Diverse, Impactful, Growing, Resilient: 2024 Community Composter Mini-Census Findings

Despite their leadership in creating healthy, productive, and sustainable communities, there remains an ever-growing, yet under-researched actor in organics recycling: community composters. 

These composting operations center the local community in their work and services, primarily through keeping the composting process local and distributed, but also by providing community engagement opportunities. Community composting operations differ in many ways from the large, centralized operations often dominating the focus of the composting sector, and, therefore, they are inadequately represented by data on the industry as a whole. Community composters exist throughout the country (and the world!) and consistently prove the power of composting that is grounded in collective stewardship and innovation.

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As an appendix to ILSR’s 2026 Keep Compost Local Report, the 2024 Community Composter Mini-Census presents a snapshot of the operations, diversion, community impacts, finances, government partnerships, and contamination rates of this distinct and often underrepresented slice of the composting sector. It also serves as a baseline for measuring future growth and documenting the benefits and challenges of community composting.

This Mini-Census comes two years after the 2022 Community Composter Census – the first census of its kind – and one year after the 2023 Mini-Census. The 2024 Mini-Census builds upon and advances the findings in the previous censuses.

Participants

The 2024 Community Composter Mini-Census was shared with more than 450 U.S.-based community composters, over 350 of which are members of our growing Community Composter Coalition (CCC). In total, we received 103 survey responses.

Key Takeaways

Community composters continue to raise the bar in organics recycling:

• Total organic material handled by repeat respondents increased by 17% from 2023 to 2024, with nearly 60% of all respondents reporting that they handled more than 100,000 pounds of organic material in 2024.
• 75% of repeat respondents were able to maintain or increase their residential clientele and 81% for commercial
• 82% of surveyed programs run both composting and collection services
• Beyond residential and commercial food scraps, community composters accept a wide range of materials in their compost feedstock – including wood chips and leaves; certified compostable packaging; meat, dairy, and bones; and crop residuals.

Yet, community composters still face limitations in funding and local government support:

• Three out of four survey respondents indicated that they would request between $10,000 to $500,000 if writing a funding proposal today. When asked what this money would be put toward, respondents indicated a need for equipment and supplies (53% of responses) followed by vehicles, land/sites, and staff.
• Nearly 19% of respondents indicated that they receive virtually no support from local governments. Some reported facing direct barriers to their operations from solid waste districts, inconsistent regulations by government agencies, and unresponsive offices.

Conclusions

The 2024 Mini-Census drives home four qualities of community composters:

• They are diverse, pushing against the idea of a “one-size fits all” approach and amplifying locally-grounded work and impact 
• They are continuously growing in number, scale, operations, and capacity. 
• They are resilient and continue leading the path as innovators even in the face of industry competition and bureaucracy.
• They are increasingly impactful and are expanding access to and education about composting’s environmental, social, and economic benefits. 

These findings underscore the strength and potential of community composting, but also how intentional economic investment and political support have the power to propel this flourishing movement. Learn about how local governments and community composters are making this a reality in our report, Keep Compost Local: A Roadmap for Local Governments to Build Community Prosperity With Composting.

To share figures under creative commons license, free of cost, credit the Institute for Local Self-Reliance by including the following:

Source: J. Spector, D. Harden, B. Platt, 2024 Community Composter Mini-Census Results, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, 2026 (https://ilsr.org/articles/composting-for-community/2024-census). Reprinted with permission.