On April 15, the VUFS community had a special opportunity get an inside peek at Hop Compost’s craft compost facility with CEO and founder, Kevin Davies. Hop is a leader in closing the food waste loop in Canadian urban cities, turning restaurant food waste into a high quality compost product for urban farmers.

Prior to Hop launching in Vancouver last October, all of Vancouver’s organic waste was hauled to Delta, Richmond, and rural sites that require a lot of fuel intensive trips. Hop uses an in-vessel composter which is so finely tuned that composting takes just 11 days (plus a month of curing). The composter runs odour, methane, and leachate-free, making it suitable for urban zoning.

Hop tour participants discussing composting with CEO Kevin Davies

Hop’s small-batch compost is high quality because all incoming material is carefully sorted (tight relationships with restaurants allow for feedback and education of kitchen staff) and the compost conditions are precisely managed. The product is 2000 times cleaner than OMRI organic standards and very nutrient rich.

It was pretty incredible to see the in-vessel composter in action. It is truly a feat of technological wizardry.

Dogwood Brewing kindly donated some of their delicious organic brewskies for the event. It was a beautiful day of craft compost and craft beer.

Kevin is offering VUFS members a discount on Hop compost. You can save $20/yard! Email hello@urbanfarmers.ca if you are a VUFS member and would like to receive the coupon code.