Composting designed to change how we think about food waste
A Memphis solution to a Memphis challenge
Turning Food Waste into Something useful
The Compost Fairy is a Memphis-based composting service helping households, businesses, and events turn food waste into something useful for our community.
Food waste is one of the largest and most overlooked parts of our waste stream. Each year, nearly two million tons of waste are sent to Shelby County landfills, and close to 40 percent of it could be composted.
The Compost Fairy was created to help Memphis change that.
Founded and operated by Memphians, The Compost Fairy provides reliable composting services that make it easier for residents, restaurants, and organizations to keep food waste out of landfills and return it to the soil where it belongs.
We believe composting should be simple, transparent, and accessible, not complicated or experimental. By building the right infrastructure, investing in the right equipment, and hiring a strong local team, we’ve created a composting system designed to serve Memphis for the long term.
Composting you can see and measure.
In many places, people are unsure where their waste actually ends up. We believe the best way to build trust is through transparency.
When you compost with us, your food waste is not sent “away.”
It is processed locally and returned to the community as nutrient-rich compost that supports soil health and local growth.
40% of landfill waste in Shelby County could be composted.
100% of food waste collected by Compost Fairy is composted.
Composting is Infrastructure
Composting is essential infrastructure for a healthier waste system.
The Compost Fairy operates professional composting operations designed for consistency, reliability, and scale. Our team focuses on doing the work well every day: collecting food waste, processing it properly and safely, and ensuring it returns to the community as a valuable resource.
Turning food waste into local value
Unlike many waste systems where materials disappear into distant facilities, composting creates a local circular loop. Food scraps collected from Memphis homes, restaurants, and events are transformed into compost that supports local soil and growing environments. Instead of contributing to landfill volume, those materials become something productive again.
This circular system benefits everyone: households looking to reduce waste, businesses improving sustainability practices, and urban farms, conservation projects, community gardens, orchards, and other growing spaces – plus Memphis soil and ecosystems.