Upper Valley Business Finding ‘Pay Dirt’ in Food Scraps
Jessica Saturley-Hall, founder of the Upper Valley Compost Company, picks up a bucket full of food scraps in Grantham, New Hampshire. Photo by Britta Greene by New Hampshire Public Radio
Jessica Saturley-Hall knew she wanted to start her own business, and she got hooked on the concept of compost. She knew that food scraps produce significantly more methane, a greenhouse gas, when tossed in a landfill, rather than breaking down on their own. So she wondered, what if you could reward people for separating their food waste from their trash.
At first, she thought about somehow paying people for their compost. She did a host of financial models, looked at it every which way, but couldn’t come up with a solution.
Then, she decided to take a step back, asking if people were even interested in composting to begin with. If so, she thought, maybe the reward didn’t need to be so high.