Linda Falkenstein
The Troy Farm greenhouse.
Tuesdays a crew gathers at the Troy Farm greenhouse to tend the compost.
Dane County residents and businesses throw away an estimated 10,000 tons of food scraps every year that could be composted. Brainplate Grows is a community composting program focused on restaurants and food producers working to change that.
The group currently works at Troy Farm on Madison’s north side.
Elliott Gilfillan, founder of Brainplate Grows, calls the project “a rescue mission.” Unlike other private composting ventures, Brainplate uses a sliding scale payment structure and relies heavily on trade. Gilfillan says the project is not intended to make a profit, noting it’s “by the people, for the people, for the planet.”
According to Dane County, more than 30% of materials that go to the county landfill are organic. In the landfill, food waste is deprived of oxygen, and so releases methane gas, a driver of climate change, as it decomposes. Composting introduces oxygen and breaks materials down in a way that does not produce methane. With less than five years of estimated space left at the Dane County landfill, every scrap diverted helps.
Gilfillan began composting restaurant waste in his backyard in 2020 while working as a prep cook at Ahan. He was amazed at the amount of food scraps that were thrown away.
“The mentality in kitchens is there’s no time,” Gilfillan says. If grabbing a different bucket takes five extra seconds, it creates delays. But when Gilfillan brought up the big picture, that the finished compost could be used to grow great produce, he found that staff were open to change. Once staff started composting, it became a habit they took pride in.
The idea caught on. Gilfillan was soon composting materials from Ahan and the now-closed Jardin.
By 2023, he was about to run out of space. Rooted, the nonprofit that manages Troy Farm, had received grant funding from the National Resources Defense Council to support community composting there. Rooted just needed someone to lead the project. Gilfillan was in the right place at the right time for the job.
A series of tubes
Previously, Troy’s method of composting was to “put things in a pile and let it sit,” says Paul Huber, farm director at Troy Farm. “We didn’t have time to actively manage it, so we never really made use of it.”
Starting in May of 2023, Gilfillan used the funding to build a greenhouse at Troy to accelerate the composting process. Ready by August of that year, the greenhouse created the infrastructure so that more restaurants’ scraps could be accommodated.
Gilfillan bikes to pick up the food scraps from restaurants each week. Every Tuesday, the Healthy Food for All van brings the materials to Troy, where a crew of core volunteers work on the compost piles.
Each pile is a blend of nitrogen-filled food scraps — the “greens” — and carbon-rich materials (a combination of wheat, straw, leaves, wood chips) — the “browns.” The crew then adds lactobacillus, an open air culture of curdled milk mixed with molasses. Gilfillan says the lactobacillus helps speed up the decomposition process and reduces unsavory odors. A system of buried tubes allows for the introduction of air into the pile, thus eliminating the need for time-consuming turning.
Piles sit inside the greenhouse for about three months while they heat up and mycelium networks take root. The team then moves each pile outside, where it will cure for several more months.
While Gilfillan is passionate about the scientific side of the process, he calls the human element the “great unsung hero” of community composting. Volunteers often trade the compost for fresh produce from Troy Farm. Home gardeners can contact Brainplate Grows directly on Instagram to trade their labor for some compost of their own.
Brainplate Grows now “actually puts a dent in the proportion of food scraps that are thrown away,” Gilfillan says.
In 2024, partnering with 22 restaurants and food producers in the Williamson Street area, Brainplate transformed more than 48,000 pounds of food waste into nutrient-rich dirt. That translates to almost 6,000 pounds of finished compost returned directly to the earth at Troy Farm.
Catering to restaurants
Elliott Gilfillan composting.
Gilfillan works a fresh bin of food scraps in mid-April.
Operations like Earth Stew and Curbside Composter have been composting in Madison for more than a decade, but focus more on residential pickup, with a few small businesses and cafes. Purple Cow Organics recently partnered with Dane County to expand compost services over the next several years utilizing grant funds, though they are in the early stages of the pilot.
Green Box Compost, which serves both residences and businesses, works with 13 restaurants, at a rate of $100-$200 a month. Started in 2022, Green Box has swiftly grown to be one of the largest food scrap recycling operations in the state.
Green Box founder Ben Stanger believes that economies of scale will eventually allow him to offer composting at lower cost, bringing on more restaurants in the future.
Brainplate Grows, on the other hand, hopes to eventually charge more for its services. Initially, Gilfillan composted materials free of charge. He had relationships with most of the restaurants, and was often on site working other odd jobs, so picking up the organic waste was simple.
As the operation has grown, the crew has managed to negotiate regular financial donations from several restaurants including Mint Mark and Sardine. There are still no set costs for the service.
There are incentives to help restaurants pay for composting. Restaurants that prove they actively participate in a “recognized and approved” composting program pay lower sewer utility rates, because composting means less food waste sent down the drain. And since the nonprofit Northside Planning Council became Brainplate Grows’ fiscal sponsor in 2024, any business donations are tax exempt.
“It makes it easier for places to chip in if [that money is] coming back, or [if composting] reduces some other cost that they have,” Gilfillan says.
Ultimately, he envisions a community coalition of smaller composting sites, each with a focus on its own neighborhood. Two possibilities are Vera Court Neighborhood Center on the north side, and Reynolds Community Garden in the Tenney-Lapham neighborhood. Brainplate Grows plans to have pop-up composting events at both locations in 2025.
This community compost coalition would ideally expand composting infrastructure in the city. But for that to work, “Each spot needs a champion or two,” Gilfillan says.
Brainplate Grows is always accepting volunteers. Anyone who is interested can fill out the interest form on the group’s Instagram page. Or, just come by Troy Farm on Tuesdays for the pile build. Ultimately, Gilfillan says, “We really do need all hands on deck here, we need all scales [of composting]. The more that everybody is educated and an invested stakeholder in it, the better.”
