History of
Collective Resource
Compost Cooperative

Collective Resource Compost began when Erlene Howard, an Evanston resident, became interested in composting but couldn't find a good place to do it in her condo environment. Howard, a bookkeeper by trade, is a frequent consumer of organic fruits and vegetables. She was inspired to start a food scrap recycling service when she realized that, if composting were made more convenient, more people would do it.

Her first pickups started with three customers, using her Toyota Camry for collection. Collective Resource Compost’s customer base has since grown to over 3000 residential customers and nearly 300 commercial customers. The company now uses two electric cargo vans, four other cargo vans, and four box trucks to collect pre- and post-consumer food scraps weekly in an area that includes over 60 communities encompassing Chicago’s entire north side as well as near south and southwest side neighborhoods, also extending into the suburbs north to Lake Bluff and west to South Barrington, Hoffman Estates, Schaumburg, Hanover Park, Roselle, Bloomingdale, and Long Grove.

During their first six months of business, Collective Resource Compost collected a single ton. Now, they collect 40+ tons per week. The company has collected over 13,000 tons in total and has diverted 1,302 tons of compostable materials so far in 2024. As of May 2024, CRCC also began collaborating with TerraCycle recycling to reduce waste from hard-to-recycle items that can’t be composted.

Collective Resource Compost Cooperative became a worker- and consumer-owned co-op in the summer of 2023, and the cooperative has grown to over 130 owners.