SUSTAINABLE & TRUE TO SERVICE

Midwest Compost is keeping it simple

Atrue family business is unique nowadays, but Owner of Midwest Compost Charles Murphy and his son, Operations Manager Pat Murphy, run their business with the kind of values you don’t experience very often.

“We’ve been in business since 2000 and I have two operating locations, one operating in West Chicago and the other in Elgin as well as a production yard in Bartlett,” says Charles Murphy. “Two are landscape waste disposal transfer stations, and one has a curbside recycling facility transfer station as well. Additionally, both have retail and wholesale materials for landscape projects like mulch, compost and stone.” All products can be purchased online as well as in-person at the various locations. When it comes to landscape waste disposal, Midwest Compost accepts landscape waste from landscape companies, waste haulers and residents. “They bring in grass, leaves, anything organic that we accept, and we take that in to process it into compost,” says Murphy. Midwest Compost is also permitted to accept food scraps for the beneficial mix with landscape waste for the production of organic compost.

A big operation requires big equipment and Midwest Compost utilizes special equipment and vehicles to help make their process as efficient and safe as possible. “Our work requires the use of big rubber tire loaders, tub grinders, and semitrucks with special walking floor trailers for delivering to the customers,” says Pat Murphy. “We take in the woody material that we actually grind into mulch product. We use the front-end loaders to load the tub grinder. The tub grinder then grinds that material up to the specific size that we need and creates a finished product for us.”

Once this material is sized correctly, Midwest Compost then uses a coloring machine to dye the all-natural wood into desired shades for different products. Then the company utilizes semi trucks and trailers to deliver the products.

The mulching process is pretty important for the environment with the added benefit of using a waste product to create something of value as well having the benefit of aesthetics. “It’s not just composting, it’s mulching as well,” says Murphy. “It’s about reducing, reusing, and recycling of these materials. Anything we take in, we’re repurposing it into a finished product that can then be used naturally back into the landscape and will decompose back into the earth in a natural cycle. The finished product has nutrients in it, so there is value in it from an environmental and decorative standpoint.”

Plenty of wholesalers, nurseries and private residences employ Midwest Compost throughout the Tri-Cities area. “The biggest type of clients would be wholesalers, nurseries and landscapers supplying multiple different customers,” says Murphy. “We deliver to homeowners in local neighborhoods as well. We do everything from top-end wholesale, all the way down to mulch-to-your-door retail.”

Quality service is the father-son duo’s main focus throughout every aspect of their growing business. “We value customer relations, we prioritize service and it’s important to us to provide a service that has a value, not just the product,” says Murphy. “Every year we grow, and we strategically plan how to do that. We build these customer relationships, and we are looking for long-term relationships with our customers as a whole.”

This year, Midwest Compost added firewood to their production line, a move that showcases their practical and smart approach to customer-centric business. “It’s about maintaining what we’re doing,” says Murphy. “We’ll continue to look into growing and expanding while keeping the quality of service we’ve always had.”