Interview with Ashley Baxter, Founder of Monty Compost Co.

In this conversation, I interviewed Ash Baxter, the founder of Monty Compost Co., to discuss the Monty Monitor—a technology designed to enhance composting efficiency. Here’s a summary of our key points.

Interview Summary

Introduction and Background:

• Ash shared her journey into composting, which began around five years ago when she discovered composting's practical environmental benefits while exploring sustainability solutions.
• Despite not growing up with composting, she quickly became passionate about it after realizing its potential to address environmental challenges.

Development of Monty Monitor:

• The idea for the Monty Monitor stemmed from a need for real-time insights into compost health, addressing common challenges like lack of knowledge on when and how to manage compost effectively.
• Ash discussed the challenges of developing a durable, low-cost product that could withstand the harsh, corrosive environment of compost. Early prototypes had a high failure rate, but after extensive research, design iterations, and collaboration with experts, they launched a reliable version in late 2022.

How Monty Monitor Works:

• The Monty Monitor uses air-based sensors to track various health indicators in compost, such as temperature, moisture, and gases emitted. The data is then analyzed and presented through an easy-to-use app, providing actionable tips for maintaining compost health.
• The device has been refined based on user feedback to balance the needs of both detail-oriented compost enthusiasts and more casual users who prefer simpler guidance.

Benefits and Applications:

• The Monty Monitor significantly speeds up the composting process by helping users optimize conditions, reducing the time from potentially years to just months.
• It’s versatile and can be used across different compost setups, from home piles to larger industrial operations, and is easily movable between piles for flexible use.
• Ash highlighted the company’s educational initiatives, using the Monty Monitor as a tool in schools to engage students in composting and sustainability projects.

Future Plans:

• Monty Compost Co. plans to expand its product line, exploring new monitoring applications beyond compost, like soil and nutrient tracking, and focusing on further refining their consumer and industrial products.
• They’re committed to raising awareness and education about composting, with a strong focus on involving the younger generation to foster a culture of sustainability.

Personal Touch:

• On a personal note, Ash revealed that her favorite plant to grow is basil, as it's the one plant she consistently succeeds with despite her extensive composting expertise.

Watch Part 1 and Part 2 of my conversation with Ash in the videos below:

Check out the conversation transcript below for all the insights:

Nathan:

Hey Green Thumbs, Nathan here today with a special guest, Ash Baxter from Monty Compost Co. Today we're going to be talking about the awesome product, the Monty Monitor. How are you going, Ash?

Ash: 

I am really good. I’m always excited to chat about compost, and we love Aussie Green Thumb, so I'm super excited to share the work that we're doing with your audience.

Nathan:

Perfect. So let's get started. How does someone so young get interested in compost?

Ash:

You know, I just had my birthday the other day, so I'm not feeling as young—I’m a little bit too close to 30! It's funny; I actually didn't grow up composting at all. I only really got into it the same year that I started Monty, which was now five years ago.

The reason I got into it was because I was always passionate about sustainability since I was young, but the whole time I was in that movement, no one ever spoke about composting, gardening, all of those kinds of amazing solutions to some of the environmental problems we are facing.

I happened across the solution of composting in a book, and I think it really hooked me because it’s such a practical, incredible solution to so many environmental problems. But people think it’s literal trash, or waste, people think it's just garbage.

I think there was something about that kind of juxtaposition that really hooked me in, and I’ve been obsessed ever since.

Nathan:

Awesome! So how did you go from getting obsessed with compost then creating a monitor to be able to read and make people's compost work better and faster?

Ash:

A lot of research, to be honest. I was in university when I was researching the different problems that composting, whether at home or whether on a massive industrial site, the problems that people face in doing it affordably, and doing it I guess practically, and efficiently.

What I kind of identified was that there was a real lack of knowledge around it, but not just knowledge but knowledge in real-time. So a lot of people have problems with doing composting effectively because, and this is at any scale, they have problems doing it effectively because they know how to fix problems with compost, but they don’t know when those problems are emerging.

They don’t know precisely what the problems are in order to fix them. So, why we came up with Monty was because it was a really cool implementation of technology to identify those problems in real-time and deliver the solutions to whoever’s trying to manage it.

So it really was a  process of literally years of research, tens of thousands of words of papers, and dozens of prototypes of the device. It has taken a long time to refine it down to this. It definitely didn't come up overnight.

Nathan:

So you started in 2019. When was it that you first developed a working prototype?

