Full Circle Soils & Compost operates a 40-acre site at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center dairy and horse farm in Carson City. There, up to 50 trucks a day roll in with loads of organic materials collected from municipalities and organizations across the greater Reno-Carson-Tahoe area. The site’s large, manicured piles of organic matter then sit and cook, naturally heating up to as high as 160 degrees for as long as six months.
All the while, the Full Circle team monitors the mounds as they go through the composting process. When finished, the materials are used to make the company’s 40 retail products, including all-natural, soils, compost and mulches, shipped to 25 distributors across Northern Nevada. “The key in composting and with us is that you take materials in, but they have to go out,” Cody Witt, who helps manage and operate the company, said. “Because if you don’t keep the materials flowing out, you’ll become a compost landfill and you either shut down or get shut down.”
In 2020, Full Circle had more materials flowing in and out than ever before. The Carson City-based company collected more 87,000 cubic yards of organic materials last year. For perspective, Witt said that volume of yard waste could fill the Nevada Wolf Pack’s Mackay Stadium to the brim — 41 feet high. In all, the amount of compost Full Circle diverted from landfills weighed north of 40,100 tons, Witt noted.