{"id":217322,"date":"2026-06-12T10:48:05","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T10:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/217322\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T10:48:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T10:48:05","slug":"business-for-good-rays-reusables-x-bennett-compost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/217322\/","title":{"rendered":"Business for Good: Ray\u2019s Reusables x Bennett Compost"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Ray Daly founded her low-waste, sustainable living home goods operation Ray\u2019s Reusables<\/a> out of a van in 2020,<\/a> Americans were already getting more eco-conscious. A 2020 McKinsey survey found that 43 percent of U.S. consumers<\/a> said environmental impact was important or extremely important to them when selecting products, essentially taking environmental responsibility into their own hands.<\/p>\n

What spurred the shift? Maybe it was Covid. We were driving less and getting outside more. In Philly, that meant hiking the Wissahickon, picnicking in Rittenhouse Square, biking along the Schuylkill, developing an appreciation for the great \u2014 but decidedly fragile \u2014 outdoors.<\/p>\n

Maybe it was disillusionment. Covid helped worsen our perceptions of trash issues. Garbage piled up for days when sanitation workers couldn\u2019t get to all of it. Those of us working from home confirmed our suspicions that our recyclables got chucked into the same trucks as regular old trash.<\/a> Instead of shrugging it off, some Philadelphians thought, what if we just threw out less shit?<\/p>\n

Here and elsewhere, people were making the shift to products that sent less trash to landfills. Daly parked her van at farmers markets, and customers brought their own Mason jars to fill with shampoo and dish soap. By 2022, her business had grown enough that she was able to open a storefront in Northern Liberties. That same year, another sustainable home goods store, Good Buy Supply,<\/a> opened up in South Philly.<\/p>\n

Since then, consumer interest in sustainable products has continued to grow<\/a>, and so has Daly\u2019s business. Early on, she partnered with like-minded entrepreneurs \u2014 Rebecca Davies of the glass recycling nonprofit Bottle Underground<\/a> and Matt Siegfried of Rabbit Recycling<\/a> \u2014 to offer drop-off recycling at the shop.<\/p>\n

This spring, Daly is embarking on another project: drop-off composting, in partnership with local curbside composter Bennett Compost.<\/a> Starting this month, folks can drop off up to five gallons of their food scraps and, for a few dollars, Ray\u2019s and Bennett will store and turn it into compost for people to use in their gardens, thereby bringing Philly one step closer to sustainability.<\/p>\n

Bringing composting to more Philadelphians <\/p>\n

The partnership between Ray\u2019s Reusables and Bennett Compost began \u2014 pardon the food waste pun \u2014 organically. Daly had long used Bennett, which merged with fellow Philadelphia composter Circle late last year, for her Northern Liberties home. She says she constantly recommends composting as the first switch people should make \u201cwhen starting their low-waste or zero waste journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why is composting her go-to rec? Food waste takes up a ton (51.4 percent!<\/a>) of space in landfills and is responsible for 58 percent of their methane emissions, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (Here in Philadelphia, we toss 206 million pounds of food<\/a> into the landfill or to an incinerator each year).<\/p>\n

Composting curbs those emissions by turning food scrapes into nutrient-rich soil that can be used as fertilizer, helping to grow more food and trapping carbon in the soil in the process. San Francisco, which has composted citywide since 2000, prevents 93,437 metric tons of CO2<\/a> from being released into the atmosphere each year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a growing movement. There\u2019s definitely a lot more awareness and more people doing their own composting in the city.\u201d \u2014 Tim Bennett<\/p>\n

But unlike San Francisco (or Minneapolis, or Seattle, or 321 other U.S. municipalities<\/a>) Philadelphia doesn\u2019t have curbside composting pickup alongside our City-provided trash and recycling pickup. Bennett, a private service that charges approximately 6,000 business and residential customers from $21 per month for weekly pickup, fills that gap for residents who have the space and can afford it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a lot of people talk about their frustration with not being able to find composting services near them, or for whatever reason, it not working with the way that their lives work,\u201d Daly says. \u201cTrying to offer another option for people was really important to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daly approached Bennett about a month ago with the idea for a cross-promotion for countertop composters, and as she, Bennett founder Tim Bennett, and the team talked, they raised the possibility of partnering. Bennett saw value in collaborating.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur standard pay for service curbside model isn\u2019t going to work for every single Philadelphian,\u201d Bennett says. \u201cThe idea is, like, how do you complement the curbside model with drop off programs, partnership programs, or other ways to get as many people composting as possible?\u201d<\/p>\n