Ash:

Oh my God, so we had out what we thought was our first MVP after like two years and then we had like almost 100% failure rate basically just due to the fact that, I know it was so

depressing, it was so hard, and basically it's the same reason why you know, there aren't many products like this out there is because compost is such a toxic, wet, you know corrosive environment for electronics that it's quite hard to do something that's low cost like Monty is, but also robust enough to survive.

So we had to do like a whole design iteration. We worked with you know some of the best industrial designers and manufacturers here in Australia and then we finally got like a working manufactured product in like, I think late 2022.

Ever since then it's been kind of building out on that, refining all of the little bugs that come along with it. Not just the bugs in your compost although we did have a case in one of the prototypes where a compost that had all these ants actually ate through the electronics so yeah, we've gone through so much like put your phone in a compost pile and see how it survives and then that's exactly what we had to go through.

Nathan:

Yeah, there must been some challenges like, the compost is always, as you said, there's heat, there's moisture, there's insects, there's like so much and all the gases as well, there's so much happening in there and you've persevered, you've kept going, and you've got this product and then you've had a 100% value rate. So how's the product today? How’s it tracking? 

Ash:

It's much better. I'm very happy to say it's better. Obviously, when you have technical products, there are little kinks that you always need to work out. But in terms of durability and reliability, Monty has now been in the wild for two years, and they're still operating. So, it's a really robust, durable product.

Sometimes there are little things, especially on the data collection side. There's so much more work that we're doing, and I think that's for the same reason you just said. Composting has been even more dynamic and diverse than we realised going into it.

Our first product, we commercialised it for home composters, and our thinking was, "How different can they all be?" We've now sold hundreds of units to Australian composters, and they're all so different. Everyone has different data that they're collecting from their compost. There's so much diversity in every pile.

So, figuring out how we can deliver that data in a way that's understandable and how we can add more features to make it engaging for different kinds of composters is constantly a work in progress.

Yes, I definitely think there's always work to be done, even though we've got it very far.

Nathan:

Yeah, and so you're taking, you guys are tracking all that data and then going, "Okay, this is how you can make the perfect compost." So you guys collect all the compost data from everyone and then keep improving the product.

Ash:

Yeah, that's exactly it. So, what we've settled on now for our consumer compost analysis, I guess, has been really interesting because it's gone through this process of refinement. In the early days, we were delivering all the data that the monitor collects and doing this really intense analysis on it.

We got a lot of user feedback that it was too much information, and they wanted less of it. Then we went down the other end, and some people were like, "We want more of it."

So, that's kind of what I mean by trying to strike that balance between, you know, what kind of composter are you? Are you really intensely into it and want to know every little bit about it, or are you a little more on the casual side and just want to know what you need to do? What's the average health you need? That's kind of how we've currently got it.

But yeah, there's always different and new features that we can add, and there are always really exciting initiatives that we're doing. For example, we recently collaborated with a school in one of their STEM classes. They actually took a Monty and all the data, then conducted their own analysis on it as part of a school project.

So, it's really a living thing. There's always so much that the monitor can do, and delivering it through the software, which is kind of how the two work together, is something that we're going to keep working on and keep making better for the world of compost.

Nathan:

Perfect, so let's talk about the monitor now. Do you have yours? Do you have one with you? Mine's out in the compost. I should've brought it in. Do you want to explain now the, like, the monitor—what it is and, like, how it's used and benefits composters?

Ash:

So, the way that we designed the monitor is really interesting. At the beginning stages, I kind of looked at existing compost monitors that were out there for industrial composting, and a lot of them were pretty much just this thing called a thermocouple, which is basically just a thermometer.

Some of them had moisture metres, some had oxygen sensors, but all of these devices were so expensive—you know, thousands of dollars—and they were quite unreliable.

Compost is a very dynamic process, so its temperature can range 10° sometimes in a day. Being able to track that accurately and consistently, in a way that doesn't cost thousands of dollars, was a big design challenge for us.

So, what we actually settled on is using air-based sensors that are pushed in right next to your compost and track all the gases that are emitted off it. Based on that data, we can determine things like temperature, odours, and overall health. You can even infer things like moisture levels based on the evaporation from the compost.

It's a whole bunch of different data analytics that allow us to really tell what the overall health of a compost pile is. We're actually doing a new product line for industrial composting facilities where there's a lot of regulatory and compliance stuff they need to track.

But for home composters, what that really means is that at any time of day, you can check in on your compost, see the data it's collected, and view it on a really simple app interface.

The app shows whether those key data points are in the right zone, and if not, what you can do to get them there. So, it's kind of this middle ground—complex data science delivered in a way that's more accessible to your everyday gardener.

