Full Sun Compost / Little Green Bucket CASE STUDY

Founded in 2018 as Little Green Bucket, Full Sun Compost has grown into Albuquerque's leading community composting organizations, providing residential and commercial food scrap collection throughout the metropolitan area.

For years, the organization relied on transporting collected food waste to outside farms and composting partners. This arrangement created substantial hauling and disposal expenses, limited operational control, and prevented Full Sun Compost from fully realizing the value of the compost it helped produce.

The organization wanted to bring processing in-house at a new one-acre industrial property in Albuquerque's Wells Park neighborhood. Its vision was to create a local, community-centered composting operation that would reduce transportation costs, improve compost quality, and transform collected food scraps into valuable local soil resources.

The location presented several challenges. With neighboring properties only a few hundred feet away, effective odor control was critical. The small footprint also required a composting process that could efficiently handle incoming food waste without extensive turning or lengthy processing cycles.

Above all, Full Sun Compost needed an affordable solution that would make professional composting infrastructure accessible despite its extremely limited budget.

Recognizing Full Sun Compost's commitment to local food waste diversion and community sustainability, Green Mountain Technologies selected the organization as the first recipient of its 1% for the Planet giveback program. Through this initiative, GMT donated a complete five-zone, pre-engineered aerated static pile (ASP) system, providing Full Sun Compost with an affordable path to establishing a professionally managed composting operation.

Each of the five independently controlled zones includes a dedicated blower, protective blower housing, and temperature probe, all integrated through GMT's WebMACS control system. WebMACS automates aeration based on compost temperature, maintaining favorable conditions for aerobic decomposition while minimizing the risk of odor-generating anaerobic conditions.

The system also automates temperature monitoring and compliance documentation, reducing the time operators spend manually managing piles and recording process data.

By improving aeration and accelerating compost stabilization, the system allows Full Sun Compost to process more material within its limited footprint. The facility has operated successfully in its urban location without reported odor issues affecting nearby neighbors.

Bringing composting in-house eliminates significant off-site hauling expenses while allowing Full Sun Compost to produce and sell its own high-quality finished compost. Beyond the equipment donation, the project demonstrates GMT's commitment to making high-quality composting more accessible to the community organizations driving local food waste diversion.