The vision for this facility is for it to be an exceptional example of a small to medium-sized on-farm compost operation and is permitted as such by the EPD as a Class II Permit By Rule Composting Operation. From day one, we have operated with certified and trained management and include the community in learning about the process of composting and the importance of it for soil and environmental health.

The compost manufactured at this facility is delivered to CompostNow’s Garden Partners in Metro Atlanta. These Garden Partners are local farms and gardens that are a part of CompostNow’s Garden Partner Program and receive the earned compost shared by home and business service members at no cost to the growers.

It's a remarkable process to see what many think of as “garbage” turn into nutrient-rich compost in a matter of months. Closing the food system loop is our mission, and our facility allows us to share a high-quality finished compost with farms and gardens to enrich soils.

In addition to creating and delivering high quality compost to local growers in need, CompostNow’s Georgia Compost Facility has created permitting and zoning models for compost facilities in the state and has increased access for small and medium-scale facilities to open in Georgia.
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Prior to CompostNow opening the Georgia Compost Facility, it was near impossible to get a small or medium-scale facility permitted in Georgia. At the time, Georgia’s Environmental Protection Department required that for a compost facility to receive a Permit By Rule, any feedstocks hauled in from off-site the facility had to be in proportion to feedstocks created on-site. This all but limited compost facilities to large-scale food and feedstock producers and precluded haulers from being able to open facilities.
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To fix this, CompostNow, along with various other public and private stakeholders including the Georgia Recycling Coalition, the Atlanta Regional Commission, Food Well Alliance, EPA Region 4, Georgia Tech University, and others formed a commission aimed at amending the Permit By Rule language so that facility permitting was based on tonnage limit. This made it so that new small-scale facilities could open without being restricted by the economic barrier of generating feedstocks on site. Once changed, CompostNow’s facility became one of the first compost facilities in the state of Georgia to receive a Georgia Environmental Protection Division Permit By Rule under this new language.
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As well as championing accessible facility permitting, CompostNow advocated for compost facility zoning in Douglas County and successfully rezoned the Georgia Compost Facility from Residential Agriculture to Agriculture. This was a massive victory for compost facilities and composting infrastructure in Douglas County and Metro Atlanta to allow for composting facilities to be an approved use under the more-protected agriculture umbrella, as opposed to heavy industrial.