The founder of Trinity Green, a compost cooperative, sometimes has as many as six two-gallon buckets on his person - two on his duct-taped handlebars, and two in the crook of each arm - resembling more a circus act than an entrepreneur.

These buckets sport a Trinity Green logo and when full of compost are pretty heavy, Stenz said. Some clients take five-gallon buckets, which can weigh 40 pounds.

Most use the smaller buckets, and for $15 a month, Stenz provides clients with a clean bucket (the five-gallon bucket costs $20 per month) and will come by once a week to pick up a bucket filled with kitchen scraps, leaving another clean one behind.

Every four to six weeks, he brings a bucket full of compost instead of an empty bucket, and the process starts all over again.

Stenz, 52, started Trinity Green in March of 2008 after being laid off.

"I've never been one to sit around the house," he said. He and his girlfriend had recently started gardening, and with that began composting. After reading some books at the library, he felt confident in trying to compost on a larger scale.

Now, when he's not on his bike, he can be found in his backyard every few days wearing old clothes and turning one of the two large piles he has going with a pitchfork.

He figured there were others in his community who had the same interest, but perhaps not the time or energy. He started small, passing out fliers around his neighborhood. The support was instantaneous, and word has spread.

Stenz now has 32 clients, 26 who take the small buckets, and six who take the large. He has also started driving to a few other neighborhoods he can't safely pedal to on his bicycle, like the area around NCCU.

"I have Sunday off," he chuckled. But rain or shine, Monday through Saturday, Stenz hops on his bicycle and spends an average of five hours a day making the rounds.

"If I miss one day, there's hell to pay," he said.

For Trinity Park resident Julia Borbely-Brown, Trinity Green is the perfect solution to her desire to compost, but disinterest in, well, the dirtier aspects.

She used to compost, she said, but found it less than ideal in her urban neighborhood - the container of scraps too often turned to slime.

She's more than happy to pay Stenz to maintain the compost pile on his property, turn it religiously, and clean the buckets. She's even signed up her office at Self Help. Her department at the credit union now has its own bucket, which she carries to and from work on foot so Stenz can grab both buckets at her home.

"I would love to expand it in Self Help, but I can't but carry one bucket," she said. "I've substantially reduced the garbage" at home.

Watts-Hillandale resident Erin O'Reilly appreciates how simple the process is. Stenz does his rounds while she's at work, and all she needs to do is leave the bucket of scraps on her front stoop. And the buckets he leaves are surprisingly clean, she said. Spotless, really.

Stenz, who has a background in music and art, said this whole endeavor has been surprisingly fulfilling. He likes that he's participating in something green, and that he's even spreading the practice of something green.

Stenz even lives green, literally, on Green Street. And thanks to his new endeavor, he might be in the best shape of his life.

To contact Trinity Green, e-mail Stenz at trinitygreen@rocketmail.com.