In University Park, he helped to run a 50-home pilot project for the town council, which was interested in composting as a way to reduce methane production. After a six-month test, all but one participant recommended the service, said Chuck Wilson, program director for University Park’s Small Town Energy Project, which oversaw the pilot. During that time, each house contributed between eight and 10 pounds of kitchen waste. The only whisper of a complaint was that customers wanted bigger buckets so they could compost more.

University Park plans to expand the program to include 150 homes, 20 percent of the town’s households. With triple the number of families, the town will be diverting three tons of food scraps each month from the local landfill. Remarkably, the cost of the program is no more than paying to dump the town’s waste, Wilson estimates.

“We wouldn’t be here if Jeremy hadn’t pushed us down this road,” Wilson said. “He wasn’t working with us to try to get a bigger contract. He was trying to get composting to work.”