Nathan:

I find it quite intuitive. If I forget to go out there and check it, I'll get a little tip like, "Oh, have you added some shredded paper to your compost today?" or "Maybe you should go give your compost bin a turn.", "Oh, maybe I should go and check in and see how my compost is doing."

So, I think that's quite good as well, as a reminder, if you don't always walk to your compost bin that often, to go and check it.

Ash:

You know, I'm so happy to hear that that's the use case you've really connected with. It's interesting because we've found that different composters use it in different ways, and it all depends on what kind of gardener they are.

Some people really benefit from the reminders, some people really benefit from seeing the very detailed data of what's happening in their compost to keep them interested in doing it, and then some people, especially if you're gardening with kids, really enjoy the engagement and the achievements and gamification that's in there.

So, again, it's amazing that we get to work with all these different use cases. Sometimes it makes it challenging because you're trying to build for all of these different people, but that's part of the joy of creating a brand new product.

Nathan:

Yeah, and as a big marketplace, so many people compost. The way I grew up composting is you take your scraps out, throw them into the compost bin, and leave it. Once every two months or so, I remember my dad, as a kid, would go out and turn it over, and that was pretty much it.

There was no checking if it was wet or too dry or if we were putting in paper. The actual health of it—there were always flies around, always cockroaches, and always a smell. So currently, my compost bin is the one that doesn’t smell, which is nice.

Ash:

It's really interesting you say that because I think that is, honestly, from what I've seen, the way a majority of people compost. But it's actually really sad, and I try to be gentle with people when I say this, that that's actually achieving so little.

Someone in the industry once said to me that basically, that is just building a landfill in your backyard. The reason for that is kind of twofold. Firstly, if you're not actively composting and it's not actively breaking down in a managed way, you're going to lose a lot of the nutrients in your waste as emissions.

So it's not good from a sustainability perspective. When you compost rapidly and well, that will be embodied, that’ll be metabolised by the bacteria and turned into the material that you have at the end.

From a gardening perspective, if you don’t really care about that, you're not getting as valuable an end product because you're not embodying those nutrients. You will get a product that can be used as a mulch or a soil conditioner or some kind of topsoil, which is good for that, but when you compost really effectively, you can get it to a standard of organic fertiliser to the point where you don't have to use as much of other fertilisers.

So I think the whole set-and-forget method of composting is really not the most effective way to do it. Changing that mindset is something that we really take on board as our mission as well. I think a lot of the education that's out there right now around composting hasn’t been super effective, so we're trying to help with that in our small way.

Nathan:

Yeah, and so with your tactics and strategies to improve the compost, how much quicker would, say, using the Monty monitor, you take it to an end product where you can use that compost in your garden?

Ash:

I know unfortunately I can't give an exact sound bite, but as an example, some really large-scale—well, not really large-scale—when you get over about a ton or so in your compost, you can achieve organic waste to finished product in less than a month.

Some methods of hot composting do it in like two or three weeks. Now, this is not most home composters, so don’t hold yourself to that standard at all. But when you have a smaller pile that's maybe a couple of hundred kilos of organic waste, once you’ve built up that pile and you're letting it break down, if it's well balanced, if it's managed, if it's getting turned over, you should have a usable end product within a matter of months.

So the way most people compost, like what you described growing up, they really just fill up the compost bin. Sometimes it takes years, or sometimes it never gets to the top. The reason for that is because the compost is basically settling down. It's getting compressed, just like a landfill. It's not actually breaking down like compost does; it's just rotting there.

So by the time you’ve taken it out and applied it to the soil or you have to dig a hole in it, that's when a lot of the real decomposition takes place. That's taking a matter of years when a managed pile should be a matter of months.

So I guess when you're using the Monty, that helps you become a better composter. It takes you down from that order to a lower order. I guess that's probably the most solid commitment I'll be willing to make.

Some people say we do have some really great testimonials from people who’ve said, "I’ve been able to achieve a finished compost pile for the first time in my life," and the person was like 50 years old.

It is definitely something that gets someone to that order, taking them from continuous composting with no results to actually having a finished product. But when that finished product will be ready will depend on how much time you're willing to put into it.

Nathan:

Yeah, so if you wanted to put time into it, how long would you say per day or per week?

Ash:

So, putting time in, it’s not even a lot of time. It’s more about the consistency. The great thing about Monty is that it takes away a lot of the guesswork and the estimations that can sometimes derail your composting.

It should be a couple of minutes a few times a week, but you’ve got to do it every week. That’s the thing. It’s like those little habits. It’s not something where you have to be picking up the whole pile and moving it over every single day.

