Follow our development since 2017.

Media Coverage

Read about our cooperatively owned project to compost oppressive systems in Grassroots Economic Organizing, the Valley Advocate, the Greenfield Recorder, The Fabulous 413, and Connecting Point. An editorial responding to the federal government's scrubbing in early 2025 of the USDA website, including a panel discussion that one of our founding members participated in (on the subject of Cooperatives After Incarceration), appears in The Montague Reporter.