I am super excited to share my podcast interview with my friend Gwenn Daniels Nolan. I am especially excited about this podcast because Gwenn is a fellow Notre Dame Academy alum, she is one of my sister’s best friends, and she is making a huge, positive impact on our environment every single day!

Gwenn founded Mother Compost in 2018 with the goal of making composting simple and easy for her fellow Philadelphia Mainline residents. For those of you not familiar with what composting is, it is the next evolution of recycling. When you compost, you sort out organic materials (food waste, yard waste, household waste) at home that can be turned into a nutrient-rich fertilizer. So Gwenn, being a mother to three kids herself, was frequently frustrated by the amount of food waste her household created and recognized that her pile in the backyard couldn’t handle it all. In addition, she knew many people would love to compost but were short on the time, space, or energy needed to turn their food scraps into fertilizer. She started the company by asking 10 friends to convert to composting and let her test the idea of a collection service. After a month and overwhelmingly positive feedback, Mother Compost officially opened its doors and began building its composting community. 

Now in its 3rd full year of operation, MC has over 500 subscribers and has rescued roughly 450,000 pounds of organic materials from the landfill. They partner with the team at Kitchen Harvest Inc, which processes all materials at Linvilla Orchards in Media, PA, and helps us keep these vital nutrients in our neighborhood. So an example of how it works – My sister Tara and her husband Jeff and their three little ones (Kate, Quinn, and Rhys) are subscribed to Mother Compost. Every two weeks, they leave their composting bucket by end of their driveway where Gwenn and her team pick it up and take it to Linvilla Orchards in Media, PA. Then in April and May, Gwenn and her team return nutrient-rich fertilizer to Tara which she is able to use in her backyard! Tara and Jeff have been composting for over two years now and they absolutely love it. Gwenn will go into more detail on the composting process during our interview. Hope you all enjoy!