Cold Creek Compost

California’s Composting Future

Composting has always been hip, but now it’s the hottest trend in the state. New state regulations are encouraging more composting than ever. Cold Creek Compost has happily offered nearby counties cutting-edge composting services for decades, and continues to be one of the few facilities permitted to handle food waste, a huge part of California’s waste stream. Thanks to Cold Creek Compost, Mendocino County and the surrounding areas are well-positioned to meet the state’s new requirements and help the state in its fight against climate change. For in-depth reading and visuals, see
SF Chronicle’s Special Report.

Sonoma County WeAct Compost Giveaway

Cold Creek Compost is a proud partner of WeAct (Windosor Earth Action Climate Team). Just recently, we donated compost to help put on a free organic compost giveaway. It was a huge success, so next week, it will be happening again! We couldn’t resist joining the effort to spread compost and compost knowledge in our community. Here are some details:

Time and Place:
Saturday April 3, 2021
From: 9am – 1pm
Location: Keiser Park—Free ½ Cu.Yd. per household

What to Bring to Haul-Your-Own:
● Shovels, gloves
● Tarps, buckets, feedbags &/or a pick-up truck (a few extra feedbags will be available)
● Covid-Safe Mask Required

Benefits of Organic Compost:
Compost replenishes the soil and boosts your plants with nutrients, microorganisms, and organic matter, improves water retention, recycles organic resources, helps conserve landfill use, and pulls carbon out of the atmosphere.

WeAct is a group of dedicated citizens in Windsor working to address the global climate emergency through local action.
Contact: 707-494-0222

Food Waste, Landfills,and Greenhouse Emissions

Reducing food waste is one of the most effective ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Not only that, food waste is the number 1 contributor to landfills! So if you aren’t going to finish your plate, at least do your best to make sure your leftovers end up at a compost facility like ours. Few can boast a 99% recovery rate like Cold Creek Compost. That means 99% of what comes to our facility goes back out into the world as a useable product. See more in this infographic from Waste 360.

ClimateChangeInfographic_Final

Salts in Compost

Cold Creek is always interested in the cutting edge of compost research and technology. We’re always happy to discuss the science behind compost with our customers as well.

We recently came across an informative research paper published by the Environmental Research and Innovation Center at the University of Wisconson, Oshkosh. The paper breaks down the different salts in compost, their importance for plant growth, and methods for testing salt content in soils. There’s a lot more to it than whether a soil is too “salty” or not! Read the paper to learn more.

We found the paper at the Composting Council Research and Education Foundation. Check out their website for lots of other information about compost and what makes it great!

Nutrient Cost Comparison

Here at Cold Creek we’re focused on maximizing nutrient content and minimizing cost. We believe that knowing more about your fertilizer and soil will help you Buy Less, Spread Less, and Grow More. It may be possible to find a lower cost compost than Cold Creek’s, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a compost that can compete with our nutrient content per dollar. Cold Creek’s Compost is even competitive with chemical fertilizer.

To help see the benefits of our compost, we’ve put together this worksheet. Take the time to calculate how much your spending on fertilizers, and see what Cold Creek has to offer.

Buy-Less-Spread-Less-Grow-More

Cold Creek Earns Congressional Recognition for Sustainability

On August 28, 2017, U.S. Congressman Jared Huffman visited Cold Creek Compost, toured the operations, and presented Martin and Cold Creek Compost with a Sustainable North Coast Award for the company’s dedication to environmental stewardship and sustainability. Cold Creek Compost and Martin are truly honored by this award and recognition for their 22 years of sustainable materials management. Thank you Congressman Huffman and many congratulations to Martin and the Cold Creek crew!

Learn more about Huffman and his sustainability mission on his website

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Reduce, reuse, then recycle. It’s important to remember to follow these guidelines in that order. As much as we love composting your food waste here at Cold Creek Compost, we want to remind you that it’s even better if your food scraps never make it to the garbage can at all.

A huge portion of America’s food waste is perfectly good food that just couldn’t find a hungry mouth to feed before it ended up in the trash. We’ve stumbled across a few apps, aimed at businesses as well as families, that can help reduce the amount of food that gets thrown out. These apps help make the most of our food, and one was even developed by a seventh-grader! Check it out at waste360.com.

Below: Happy Holidays from Cold Creek, but don’t let your Christmas leftovers go to waste!

Commonwealth Hospital Gardens


The Commonwealth Gardens hope to provide fresh vegetables to the future Howard Memorial Hospital under construction in Willits. To support the non-profit venture, Cold Creek Compost has been donating its Agrow-Blend compost to the Hospital Gardens for years, and has also provided advice on how the Gardens might generate their own compost to recycle their own plant and food waste. Cold Creek hopes to continue to support the Gardens as they grow.

Brochure Cover See Cold Creek's comprehensive Product Catalog for details on our products and their benefits. Product Catalog
Book CoverCold Creek Compost is proud to be featured in the children's book Composting Abbie, a tale of how a whale can be composted, and how a tragedy can be turned into an opportunity. More
  • Discounts for Carbon Sequestration

    February 27, 2023

    This article highlights an exciting pilot project on the financial benefits of carbon sequestration through compost application. The Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District (RCD) conducted the project to explore the potential of compost in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. The results were impressive, demonstrating that compost can significantly reduce the […]

    Keep Reading...

  • Sway the Future with Seaweed

    December 26, 2022

    How do we make the world a better place? We Sway the Future. Specifically, we reduce our dependence on petroleum plastics by switching to better alternatives, like seaweed-based plastics. It’s no secret that the occasional plastic bag ends up in the compost bin. Imagine if that plastic simply composted like a piece of paper or […]

    Keep Reading...

  • Word of Mouth – Compost

    November 14, 2022

    Word of Mouth is a great community magazine about food and agriculture here in Mendocino County. We were honored to be mentioned in their Summer article on compost in California. Give their website a look for more information about all that Mendocino County has to offer. Here’s a Fall shot of the hills around Potter […]

    Keep Reading...

  • More Compost Discounts!

    October 20, 2022

    Bummed you missed Cold Creek Compost’s big Summer Sale? Well, the discounts keep coming. Zero Waste Sonoma is offering Sonoma County compost users a juicy 10% discount on compost purchase until next Summer, up to $25,000 off. All it takes is a little bit of paperwork. Get your discount here. Once you’ve got that sorted […]

    Keep Reading...

  • Peace & Plenty Farm – Saffron

    October 20, 2022

    One of our favorite customers is Peace & Plenty Farm. Among other tasty treats, they produce saffron by the bushel. Anyone concerned about low cannabis prices might look to saffron as an alternative; it goes for $5,000 per pound! Read a little about their farm here. Photo by Thomas J. Story.

    Keep Reading...