A composting feasibility study answers one question before you spend real money: does this project actually work — technically, financially, and with the regulators? Wanu Organics helps municipalities, private operators, and investors cut through the noise, evaluate real options, and define a path forward that holds up. The output isn't a stack of assumptions; it's a grounded read on whether to build, and if so, how.
What a feasibility study answers
Most composting projects stall in the same places: the feedstock isn't as available as assumed, the site can't carry the throughput, the pro forma doesn't close, or the permitting path is longer than the schedule allows. A good feasibility study surfaces those problems while they're still cheap to fix — on paper, not in concrete. It gives decision-makers a defensible basis for a go or no-go, and gives a green-lit project a realistic scope to design around.
What's typically included
- Feedstock and market assessment — what material is actually available, in what volumes, at what quality, and where the finished compost or product goes.
- Siting review — whether a candidate site can physically and legally support the intended operation, including access, buffers, and utilities.
- Technology and throughput scoping — a right-sized process (windrow, ASP, or in-vessel) matched to the tons per year and the feedstock mix.
- Capital and operating cost estimates — order-of-magnitude costs to build and to run, grounded in real equipment and staffing.
- Pro forma — a financial model that tests whether the revenue, tip fees, and product sales actually cover the cost of operating.
- Regulatory pathway — the permits the project will need and a realistic sense of the timeline and effort to get them.
Grounded in real projects
Wanu's feasibility work draws on 15 years across the public and private sectors and involvement in over 60 composting projects — including feasibility analysis and pro formas for municipal composting facilities. Jorge Montezuma, PE, has worked for both government and private operators, from NC DEQ and Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts to leading the engineering team at Atlas Organics across 13 operations in 7 states. That range matters: a feasibility study is only useful if the person writing it has seen how these projects actually get built and run.
For municipalities and private developers alike
Public and private projects ask the study to do slightly different jobs. A municipality often needs a defensible basis for a public decision and a diversion strategy that serves residents. A private developer or investor needs to know the economics close before capital goes in. Wanu tailors the analysis to the decision in front of you rather than producing a generic report.
A study you can actually use
A feasibility study is only worth commissioning if it drives a decision. Wanu writes for the people who have to act on it — a board, a council, a lender, or an investment committee — so the findings are clear about what works, what doesn't, and what it would take to move forward. Where the answer is "not yet," the study says why and what would need to change; where it's "go," it hands the design team a realistic scope, throughput, and budget to build around instead of starting from a blank page. Either way, you leave with a defensible basis for the next decision rather than another set of open questions.
Where feasibility fits
A feasibility study is usually the first serious step. When it points to a build, the next stage is facility design; when you're evaluating an operation that already exists rather than a greenfield idea, technical due diligence is the better tool.