Casella acquires Grow Compost, expanding its reach in Vermont’s waste stream

Rutland, Vermont-based Casella Waste Systems is expanding its reach into the compost industry with the acquisition of Grow Compost in Moretown, reports Vermont Public Radio (VPR).

The deal, which closed on Sept. 1, gives Casella further control over an aspect of the waste stream in Vermont it was initially slower to adapt to. Since July 2020, Vermont has banned food scraps from landfills and has, with some exceptions, required trash haulers to offer compost pickup service to nonresidential customers and larger rental units.

Casella, a $3.8 billion company that owns the state’s only landfill, originally sought to delay the implementation of that law last spring, citing challenges stemming from the pandemic. They were ultimately unsuccessful.

Grow Compost, on the other hand, spent years preparing for the new law, investing in infrastructure to collect organic waste from around the state. But Lisa Ransom, co-founder of Grow, said their aspirations to serve the entire state outgrew their capacity.

“It had to be an effort by a larger group of people, and we've talked for a long time with our fellow composters and other haulers about how we were going to do that,” Ransom told VPR. “We've been having these conversations with a lot of different companies for a long time, and this is the one that just fell into place.”

Ransom founded Grow Compost with her husband Scott Baughman in 2008. The couple operated a small farm but had trouble finding quality compost to grow their crops, so they decided to make their own, Ransom said. Soon, they were inviting their neighbors to deposit food scraps on their land.

The company grew from there to sell bulk compost and mulch, and to haul food scraps across the state. By the time of their sale last week, Grow had five trucks and employed between eight and 12 people, Ransom said, with more than 500 accounts across Vermont as well as parts of New Hampshire and New York.

For Casella, a publicly-traded company that brought in over $774 million in gross revenue last year, the purchase of Grow is a direct response to Vermont’s composting mandate, according to company vice president Joseph Fusco.

“This is us building our ability to meet the mandates of public policy, and to provide the service that public policy is asking Vermonters to do,” Fusco said.

Fusco said all of Grow’s employees will be offered positions with Casella.