Westerly — When he talks about his business, Vita Nova Compost, at local farmers markets, James Cruso often hears the question, "Why would I compost?"

His answer is that not composting is harmful — but that many people wouldn't know that, as it's not something they were taught in school.

In Rhode Island, the Central Landfill in Johnston is expected to reach capacity in 2034, according to the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corp. Connecticut exported 367,000 tons of household and business waste to other states in 2018, necessitating more than 18,000 truck trips, The Hartford Courant recently reported.

"We're so habitual," Cruso said. "It's just the way it is that what we think is trash goes in the trash, but no one's telling people that your banana peel is actually valuable."

Cruso says he is "not really amazing at changing someone's mind," rather hoping that people change their minds on their own.

Younger generations give him hope. He sometimes finds that kids know more about composting than their parents. Another source of optimism is the positivity among people who have approached him at the Velvet Mill in Stonington on Saturdays, or at the Stonington, Westerly Land Trust and Weekapaug farmers markets in the summer.

"I didn't anticipate getting into this field, but every person who comes up to my booth, ever, is a sweetheart," he said.

Cruso, 29, started collecting waste from High Tide Juice Co. and working out of his composting bins in 2018. He officially launched Vita Nova, which means "new life," last January.

Cruso now has about 20 residential customers for curbside compost pickup within a 20-mile service area of Westerly, including ones in Stonington, Mystic, New London and Ledyard. His commercial customers include High Tide, Zest Fresh Pastry and Savoy Bookshop & Café. The highest contributor is the Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center, which he doesn't charge.

Vita Nova diverted more than 20,000 pounds of food waste in 2019, Cruso said, and he has a goal of 100,000 pounds for 2020.

Cruso said he started with 50,000 worms and now has about 100,000. (For reference, he said a pound of worms is about 800 to 1,000 worms, and he can fit 1,000 worms per square foot.)

A Westerly native, Cruso became interested in composting during the two years he lived in California, when he spent time on a farm and took a course through microbiologist Elaine Ingham's company, Soil Foodweb.

He moved back to Westerly in April 2018 and now works for his father's company, Granite Storage, but he also wanted to do something of his own.

"It made perfect sense: I like the outdoors, I like gardening, I like working with my hands and I like to do something positive," Cruso said. From the beginning, he has used solar power and collected rainwater to run his operation.

Here's how the business works: Residential customers can sign up online for weekly pickups ($32 a month) or biweekly pickups ($20), and then Cruso sends a bucket and reference guide for what to compost — such as fruit and vegetable scraps, egg shells, coffee grounds, bread and newspapers — and what not to compost.

Sometimes he'll see that customers forget to remove staples from tea bags or rubber bands from asparagus, so he'll separate those out.

He then lines pallets with burlap so nothing falls through, and adds carbon materials such as woodchips, straw and leaves. Successful composting, which gets the temperature in the pile as high as 150 degrees, involves achieving the correct ratio of carbon, nitrogen, water and air.

After the worms eat the material and Cruso puts everything through a screen, he's left with what's called vermicompost. Members get back 20 pounds of vermicompost in the spring and 20 pounds in the summer, which Cruso said is valued at more than $100.

For those who want to cut down on waste but don't have gardens in which to use their compost, Cruso will donate compost to schools or community gardens.

He started out with a shed and greenhouse at the back of Granite Storage but is in the process of moving to Barlow Nature Preserve, where he is leasing an eighth of an acre from the Westerly Land Trust.

He still has his worms at what he calls the "pilot location," but Cruso — with the help of his father and a friend — finished erecting a hoop house at Barlow Nature Preserve this fall. He plans to be fully functional there by April, and to construct three more hoop houses in the next three years.

e.moser@theday.com