Many companies are committed to disposing of their products in an environmentally friendly fashion; and more and more, this involves composting. Not only do they deserve a shout-out here, but they can be used to spark creative composting ideas for others. The next time you think about making a purchase, please consider these thoughtful companies.

~ Fiberactive Organics, LLC in Raleigh, North Carolina makes table linens and other products from organic cotton fabrics. Julie and her employees place their cotton fabrics and pieces of paper into the rabbitry and chicken nests where they are covered in manure. Then the organic matter goes either into the compost pile, the compost bin, or under the rabbit cages for the worms.

If maggots appear under her rabbit hutches, she brings the chickens in to have a feast. Under the hutches the cotton helps absorb urine and feces and attracts flies. If maggots appear under her rabbit hutches, she brings the chickens in to have a feast. At this point, everything is nearly decomposed, but she’ll toss it into the compost bin where the manure and urine on the fabric can really heat things up. Her compost goes to a community garden that she organized for her Vietnam refugee seamstresses and their families.

~ Jack’s Harvest in Atlanta, Georgia is a frozen organic baby food company, that keeps their environmentally friendly conscience by composting all of their fruit and vegetable peels. Heather, the owner of Jack’s Harvest, takes all the peels home with her, composts them, and uses the compost in her garden.

~ Coffee Break Cafe in Massachusetts is a small chain of coffee shops that started composting last year. Between recycling and composting they have decreased their trash SUBSTANTIALLY; they’d say by at least half. They would like to partner up with a local restaurant and have their own composting bins between their businesses so we they have to lug their messy, heavy grinds to the public composting place in their city.

~ ASK Apparel in Nashville Tennessee composts much of their waste material from their production process. They’re an eco-dye shop, utilizing natural dyes such as woods, flowers, and clays to impart sustainable color onto cloth. They in turn utilize this compost for their small farm; one of several regional suppliers of their natural dye pigment.

~ Taco Del Mar in Washington, Oregon, and Canada a quick-service Mexican restaurant chain, collaborated with Trellis Earth, a Portland-based company, to create a new line-up of green, eco-friendly packaging. Now, a year later, the packaging has rolled into over 180 stores in Washington, Oregon, and Canada.

These products range from utensils to carry-out bags, plates to garbage bags, Taco Del Mar’s 16-piece line-up is made of Trellis Earth’s PLA resin, composed of corn and vegetable starch, and biodegradable polymers, making each piece biodegradable in commercial landfills. Over a 12-month period Taco Del Mar reduces its plastic output by over 300,000 pounds (equal to over 169 tons of plastic waste), and reducing the use of fossil fuel by almost 1,000,000 pounds. This equals planting over 20,000 trees!

~ Atlas Paper Mills in Miami, Florida is a leader in the production of paper products, including bathroom toilet paper and paper-towel rolls, utilizing 100 percent recycled fiber, and a manufacturing process free of chlorine, chlorine derivatives, or any other potentially harmful chemicals.

Atlas Paper Mills isn’t ‘going green,’ they were ‘born green.’ They use 100 percent recycled waste paper from any number of pre- and post-consumer sources[md]mostly offices and schools; and converts it to toilet paper, paper towels, and other paper products. Atlas has never cut down a single tree in all the years the company has been in business.”

~ Herbal Lifestyle in Falls Church, Virginia create handcrafted herbal bath and body products made from only natural and organic ingredients. They compost all of the herbs that they use to make infused oils, and they also use compostable cellulose bags for their products rather than plastic.

~ American Yogini in Jamesport, New York is in the fresh juice business and have a LOT of fruit and vegetable pulp to deal with. The fresh vegetable and fruit pulps is composted with equal amounts of dry leaves or paper, so they put their office scrap paper through the paper shredder and keep it in a large box right next to the compost pile.

When they finish the juicing process and put pulp on the pile, they simply use the shredded office papers right over it. The finished compost goes back into the garden where it all started. They also have a teaching garden where we grow some of the vegetables we use in our juice blends.

~ What’s Cooking in San Rafael, California that focuses on cooking with kids. They offer kid cooking classes, parties, fundraisers, and community cooking projects. They’re passionate about bringing families together in the kitchen and around the table. What’s cooking composts all suitable food materials from their classes. If they teach in someone’s home, they save these items to compost later.