Compost-It
Husain Alogaily
Husain Alogaily's Story
Husain began his entrepreneurial journey while completing his MSc in Sustainable Food Systems. He had a simple idea – redirecting food-waste to local composters in order to provide Leeds households with an opportunity to recycle leftover food scraps.
What started out as a small social impact scheme with waste collections facilitated on foot, has since grown into a multi-award-winning commercial food-waste collection business with multiple vehicles operating across West Yorkshire.
Compost-It now collects food waste from all types of businesses and works with partners to process it into bio-energy and compost through anaerobic digestion. The organisation aims to challenge and disrupt the big waste management companies, addressing the poor service and frequent missed collections that has long frustrated business customers.
With 90 businesses on board, including big names such as First Direct Arena, Nexus, and Sue Ryder, Compost-It has built strong foundations at exactly the right moment – new Simpler Recycling legislation now requires over 30,000 businesses across West Yorkshire to recycle their food-waste.
"Starting out with no business know-how or experience left me with a lot of doubt about whether I would be able to make Compost-It work commercially. Since joining Spark, the network and environment has not just provided me with the tools needed to build a viable business model, but also given me the confidence that Compost-It can revolutionise the commercial waste management sphere."
In addition to supporting Husain develop critical business skills and create important industry connections, Spark has also provided financial support to help Compost-It take advantage of the large market opportunity.
"We were lucky enough to have been given a Nexus Innovation Award at the Team Spark Awards, and the accompanying grant money is going to allow us to invest in a much-needed bigger vehicle that will 4.5x our operational capacity! With the new laws creating time-sensitive demand, this support is going to make an incredible difference on the speed we will be able to scale up."
