For nearly a decade, Philadelphians looking to begin their composting journeys have looked to one of two options for private compost pick-up services — Bennett and Circle Compost. But now, customers won’t have to choose at all.
Bennett Compost announced its acquisition of Circle Compost in an email to customers on Dec. 12, with the merger officially taking effect in 2026.
Tim Bennett founded Bennett Compost in 2009, and the company now diverts 200 tons of waste from landfills each month, serving 6,500 households and 150 businesses with their compost pickup services. Circle Compost was founded by David Bloovman and his wife Michele in 2016.
“When we launched, we launched at the exact same price that [Bennett] had,” says Bloovman. “At the time, they were $15 a month for a five gallon bucket emptied weekly. And I told him, ‘I didn’t do this so that we could go out there and be 14 bucks.’ We just wanted to give another option.”
We’re doing this because we think it’s an opportunity to make everyone stronger.”
— Tim Bennett, Bennett Compost
Nine years later, Circle composts more than 25 tons of food scraps every month from over 2,500 customers, 55 of those commercial.
The merger came after Bloovman approached Bennett with the idea to join forces. Continuing to grow Circle’s commercial business in a meaningful way, Bloovman said, would have been very challenging to do with Bennett as a competitor.
Bloovman says he was never interested in selling Circle to a third-party company. “If we did that, you’d still have two different companies going down that same block for those different buckets. I was not interested in that. So I didn’t talk to any other potential buyer,” says Bloovman.
“For us, it’s incredibly important that we try to keep the composting scene here local,” says Tim Bennett, founder of Bennett Compost.
So what changes can current Circle Compost customers expect? For the first six months, nothing should noticeably change for household routes or service. But long term, Bennett and Bloovman say some customers may see their pickup routes adjusted to reduce the overall mileage of vehicles collecting compost buckets.
“We already, all the time, see Circle buckets next to Bennett buckets on the same block,” says Bloovman. “So we obviously want to take advantage of those efficiencies and have one route going down that block for both customers, as opposed to two separate routes.”
One change that Circle customers will be able to take advantage of right away is access to Bennett’s range of retail soil products. The 20% discount that Bennett offers to customers on all of their bagged soil products will now be expanded to Circle customers as well.
Bloovman says that becoming part of Bennett also allows more opportunities for advancement for Circle’s current employees, who will all be offered positions at their current pay at Bennett in the merger, including Bloovman himself, bringing the combined team to a total of 40 employees.
Bennett also looks forward to the new ideas that might come out of the merger, and how they can collaboratively respond to changes in the industry. He also says he hopes to continue expanding their compost processing capacity and experimenting with different models.
“We’re doing this because we think it’s an opportunity to make everyone stronger,” Bennett says.
Grid publisher Alex Mulcahy is a co-owner of Bennett Compost.