How to drop off your composting <\/p>\n

How the partnership works: Folks save up their food scraps, drop off them off at Ray\u2019s Reusables, which stores your potato peels, old coffee grounds, chicken bones, used tea bags, brown bags and a host of other items<\/a> in the back, until Bennett comes to pick it up and transforms it into one of several nutrient rich soils. The service costs $5 per drop off.<\/p>\n

Need a bin to collect your scraps? Ray\u2019s is also \u201creusing the five gallon bins that we get our products in\u201d as part of the program, Daly says. \u201cWe\u2019re washing them out, delabeling them for people to use as compost bins.\u201d<\/p>\n

Won\u2019t that get, well \u2026 smelly? Maybe a little. Daly likened the odor to that of a regular pile of residential trash. Bennett picks up weekly, so your tossed aside banana peels and apple cores won\u2019t have too long to get musty in the summer heat.<\/p>\n

Here in Philadelphia, we toss\u00a0206 million pounds of food\u00a0into the landfill or to an incinerator each year<\/p>\n

\u201cIt flips over pretty quickly. In the summer, maybe it will get a little stinky, but it\u2019s doing the work of becoming beautiful, beautiful compost,\u201d Daly says. Bennett adds that they\u2019ve never had complaints about smell from their composting facility \u2014 which is less than 300 feet from an apartment building \u2014 so he\u2019s not worried.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re doing is probably more secure and sanitary than just putting waste in a bag on the sidewalk,\u201d Bennett says.<\/p>\n

Daly expects \u2014 based on the shop\u2019s other drop-off programs \u2014 that composting will be a success. Each month, she collects between 600 and 700 pounds of glass to recycle with Bottle Underground.<\/p>\n

Think that\u2019s impressive? A typical plastic grocery bag weighs 5.5 grams. Ray\u2019s collects 100 pounds of plastic film each month for Rabbit Recycling to recycle. That\u2019s thousands of bags that won\u2019t end up in a landfill, clogging the sewer, or wrapped in a tree.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Making sustainable living easy <\/p>\n

Daly and Bennett emphasize their combined effort is their way of simplifying sustainable living. Sure, they can attract the zero-waste diehards who wash the pizza grease off their recyclables or those who commit to producing such a minuscule amount of waste that they can pack it into a Mason jar by year\u2019s end.<\/a><\/p>\n

But what about the recent college grads who want to outfit their first apartments with sustainable goods? Or transplants for the West Coast who are used to their city governments picking up curbside composting \u2026 and don\u2019t know how to keep up the habit now that they\u2019ve moved to Philly? Or old-school Philly residents who have no idea why their 20-something neighbors are leaving buckets on their stoops?<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to try to create a one-stop eco-hub for people who are looking to reduce their waste,\u201d Daly says. \u201cI like welcoming people into this new, warm space and meeting more and more people, wherever they are in their journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of shrugging it off, some Philadelphians thought, what if we just threw out less shit?<\/p>\n

To that end, Daly has redesigned her shop to have less of a retail vibe and more of an apartment feel. On one wall, there\u2019s a kitchen sink stocked with a block of dish soap and a bamboo pot scrubber with coconut and sisal fiber bristles \u2014 which also can go in your compost bin when it gets worn down from use. Opposite the sink, a bathroom vanity displays a glass jar of cream-based, natural deodorant and a compostable, bamboo toothbrush, among other sustainable goods, all in glass containers or refillable packaging. The revamped space opened May 30.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re not as keyed in on the way that some of these products fit into your life, it can be hard to imagine them in your space,\u201d Daly says.<\/p>\n

Ray\u2019s isn\u2019t the only place to drop off compost for Bennett. The company has similar programs in partnership with New Kensington CDC<\/a> and the West Philly Tool Library,<\/a> among others. Good Buy Supply in Passyunk, also partners with Bennett, Bottle Underground, Rabbit Recycling, and TerraCycle to recycle or dispose of the waste the shop creates. They accept clean, unbroken glass and any materials they sell in the store for composting and recycling.<\/p>\n

This spring, Bennett piloted a program with the subscription block cleaning service Glitter<\/a> to collect compost from some of the streets they clean. In all, the service collects more than 125 tons of food waste each month.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a growing movement,\u201d Bennett says, compared to when he started the business in 2009. \u201cThere\u2019s definitely a lot more awareness and more people doing their own composting in the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" MORE BUSINESS FOR GOOD<\/p>\n

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