Pieretti is behind Kitchen Harvest<\/a>, which collects compostable materials and processes them on a five-acre site at Linvilla Orchards in Delaware County<\/a>. Kitchen Harvest is, in Pieretti\u2019s words, part of \u201ca better, more sustainable future of a full-circle food system.\u201d<\/p>\n It is part of a growing network of providers and composters across the Philadelphia region who are working to reduce waste and improve food system circularity, where scraps of food once grown in the Earth can return to it, fertilizing soil for new crops.<\/p>\n With Haverford<\/a> Township debuting its municipal compost program<\/a> this summer, joining Media<\/a> and Swarthmore<\/a>, among other municipalities, compost purveyors say the practice is breaking out of its crunchy origins and becoming a key part of the region\u2019s waste management strategy. <\/p>\n What is composting?<\/p>\n Composting is the process of recycling organic materials like food scraps and yard waste, breaking them down into a brown, soil-like material called compost, and using that material in farms and gardens to enrich other plants and crops.<\/p>\n The composting process happens on micro and macro scales \u2014 in small home gardens and at multi-acre sites like Kitchen Harvest\u2019s.<\/p>\n Compost advocates tout both its environmental and agricultural benefits. In the U.S., food is the single most common material sent to landfills, where it is responsible for 58% of methane emissions, a powerful greenhouse gas, according to the Environmental Protection Agency<\/a>. Adding compost to soil increases its nutrient content, conserves water by helping retain moisture, and reduces reliance on chemical fertilizers, the EPA says. <\/p>\n \u201cFood is only wasted when we throw it in the trash. It\u2019s our choice to dispose of it in that method, but we don\u2019t have to,\u201d said Gwenn Nolan, founder of Mother Compost, a company that collects compost material throughout the Philly suburbs and brings it to the Kitchen Harvest site at Linvilla.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Reading Terminal Market\u2019s efforts to prevent food waste get the attention of the EPA<\/a><\/p>\n Going from \u2018crunchy\u2019 to \u2018waste management strategy\u2019<\/p>\n Many compost enthusiasts have a similar story: What started as a backyard experiment grew, through trial and error, into a way of life and, for some, a career.<\/p>\n Nolan, of Mother Compost, got her start asking 10 friends on the Main Line<\/a> to try composting so she could test demand for a compost collection service. She bought a small truck, picking up the bins of food scraps early in the morning before heading to her job in financial services. After the pandemic, residential demand ballooned, and Nolan made Mother Compost her full-time job. Now, the company serves around 1,500 homes; schools including Bryn Mawr<\/a> College and Villanova<\/a> University; culinary institutions including Reading Terminal Market; and corporate offices.<\/p>\n Nolan collects compost in her truck and carts it out to Pieretti, whom she calls \u201cthe master mixologist,\u201d for processing.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really exciting to see the commercial side and the institutional side coming online as well,\u201d Nolan said. \u201cIt\u2019s becoming more a piece of the waste management strategy than just this kind of crunchy, environmental practice that I think people thought about it before.\u201d<\/p>\n Kate Jacoby, who runs Center City<\/a> vegan restaurant Vedge<\/a> with her husband, Rich Landau, is one of Nolan\u2019s loyal customers. Jacoby began composting in her small Philadelphia backyard during the pandemic, expanding her home compost operation when the couple moved to Chester County<\/a> in 2021 and, eventually, bringing composting to the Vedge kitchen.<\/p>\n \u201cI get such a satisfaction knowing that it\u2019s going to go into the soil and it\u2019s not going to sit in a landfill,\u201d Jacoby said. <\/p>\n An expanding suburban compost network<\/p>\n As compost accessibility grows, so, too, does the number of municipal governments offering compost services to residents.<\/p>\n Media became the first municipality to sign on with Kitchen Harvest<\/a> in 2021, embracing a borough-wide compost program with a catchy \u201cGotta Getta Bucket\u201d promotional video<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cThe community at-large really supported the idea, and the participation was really high,\u201d Pieretti said of Media.<\/p>\n Many suburban programs have followed in the footsteps of Bennett Compost, which has been serving the city of Philadelphia since 2009<\/a>. <\/p>\n Lower Merion<\/a> in 2025 debuted both a community drop-off and a curbside pickup pilot program through Mother Compost and Bennett Compost. Swarthmore Borough<\/a> launched a curbside compost program through EZComposting<\/a> in January.<\/p>\n When Haverford Township launched its Kitchen Harvest partnership this summer, Pieretti felt like he had \u201cwon the compost championship.\u201d<\/p>\n In July, Haverford Township collected 162 tons of organic material, an increase of 111 tons from last July, according to township manager Dave Burman, who called the program \u201cpretty successful.\u201d The township also collected 141 fewer tons of trash this July than the year prior.<\/p>\n Haverford Township\u2019s program is optional, with no additional cost or registration process for residents.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve tried to make it as easy as we could for people to participate, and so far, so good,\u201d Burman said. <\/p>\n At its best, proponents say, compost creates a circular system. Much of Kitchen Harvest\u2019s compost product is used by Linvilla Orchards to feed the crops, and composters can buy back bags of the finished product at a discounted rate.<\/p>\n Sarah Linvill, team member at Linvilla, said the farm is grateful to work with Kitchen Harvest and to \u201cbe hosts for that kind of work.\u201d<\/p>\n Composting services are \u201cjust invaluable to the community,\u201d Linvill said.<\/p>\n Nolan called Linvilla \u201ca tremendous resource for the region\u201d when it comes to compost. <\/p>\n Composters like Jacoby, of Vedge, say they now cannot imagine a world where they simply toss an apple core into the trash.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you really, really dig down and want to get kind of philosophical about it,\u201d Jacoby said, \u201cwhen your soil is healthy and it\u2019s full of nutrients, you\u2019re going to have better-tasting food for yourself to consume.\u201d <\/p>\n Inquirer Haverford<\/p>\n A Weekly Newsletter<\/p>\n Want to get Inquirer Haverford straight to your inbox every week? Sign up here for our guide to the news, stories, and events shaping life in your township.<\/p>\n This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer\u2019s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com\/donate<\/a>. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org\/supporters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min Fifteen years ago, Chris Pieretti was just trying to get people to come…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[120492,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-290351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-curbside-composting-programs-philadelphia-suburbs","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Inquirer](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789919530_605_I_circle_black.png\")
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