Building Compost & Community: How Gainesville, Florida is Moving From Waste to Food
Chris Cano, The Bike Composters, LLC/Gainesville Compost, DBA, 1123 SE 4th St, Gainesville, FL
32601
The way our society thinks about waste is flawed. Throughout America, most commercial and
residential kitchen users throw food scraps in trash receptacles, to be hauled many miles out of town in
large, fossil fuel-consuming vehicles, only to end up in a landfill. Using the bicycle and the power of
community, one Gainesville, Florida company is rethinking organic waste, and repurposing it for the
benefit of the community as a whole.
Gainesville Compost, whose model is “From Waste to Food,” is working to build a pedal
powered community compost network, sharing soil amendments with community garden partners, and
providing nutrient- and microbe-rich Soil Food™ products for sale to home gardeners.
While bicycle hauling began as merely an interesting (and eco-friendly) idea for the business, it
has shown to be a viable model for waste consolidation in the urban area. The bicycle eliminates the
high cost of fuel required by heavy, diesel-driven front-loaders; adds a pragmatism to waste collection
due to reduced parking and traffic hassles; and falls in line with the principles of waste reduction that
should motivate a composting business.
Furthermore, a distributed composting model goes hand-in-hand with the bicycle. By
establishing partnerships throughout the city, Gainesville Compost diverts food waste only a short
distance from restaurants to nearby gardens and organization spaces. This model turns waste into a
valuable urban agricultural resource for the benefit of the same neighborhoods and communities that
generated the waste in the first place. Community partners in Gainesville Compost's pedal powered
community compost network are incentivized by soil amendments they receive in exchange for hosting
a composting system, as well as the pride and publicity they enjoy while being an ally in the mission to
move Gainesville “From Waste to Food.”
At a county meeting, one local owner of a wood waste composting company shared his praise
of the Gainesville Compost model, after having experienced a failed attempt to launch a food waste
composting pilot in a nearby city. He said, “When I first heard what Chris was doing, using the bicycle
to pick up food waste, I thought, 'What the heck is that? Now that's just crazy.' But as I have seen him
grow the business, bring on more restaurants, and build out his satellite network of composting
locations, I realize it makes a whole lot more sense than taking a 4 miles-per-gallon, expensive diesel
vehicle from point-to-point-to-point to collect small volumes of food waste.”
The bicycle-driven composting efforts of Gainesville Compost have inspired similar, active
pedal powered composting initiatives nationwide, as well as local businesses and organizations in
Gainesville that are now incorporating bicycle power into their missions. The demand has spurred a
side business called Kanner Karts, through which Chris and business partner Steven Kanner
manufacture and sell custom bicycle trailers for residents and organizations, including Alachua County
Administration, Florida Organic Growers, Sweetwater Coffee Company, and others who are actively
using the bicycle for business operations.
Gainesville Compost embraces a unique entrepreneurial approach to solving sustainability
problems by harnessing bicycle power and the power of community relationships. By rethinking waste
and repurposing trash into valuable local resources, we are catalyzing a shift in thinking and awareness
of composting, and inspiring others to make change in their communities, while pursuing a living
through socially-conscious entrepreneurship.