A South Carolina company is planning to build a composting facility on a 5.5-acre tract just outside downtown Chattanooga that’s slated to start operation by mid-2023. Atlas Organics is seeking a permit from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation for the location at 1045 E. 23rd St. Megan Turner of the Spartanburg, South Carolina, company said Wednesday that Atlas plans to compost yard and food waste. The facility also will offer a retail operation to sell the compost, she said in a telephone interview. “Anybody can buy some,” Turner said, adding that landscapers are common purchasers of its soil amendment as well as residents. “People can buy compost directly from us.”
Turner said Atlas’ operation will keep odors contained with proper management at the planned facility. The location, adjacent to Interstate 24 between Howard School and Montague Park, will sit on what’s now vacant property, but top soil was sold there in the past, she said. “We’ve got a whole team of engineers which build the site,” Turner said. About one to three employees will work at the facility at any point in time, she said.
Leslie Rogers, Altas’ director of sales and marketing, said during a public hearing Tuesday that while the tract is more than 5 acres, the composting area will take up about half the parcel. Rogers said Atlas, founded in 2015, now operates 14 facilities in eight states, including one in Memphis. The company has 224 employees, she said. “Food waste is responsible for about 6% of total global greenhouse emissions,” Rogers said.