"When I take people out here in the winter, sometimes we just lie down on it," says Susan Thoman. She's gesturing to a mound of rich black organic matter the length and height of a warehouse at the Cedar Grove composting plant, a sprawling complex an hour north of Seattle. Sealed under Gore-Tex fabric and "blimped" with fans, the giant piles reach a toasty internal temperature of 130 degrees thanks to beneficial bacteria. They steam in the foggy air, which is scented miraculously with bark mulch, not rot, like the floor of the thicket for which the place is named. Thoman, a no-nonsense blonde who is Cedar Grove's business development manager, says the company's two plants, which accept everything from cardboard to grass clippings to half-eaten enchiladas, and even Starbucks napkins and crumbs, regularly receive visitors from around the U.S. "We're a recycler, manufacturer, wholesaler, and retailer," selling bagged compost to home gardeners and the Department of Transportation, she says. "We get paid when it comes in, and paid when it goes out." This is a place not of burial, but transformation.
To read the full, original article click on this link: The Starbucks Cup Dilemma | Fast Company
Author: Anya Kamenetz