It’s really not that. It’s just going in, checking the status, making the small changes you need to keep it on track, and then doing the same thing. You can do it daily, but most people tend to do it once every two or three days. It’s really about building those good habits.

Nathan:

Yeah, that’s right. I find that every third day is more achievable, especially where I am. It rains all the time here, so every third day is easier to go out. I get the reminder: “Have you done this today?” Oh, I need to check it. I’ve got to take out a bin, so it’s a lot easier rather than a daily commitment.

Ash:

I was just going to say, my life is compost, and I even forget myself sometimes. Building those habits is very hard, and I don’t think anyone should beat themselves up. I have so much respect for our daily composters because we can see when people log in and we can see streaks and stuff.

There are some people who do it every single day, and I have so much respect for them. But building those routines, especially when you’ve got so much else going on in your life, can be difficult. So, we can’t expect everyone to do it.

Nathan:

Is there a compost bin or compost pile that you think works better? Is it a tumbler, a pile, or what do you think, in your opinion, works best?

Ash:

I don’t think there’s any particular category of compost container that is the best. But what I will say is that the best setup is having two. I think, and again, this kind of comes back to when people are just continuously composting, there is a period of time where your compost needs to just break down.

When you add new materials to it, you’re affecting that whole microbial population, and you’re not letting the older materials finish their decomposition process. So, whether you have a tumbler, a bin, or a pile, all of those can work.

But making sure that once you’ve filled it up, you have that second location to let it rest and finish breaking down on its own for a matter of weeks is probably much more critical than saying you need this one or that one. 

I can definitely say that for certain setups, some things are better than others. I wouldn’t recommend an open pile in a city just because sometimes it can be a little bit more difficult to manage if you have a small backyard.

But in saying that, maybe you can—I met this guy who had a 10-ton compost pile right next to the city in Brisbane, and he had temperatures of 60 or 70 degrees. I’m like, “Dude, you live in a wooden house; you’ve got to be careful because big compost piles can sometimes spontaneously combust.” I’m like, “Your neighbours keep complaining to the council.” I’m like, “They probably should be.”

So, I’m not going to tell anyone how to live their compost life, but I will recommend that you’ve got some kind of setup that allows the finished material to continue breaking down and get to an end product.

Nathan:

Yeah, and so with that, can you take the monitor and have it in one compost pile and tracking it there and take it to another one, or do you need two separate monitors?

Ash:

Yeah, you can actually do that. If you want to get a single-time reading or something, we recommend using it with whatever your active pile is. So, whatever the pile that you’re adding to, that you’re building up the structure of, and balancing the different nutrients—that’s where we recommend using the monitor.

That’s where you need the most help. Once it gets to a balanced, kind of later stage compost, there’s not really much management you need to do. It can be interesting to know, for example, what temperatures you’re getting with it, but it’s not really something that needs to be as hands-on.

Nathan:

Yeah, okay, that's good, 'cause then, yeah, like, I've got five piles at the moment, so yeah, it's good to be able to just go check on another pile. Yep, okay, it's still on track, it's working well, and then go.

Ash:

Exactly, exactly, because, you know, I think as well—and this is another tough one just from a product perspective—is, you know, Monty can be used in different ways. So it can be a tool that you just use for taking data measurements, but it also has this function as just a more general learning tool, like an educational tool.

So when you start to get much more sophisticated systems like yours, it still has that benefit of collecting the data when you need it, but it also presents just that more comprehensive habit-forming education, helping people be a better composter. So yeah, it is a very versatile tool, and making sure that we can deliver it to all our different kinds of composters is really that product mission.

Nathan:

Yeah, all right, that's good. So yeah, it fits most people that want to compost and want to get a good product at the end, 'cause everyone's composting, one, 'cause they want to do something with the scraps, and you want it for your garden because it's so nutrient-heavy.

Like, it's the best thing you can have, better than a worm farm, the two best things you can have in a garden, and then, yeah, no need for fertiliser.

Ash:

That's exactly it, and you know, there is a lot of really interesting research that kind of talks about local micro-populations and kind of the benefits.

So, you know, a lot of people obviously buy compost, you know, from hardware stores and things like that, and that's better than nothing, but there is a lot of research coming out that's talking about keeping the microbes and the waste types from your garden, so your green waste, and actually the microbes that are on that waste, composting it and then returning it back into that ecosystem and how that can actually provide even further benefits. 

So there is a lot coming out that is just lending even more support to the benefits of DIY, make-your-own compost, even if your compost operation is pretty low-key, even if it's more just kind of that annual leaf pile that you manage and then put back in the garden.

