WELCOME
Dirt Hugger is a regional composting company that supports a sustainable, local economy by collecting, processing, and utilizing valuable organic nutrients locally.
Category Archives: Composting
Compost Mulch
At the very end of our process when the compost has cooked and cured we run it through a trommel screen to screen the “fines” out from the “overs”. The fines consist of any compost that can pass through the … Continue reading
Posted in Composting, The Gorge
Tagged compost overs, farms, food production, local food, mulch, nearby food, organic farming
Leave a comment
Welcome to the Team
While the national unemployment rate is hitting new staggering highs, we are doing our level-best to counter The Great Recession. This past month the Dirt Hugger team has doubled from two guys in a $500 craigslist office trailer to four … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Composting, Events, The Gorge
Tagged employees, employment, growing a business, interns, machinery, new hires, new iron, start up
Leave a comment
Post-Consumer Food Permit (DEQ Type III)
We are thrilled to announce that on 6/16/11 our post-consumer food waste permit was approved by DEQ! (A post-consumer food waste permit allows a composter to accept both food prep fruits and veggies plus any food from a plate that … Continue reading
Food Scraps Pilot Update
A couple of weeks ago we attended the Hood River City Council meeting to deliver a mid-term update on the food scraps pilot program. We had our first curbside compost customer meeting in December with Riverside Grill’s green team, who … Continue reading
Happy Homes
One of the most rewarding parts of starting this business has been delivering compost to people’s homes, gardens and farms. Several months ago, the whole cycle began with trucks coming in filled with waste (fruit, veggies, and yard debris) and … Continue reading
Posted in Composting
Tagged casa verde, compost delivery, farms, gardens, growth, hood river organic, master gardeners, mosier valley organics, plants, value cycle
Leave a comment
Sold Out! (for now)
Every start-up dreams of creating a new product, bringing it to market and selling through orders in blockbuster fashion. While we can’t claim sales figures rivaling the iPhone, we did manage to sell out of the first three windrows of … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Composting
Tagged entrepreneurship, selling out, supply & demand, trommel screen
Leave a comment
Border Crossing
Today kicks off this weekend’s Spring Clean-Up event for the cities of White Salmon and Bingen, WA. During the event residents can bring waste and recyclables (including compostables this year!) to the Bingen transfer station for a mere $5 suggested donation. Today also … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Composting, Events, The Gorge
Tagged allied waste, bingen, community pride weekend, composting washington state, insitu, results, spring clean-up, white salmon
Leave a comment
Post-Consumer Food Waste Permit Application Submitted!
As of yesterday we have submitted our Type III, or post-consumer food waste permit application to the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Our hope is to join the ranks of only five permitted facilities in the state of Oregon to … Continue reading
The Best “Trash Sort” Yet!
When the garbage truck rolled up filled with food scraps today a dualing sense of excitement and horror shot through me. I was thinking of how great it is this material is not going to the landfill, but simultaneously how … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Composting
Tagged contamination, food scraps collection, food scraps composting
Leave a comment
“Move Beyond the Pilot…”
“…and into the mainstream.” That was the opening statement, theme, and challenge laid out by U of O Professor Robert Young at the Compostable Summit last week. He was speaking to a mixed audience of private and public influentials including Coca-Cola, Starbucks, International … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Composting, Policy
Tagged composting, DEQ, waste reduction, environmental policy, professor robert young, university of oregon, waste prevention, burgerville, coca cola, allied waste, portland metro, starbucks, international paper, john kitzhaber, lean path, pilot projects
Leave a comment
