Media Contact: Gaelan Brown, [email protected].
October 31, 2025, Nampa, Idaho- Timber Creek Recycling, one of the largest food waste composting companies in Idaho, is converting 50,000 tons per year of food waste, biosolids and other materials at its new composting facility in Nampa into valuable compost products, supporting local agriculture and industry.
In 2023 Timber Creek Recycling, which has been operating a turned windrow composting facility in Meridian Idaho since 2013, installed a new state of the art “aerated static pile” (ASP) composting plant at their new location in Nampa, Idaho. The new composting facility is designed to expand up to 200,000 tons per year of processing capacity.
The company has become a leading regional supplier of compost, soil blends, mulch, bedding and recycled industrial materials while also diverting hundreds of thousands of tons of material from Idaho’s landfills over the past decade. The Meridian facility still operates a mulch grinding and concrete recycling facility, with composting operations moving to the new Nampa ASP composting site.
Owner Mike Murgoitio and his family have a long history in dairy farming, cattle ranching and field crop production. The composting business was originally started to support the family’s farming operations.
“As a multi-generational farming family we understand the impact of compost on soil health, soil water retention, crop yields and the financial success of an agricultural operation,” said Murgoitio. “We take pride in turning compostable waste streams into high value soil amendments that help regional farmers succeed, and we’re also proud to be keeping millions of pounds of material from going to the landfill every year.”
The facility’s new ASP composting infrastructure speeds up the composting process with controlled aeration of the composting material. The aeration system also dramatically minimizes odors and enables a much more efficient operation.
“We began copmposting in 2013 using the turned windrow method,” said Murgoitio. “Our new ASP system has been a huge improvement in terms of operational efficiency, odor control and speed. Our turned windrow method worked, but turned windrow processing requires a lot more open space and we needed ASP to be able to handle tricky feedstocks like industrial food waste and the material we’re getting from our food depackaging system.”
The new ASP composting facility was designed by Seattle-based Green Mountain Technologies (GMT). Phase 1 of the ASP system has capacity to process up to 50,000 tons of material per year. Future expansion of the ASP system to 200,000 tons per year capacity is being planned.
GMT provided the engineered composting facility design along with permitting consulting services for Timber Creek’s solid waste and storm-water permits. GMT provided the aeration blowers, control system & data logging, and aeration ductwork. GMT also provided a new CMC ST 300 compost turner to pre-mix materials before being placed on the ASP system.
Facility design considerations included specific material handling plans to optimize efficiency and minimize material handling costs. “The ASP facility design we created for Timber Creek was an interesting challenge in that we had to use a long narrow strip of land on the 28 acre site, while leaving enough space for a transfer station, C&D recycling, and a large sales yard,” said Orion Black-Brown, President of GMT. “This facility is also unique in that it can be operated as a pure ASP, or as a Turned Aerated Pile system.”
As the new facility has grown it has expanded the categories of feedstocks that it can accept, including waste from cheese manufacturing and other industrial compostable wastes. Permit updates and new feedstock recipes and handling procedures were part of the overall upgrade in 2023.
When asked about challenges that came with the new facility, Murgoitio said there were a few moments that gave him pause. Jeff Gage, Director of Consulting at GMT, played some key roles in overcoming these challenges.
“It’s a heck of an art to get a composting facility of this scale permitted,” Murgoitio said. “If your regulators are new or understaffed it can be quite a challenge.”
Once the facility was up and running, there was an operational learning curve that required some outside support. “Initially we didn’t have our carbon to nitrogen ratio right, too much nitrogen was causing odor issues. But Jeff helped us understand the science of odorous materials and what causes that. So that was a big deal for us,” said Murgoitio. “Some details that we didn't think mattered made a big impact. For example Jeff helped us realize that the particle size of our carbon materials wasn’t quite right. We increased the surface area of our carbon and that was a real game changer. Jeff Gage is an encyclopedia of composting, it’s been a big saving grace to have his help.”
When asked what advice he’d give to other farmers who are considering starting a composting facility, Murgoitio said “I’d say begin by building a great relationship with your regulators and be involved in your community. Those have been key factors for us. If you’re not doing that, you’re in trouble. The regulators and your broader community need to know that your intent is to do the right thing. One should attend USCC classes and learn the details of how to do composting right.”
Additional technical information about Timber Creek Recycling’s new aerated static pile composting facility can be found in this Case Study.
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About Timber Creek Recycling: Timber Creek Recycling is a cutting-edge recycling company that recycles more than 400 million pounds of material per year. Based in Meridian and Nampa, ID, our owners have been farming in the Treasure Valley for over 118 years. We both make and use compost on our farm. We help those who are ready to take advantage of today’s recycling advances. Our owners and employees are passionate about giving you the best possible product and service in the industry. From the guy sweeping stuff off the floor to our CEO, selling you the best possible organic product is our sole focus. Learn more at www.timbercreekrecycling.com/compost
About Green Mountain Technologies: Green Mountain Technologies has been designing and building innovative composting solutions since 1992. Our growing global client-base includes large commercial composting facilities, small scale community organizations, and institutions of all types. We're proud to give back 10% of our profits to non profit community and environmental organizations. Learn more at www.compostingtechnology.com
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