Rust Belt Riders plans to turn vacant transfer station into new composting facility

Rust Belt Riders, a Cleveland composting and food collection company, hopes to have a centralized location for its operations soon. 

As reported by Cleveland.com, the company has plans to lease a long-vacant, 6-acre former transfer station in Cleveland’s North Broadway neighborhood to consolidate its operations. The move also could allow Rust Belt Riders to double the volume of food scraps it can compost in Cuyahoga County from roughly 2,000 tons to 7,000 tons.

Founded in 2014, Rust Belt Riders collects residential and commercial food scraps and other biodegradable materials, which are composted and used in its soil brand, Tilth Soil. The company also services drop-off locations across Cleveland, which residents can access for a monthly fee. 

Today, the company brings collected food scraps to two processing facilities: Kurtz Bros. in Independence and Rid-All in Cleveland. Rust Belt Rider’s Director of Soil Nathan Rutz oversees the compost-making process at those sites. The finished compost is sent to a facility in Lorain to be mixed and bagged. 

Co-founder Dan Brown estimates that Cleveland makes roughly 70,000 tons of food scraps. Because of the demand for composting services, Rust Belt Riders has begun sending excess food waste to a facility in North Canton. 

Brown says the new facility will allow for Rust Belt Riders’ trucks, offices, soil blending operations and a new composting facility to be housed under one roof. The new facility would be able to process roughly 5,000 tons of material each year, and it will be designed to use covered aerated static piles.

The planned site has been vacant for at least 20 years and was once used by Cleveland’s waste department, Cleveland.com reports. John Fahsbender, the Brownfields and Sites manager in Cleveland’s economic development department, says redeveloping the brownfield site is a “big win” and that the city is currently working with Rust Belt Riders to take over the facility. 

Brown tells Cleveland.com the hope is to have the facility ready to take food scraps by early 2026.