DIRT Rich Composting and Pick Up Service

06/04/2026

05/03/2026

We’re hiring a part-time driver to join our team this summer 🌱

We’re looking for someone who:
• enjoys driving and mostly solo work
• is physically strong and able to move 200 lb bins
• is a confident, safe driver
• can drive our small dump truck (no CDL required)
• is available Mondays and Thursdays from June–September for around 15-18 hours per week of work

This position is a big part of helping us keep food scraps out of the landfill and returning nutrients back to local soil through composting.

It’s a great fit for someone who likes independence, driving, and doing meaningful hands-on work in the community.

To apply or ask questions, send us a message or email us at [email protected]

04/10/2026

We’re so happy to highlight Agile Goat Flower Farm as one of the beautiful farms we cycle our compost back to.

is growing more than flowers — they’re growing beauty, seasonality, and connection to the land right here in Montana. Their farm is such a lovely example of what can happen when care, intention, and healthy soil come together.

There’s something especially meaningful about seeing compost return to a place like this — helping support blooms that are rooted in local soil and grown with heart.

This is the kind of cycle we love to be part of:
food scraps → compost → flowers 🌿✨

We’re grateful for growers like Agile Goat who are helping create a more vibrant, grounded, and regenerative Montana landscape.

03/20/2026

How you apply compost = how it performs.

One of the biggest misconceptions we see is people thinking all compost can be used the same way. It can’t.

Every compost is different—different nutrients, different biology, different pH, different organic matter levels. That means application really matters.

Too much, too little, or using it the wrong way can all affect your results.

Our Annual Mix is meant to be applied intentionally to support long-term soil health—not just a quick boost.

Use it well, and your soil (and plants) will tell the story.

03/12/2026

How much compost should you actually use in your garden? The answer depends a lot on the type of bed you're working with — and also the type of compost you're using.

One thing we've run into quite a bit is folks building raised beds using the popular “square foot gardening” mix. Many people are excited about that recipe, but it was really designed to behave more like a potting mix. When used in a raised bed, especially with certain composts, it can end up being very high in carbon and not provide enough readily available nutrients for plants to thrive.

Another important piece: not all compost is the same. Every compost product is different depending on the materials and process used to make it. Dirt Rich compost is high in stable carbon and biological life, which is excellent for building soil long term — but it also means that in high-carbon mixes you may want to add a small amount of a holistic broad-spectrum fertilizer to ensure plants have access to readily available nutrients, especially nitrogen.

Compost is best thought of as a slow-release soil builder. It adds organic matter, biology, and nutrients that become available over time. If a mix contains a lot of carbon-rich ingredients, plants may need an additional nutrient source early on to perform their best.

There is so much information and so many gardening approaches out there. The most important thing to remember is that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all recipe. The ingredients in your mix — and the type of compost you use — should always be considered together and adapted to your local context.

Healthy soil is built over time, and a little intention in your mix goes a long way.

03/05/2026

If you’ve ever wanted to understand composting without feeling overwhelmed, this is a great book to start with.

“Compost Coach” by Kate Flood (Compostable Kate) breaks compost down in a way that’s approachable, practical, and actually fun to learn.

Kate is based in Australia, so some things — like winter composting — will naturally look a bit different for those of us in colder northern climates. But regardless, this is some of the most well-laid-out and accessible information on composting I’ve come across, and the core principles translate anywhere.

Composting is one of the simplest ways we can reconnect food, soil, and the nutrient cycle. More people doing it = healthier soils and less waste in landfills.

Highly recommend this one.

Check out her instagram as well at @.kate.

02/20/2026

We love working with organizations that choose to live their environmental values in tangible ways. SWCA Environmental Consultants is a perfect example.

Since starting their office composting program with us in 2025, their team has diverted 2,656 pounds of food scraps and paper towels from the landfill. That’s over a ton of organic material returned to the soil instead of producing methane in a landfill.

