Rust Belt Riders: Nathan Rutz on Cooperatives and Scaling up

About this episode

Nathan Rutz discusses the growth and vision of Rust Belt Riders, a cooperative composting operation.

Today, I’m thrilled to share my conversation with Nathan. He’s the Director of Soil and a long-time force behind Rust Belt Riders, a cooperative composting operation that’s grown from bicycles and buckets to launching a mid-scale compost facility . Their story is truly inspiring—not just because of the growth, but because of how intentionally they’ve done it. We talk about the early days, what it’s been like to scale, and the importance of their unique cooperative business structure —which sets them apart in the composting world. And toward the end of the conversation, Nathan shares his beautiful vision of a compost-centric utopian future . It’s heartfelt, imaginative, and honestly, something we could all use a bit more of. Check out Rust Belt Riders (👊) at https://www.rustbeltriders.com/ Nathan mentioned Farmers of Forty Centuries; Or, Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea and Japan, a book by Franklin Hiram King that anyone interested in Compost should check out! Thank you to our Show sponsors: Green Mountain Technologies: visit Compostingtechnology.com and mention The Composter podcast for a free consultation Agrilab Technologies at www.agrilabtech.com/podcast And Viably…

People in this episode

Host: Jayne Merner

Guest: Nathan Rutz

Topics covered

• cooperatives
• composting
• sustainability
• business growth
• environmental science

Keywords

• composting
• cooperatives
• sustainability
• environment
• business model

Sponsors

Green Mountain Technologies, Agrilab Technologies, Viably

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Rust Belt Riders

Books & works: Farmers of Forty Centuries; Or, Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea and Japan

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