2020: In a Nutshell...
What does a global pandemic do to a composting company? Lots - but not at all what I had expected. We were amazed early on to receive a letter from Portland Metro deeming organics recycling essential and that we should stay open. Given that, we scrambled to create systems we thought would keep our customers and employees safe. We locked our building doors to customers and vendors, made a plexiglass “walk up window”, had packages delivered outside (remember when they said coronavirus could live on cardboard boxes for 24 hours?), and started cleaning a lot more (which is challenging at a dirt factory). Once we battened the hatches, we had to figure out how to operate. Upon reflection, a few themes emerged as we went through this process:
Accelerated Plans - Our 2020 goals set in January stated, ‘allow customers to buy compost without calling or seeing Dirt Hugger drivers.’ We basically wanted people to be able to order compost from work without their boss knowing (sorry, bosses). The term ‘contactless delivery’ hadn’t yet been uttered, but that’s what we were shooting for.
Prior to the pandemic we were searching for e-commerce platforms that would accommodate bulk supply delivery logistics, to no avail. Once the pandemic got into swing, companies like Square super-juiced their backend development. First they had ‘contactless pickup,’ then ‘contactless delivery’ - without any extra effort, software development, or money, we hit a key 2020 goal, much faster than we thought.
Streamlined Efficiencies - A big part of our business occurs when large tractor trailers drive compostable materials from cities to us. Many of them come from Vancouver or Portland, which are both 90 miles away. Prior to the pandemic the drivers would pull up, get out of their truck and come inside to talk with our friendly staff, get a ticket, and learn where to dump.
Imagine you’re a driver who’s been alone, in a truck for 90 minutes. What do you want to do? 1. Pee 2. Chat with cool, friendly people. We love our trucking partners, but each of those 5-15 minute interactions were eating up an entire day for one-two people. We are typically kind and polite people, so we were reluctant to cut chats short.
Once we locked the doors to the outside world, we had to come up with a contactless way to get tickets and information to those drivers. We installed CB radios in all of our front loaders and asked the drivers to talk directly with them (imagine that, talking directly to the person doing the work?). As for tickets, we developed a trucker’s kiosk where we could print and pin tickets for them. 8 hours of work turned into 1 hour. We will never go back.
Customers - April and May are our busiest months of the year. Looking back, that was the first time society was really locked down. People were stuck at home, all the time. While people were in between Zoom meetings or not working, they were staring at their unkempt lawns, gardens or house projects. Enter the composting company. On both ends, we saw record numbers of people coming out of the woodwork. People brought us their cleaned up yard debris and then they bought compost for new and existing gardens. #eternalsaturday #workfromgarden
Employees - This change is a bit of mixed bag. Since we stayed open and demand peaked, our employees worked harder than ever. And since they couldn’t travel, they took less vacation. In a normal year hard work and a full-on spring would be causes for celebrations; we are known for Friday beer calls, rafting trips, and night skiing, none of which could happen. We were bummed to abandon our fun rituals and learned mid-way pandemic that we couldn’t give up, we had to get creative - outside meetings, outdoor distanced beer calls, and more.
As a company we have managed to navigate the pandemic and stay open with zero employee Covid cases. I’d say it has been a mix of some preparation plus a lot of luck. Going to work every day has provided stability and mental/emotional reprieve from everything that’s going on. We feel fortunate to have stayed open and busy. I’m proud of our team, our customers, and our vendors for staying positive and flexible. It will be interesting to see what next year holds.