What makes this especially meaningful is that office composting isn’t always the obvious choice. It takes intention, coordination, and a shared commitment from the people who work there. But when an office decides to compost, the impact goes far beyond the pounds diverted. It normalizes climate-conscious decision-making in the workplace. It sparks conversations. It shifts culture. It reminds everyone involved that their daily actions matter.

is an environmental consulting firm whose work supports responsible land use, ecological restoration, and environmental compliance across the country. Their mission is rooted in helping communities and ecosystems thrive, and we love seeing that same ethic reflected in how they operate their own office.

We’re especially grateful to Dakota Whitman and Melinda Cole, who helped champion and implement this effort internally. In addition to his role at SWCA, Dakota also serves as Chair of the Whitefish Climate Action Committee, extending that impact even further into the community.

This is how real change happens: one office, one team, one habit at a time.

02/16/2026

One million pounds.

That’s how much food our community kept out of the landfill this year.

One million pounds of nutrients that didn’t disappear.
One million pounds that became living soil instead.

In 2025, together, we diverted 1,118,450 pounds of organic material from the landfill and returned it to the land as compost. That compost went on to support over 180 growers across our region, offset roughly 32 tons of synthetic fertilizer, and strengthen the soil that feeds us all.

This year also marked 10 years of Dirt Rich Compost. Ten years of neighbors choosing differently. Ten years of businesses stepping up. Ten years of building something that didn’t exist here before.

We installed solar at our site. Strengthened our systems. Deepened partnerships with farmers, processors, and land stewards. And laid the groundwork for the next phase of this work.

But the truth is — this milestone doesn’t belong to us.

It belongs to every household that separates their scraps.
Every kitchen that chooses compost.
Every grower who trusts living soil.

Real change doesn’t happen all at once.
It happens through thousands of small, daily decisions that slowly reshape what’s possible.

Thank you for being part of this.

We’re just getting started.

Grow food. Not landfills.

02/06/2026

Not all compost is created equal. For us, quality starts with what we *choose not to use* just as much as what we do use.

We intentionally avoid biosolids, manure, and grass clippings because of real concerns around persistent herbicides, PFAS, and other contaminants that can travel through materials and concentrate in compost. That doesn’t mean all compost that includes those inputs is “bad” — it just means we’ve chosen a different, more cautious path for our community and our watershed.

Instead, our recipe is built from local waste streams that would otherwise be burned or landfilled: your food scraps, clean wood shavings from SmartLam, arborist chips, and leaves and garden cutbacks from Columbia Falls and Whitefish. Together, these materials become living soil that stores carbon, feeds soil biology, and returns nutrients to the land where they belong.

We take food scrap contamination seriously. We’re always working improving our community education and sorting systems, routinely testing for microplastics (which have consistently been zero), and now also conducting annual bioassays for herbicides and biennial PFAS testing.

Curious to see it in action? You’re always welcome to stop by our site, take a sample to test yourself, or ask to review our lab results before you buy. We believe transparency is part of truly regenerative compost.

Swipe through to see what goes into your compost — and what doesn’t. 💚

01/30/2026

When a business the size of Montana Coffee Traders changes something as simple — and as complex — as their hot coffee cups, the ripple effect is enormous.

Coffee Traders hot cups are served across multiple cafés in the Flathead Valley and Glacier National Park. This change has the potential to keep tens of thousands of single-use cups out of the landfill each year. More importantly, it helps shift the overall landscape of how waste is created, managed, and valued in our community.

Most disposable coffee cups aren’t recyclable or compostable due to plastic or chemical linings. By transitioning to 100% third-party certified compostable hot cups, Montana Coffee Traders aligned their packaging with a system that can actually return materials back to soil through local composting.

This kind of change doesn’t just reduce waste — it helps heal our relationship with it.

Instead of “away,” materials stay local.
Instead of landfill, nutrients can return to the land.
Instead of waste, we build soil.

A huge thank you to for the time, research, and commitment they’ve put into this transition — and for investing in the long-term health of their patrons, our compost system, and the broader Flathead Valley community.

This is what it looks like when businesses help build better systems from the ground up.