Mission statement

Provide communities and businesses with healthy, environmentally safe options to keep yard trimmings, woody materials and other organic discards out of landfills, recycling and re-purposing those materials instead.

Opportunity

Climate-damaging practices have led to the significant degradation of our environment. Poor recycling practices and reliance on landfills are also ubiquitous across the U.S., leading to useful green waste ending up buried in landfills.

Solution

Living Earth works to divert organic waste from landfills and process it into sustainable lawn and garden products.

Examples in Action

Living Earth partnered with the City of Houston to sustainably manage the City’s residential tree and yard waste. The materials are recycled and composted to manufacture environmentally beneficial mulches, compost, and soil products.

Living Earth secured its first contract to manage tree debris for the City in May 2008. From April 2009 to December 2019, Living Earth has received and recycled 425,232 tons of tree debris from Houston’s residential curbside collection program. The Company developed Houston Mulch™ which is sold locally in bulk and in bags. The bagged product packaging provides an environmental message to the consumer.

Expanding on the success of the tree waste recycling program, the City of Houston partnered with Living Earth to develop solutions to divert City residential yard trimmings - grass clippings, leaves, plant trimmings - from landfills. In April 2010, the City implemented a change to residential yard waste collection, eliminating petroleum-based yard bags, and requiring the strict use of certified compostable bags. Since the program inception in 2010, Living Earth has received and composted 151,800 tons of the City’s yard trimmings.

Together, Houston city leaders and the Living Earth team are creating a best-in-the-country model for organic recycling programs.