Top: Aerial view of  Freestate Farms’ food scraps and yard trimmings composting facility in Manassas, Virginia. Photo courtesy of Convertus Group

Convertus Group (“Convertus”), a Canadian organics recycling company, announced its acquisition of the Freestate Farms yard trimmings and food scraps composting facility in Manassas, Virginia in April 2024. Convertus was created in 2019 by the merger of Renewi Canada and Waste Treatment Technologies North America. In 2022, Envirem Organics became part of Convertus. Freestate Farms, LLC was founded by Douglas Ross; in 2015, the company was awarded a 20-year contract by Prince Williams County to run the county’s Balls Ford yard trimmings composting facility. As part of the contract, Freestate Farms financed, built, and operates the aerated static pile composting system procured from Engineered Compost Systems. Operations began in 2020 and improved the county’s ability to process yard trimmings and added the ability to compost new food waste streams. The site has capacity to process 80,000 to 100,000 tons/year of source separated organics. Convertus’ first U.S. facility resulted from its acquisition of Envirem, which owned a bagging and warehouse facility in Unity, Maine for compost and other products.