Community Composting is all about bringing people in your community together, whether it's an existing community group such a neighborhood association, church, school, community garden or workplace; or a group coming together solely for this purpose, to divert their food waste, yard trimmings, and other organic matter, from landfill, and compost them instead.
Community members can compost at home and use the compost in their own gardens. However, at-home composting doesn't generate enough heat to break down animal products (like meat, cheese, or bones) or biodegradable packaging. So the benefit of coming together as a community is that together you will have enough food waste to employ a local composting company to come and pick up your food waste from a centralized location, and these companies have the equipment to break down all food waste and compostable materials into useable compost!
If your group is affiliated to a community garden the finished compost can even be used to fertilize your soil. Many municipal composting programs return composted food waste back to local farmers, creating higher-yield crops and reducing the need for chemical fertilizers.
Community Composting is all about bringing people in your community together, whether it's an existing community group such a neighborhood association, church, school, community garden or workplace; or a group coming together solely for this purpose, to divert their food waste, yard trimmings, and other organic matter, from landfill, and compost them instead.
Community members can compost at home and use the compost in their own gardens. However, at-home composting doesn't generate enough heat to break down animal products (like meat, cheese, or bones) or biodegradable packaging. So the benefit of coming together as a community is that together you will have enough food waste to employ a local composting company to come and pick up your food waste from a centralized location, and these companies have the equipment to break down all food waste and compostable materials into useable compost!
If your group is affiliated to a community garden the finished compost can even be used to fertilize your soil. Many municipal composting programs return composted food waste back to local farmers, creating higher-yield crops and reducing the need for chemical fertilizers.
We started small with a few families agreeing to save scrapes, but it quickly grew to a consistent 20 -25 families bringing in about one pounds of kitchen scrape a week. We average about 80 - pounds a month of scrape that is added to the tumbler. After 6 months, we were collecting 150 to 200 pounds per month. The compost was used to feed the community garden. This project inspired another 25 individuals to start grading and composting in their backyard. The tomatoes grown using our own liquid gold had more flavor and bright color.
We started small with a few families agreeing to save scrapes, but it quickly grew to a consistent 20 -25 families bringing in about one pounds of kitchen scrape a week. We average about 80 - pounds a month of scrape that is added to the tumbler. After 6 months, we were collecting 150 to 200 pounds per month. The compost was used to feed the community garden. This project inspired another 25 individuals to start grading and composting in their backyard. The tomatoes grown using our own liquid gold had more flavor and bright color.
20 Families participated in saving fruit/vegetables waste at home and bringing to compost bins once week. Also local farmers market contributed to composting. After School kids learned about the science and chemistry of composting. We studied using the science kit- Garbage to Gardens compost kit.
Good Hope Community Composting will impact the community and the Good Hope Neighborhood Garden. The compost is very much needed for the health, chemical, and physical characteristics of the soil. Composting scraps are black gold for a healthy garden and earth. We can make a difference by educating the community on the benefits of composting and not filling the landfills with valuable food scraps. Recycling benefits the community by greener neighborhood, improved soil levels and social inclusion. We want to capture organic waste and use it in the community garden. Good Hope contributes to the health and environmental well-being of the Englewood Community. We will start educating 10 families to start composting at home and drop off their valuable scraps to Good Hope once a week. The scraps will be added to the compost tumbler located in the community garden. The compost will be used for the garden and shared with neighbors who have backyard gardens. The funding is needed to purchase the compost tumbler, family size compost bins and liners, educational materials and other garden tools.