Returning those nutrients, returning those microbes, all the different parts of your compost pile back into the local ecosystem of your garden is shown to have so many benefits. So yeah, I can't recommend composting enough for millions of reasons.

Nathan: Yeah, very nice. Yeah, it's the coming home party of the microorganisms, getting back together, kicking on.

Ash:

Exactly.

Nathan:

All right, so I think everyone's got a good understanding of who Monty is now and the product that you supply. What's in the future? So you said you're doing more industrial products. Are you doing more stuff for retailers or going down the broader composting?

Ash:

Look, it's a great question, and I think it's kind of the tough thing about such an emerging market like composting is that there's so many opportunities and figuring out, you know, what we're able to do, what's right for us, what the best kind of priority to put first is, is always very tough.

We are launching an industrial composting product. The reason for that is that the market is just a bit bigger, you know, it's going to allow us to get to a larger volume for us to service these other markets, like home composting.

We've done mostly Australia for our expansion, but getting outside of Australia is so capital intensive and it's a really big investment of resources to try and grow that brand.

So kind of sticking on the home soil, literally, or rather the home compost, and figuring out how we can expand those product applications here before looking beyond our shores to all the other global composters out there is kind of, I'd say, what's immediately next and then what the longer-term future is. 

So really just creating more tools for composters, refining our consumer product and in future, our industrial product, to make sure that it doesn't have those bugs, doesn't have—like, fully solves our consumer, our composter problems, and then taking it to the world. 

If we're going to go a little bit further, you know, we've seen so many benefits that our products, that our hardware, that the software, the data collection has created. So we see a lot of opportunities in, say, for example, different monitoring applications, so monitoring things like soil or nutrients or things like that, as well as a lot of really beneficial educational programs.

So I think our kind of, obviously our broader mission is just composting in general, but we've got a sweet spot for whenever we can use our technology to actually educate a lot of young people, like schools and things like that, and bring them into this compost movement.

You know, if we want to get to 100% of organic waste recycled, composting is such an important part of that, and you know, the place to start is with the youth and bringing that groundswell movement forward. So that was kind of a jumble of everything we want to do.

There's a lot going on, and I think, as you would know, growing a venture, sometimes you kind of have to take it quarter by quarter, year by year, and take on the opportunities that come up, because sometimes you just get a curveball that you've got to take on board.

So yeah, that's kind of how we're seeing it, but our mission is just furthering the compost movement however we can.

Nathan: 

Yeah, that sounds like you got some big plans in place, which is awesome. So thanks for joining us today. So everyone, if you want to follow Ash, I'll have links down below of her website for Monty Compost.

You can get her products there, you can follow her journey. And one last question for today: what is your favourite thing to grow and why?

Ash:

Oh, that's such a good one. My favourite thing to grow, and it's actually by virtue of the fact that I'm never able to grow anything else with this degree of success, is basil. So I, for some reason, I'm the other end of the circle of life—like, I'm amazing at composting, at returning those organic materials to the soil, but when it comes to growing it back out of the soil, I'm not as successful there.

And I don't know why, like, I've tried so many different things, but I always fail. But the one plant that has never led me astray has been basil. I've always been able to grow huge amounts of it, and I've always been good with that.

So that's what I'll say, just because it's embarrassing how many other plants that I've failed with.

Nathan:

That's awesome, like you stick with what works. If you can grow basil, grow basil. I've actually got it growing in the middle.

Ash:

Exactly, so, and I love pesto, so it's perfect.

Nathan:

Yeah, I love it just fresh, whenever I want some in the salad, on a sandwich, it's right there.

Ash:

That's exactly it. And I just wanted to say as well, likewise, thank you so much for the amazing work you do with Aussie Green Thumb. You know, I think we're both so conscious of the massive amount of education and work that needs to be done in this space, helping existing and new gardeners and composters, and we really are fighting the good fight.

So I'm so happy to have been able to share our story and thankful for you giving us the platform to do so.

Nathan:

Oh, thanks a bunch, Ash, it's a pleasure. Yeah, so everyone, this is Ash Baxter from Monty Compost. We're gonna be having Ash back on for a "Top 10 Tips for Composting" in the near future, so stay tuned for that.

But yeah, thank you very much, Ash, and everyone, leave a comment of what you took away as most valuable. All right, thanks.

Monty Compost Monitor Resources:

• AGT review: Monty Monitor: Smart Compost Monitor Review
• Website: https://montycompost.co/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@montycompostco
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/montycompostco