Good Earth Compost is just beginning! We have constructed compost bins as shown and we awaiting the delivery of a hammer mill that we will use in our food waste processing. When that equipment arrives (it is expected on December 10th), we will fully begin our food waste composting. Henry, pictured below, is very much involved in our planning for our neighborhood food waste collection, which will also begin on December 10th. We invited people from our neighborhood to bring their pumpkins for a Pumpkin Smashing Party in early November. We are anxiously awaiting the time when we can begin our collection, processing and compost distribution work in earnest.
Bins constructed and ready.
2 gallon food waste buckets purchased with ChangeX funds.
Come smash your pumpkins and help us kick off our New Neighborhood Composting Facility!
Good Earth Compost Distribution Plan
We plan to produce and deliver up to 7 cubic yards of compost each week (and diverting that amount of local waste from the landfill). Below is a summary of the three ways we would like to distribute that compost.
1) 60% of the compost will be delivered to members and potential members. These members may include individuals (especially those in our neighborhood), community gardens and market gardens. We hope that members will participate in our generosity program in which we offer as much as they need, and they will contribute financially and as volunteers according to their needs and resources.
2) 40% of our compost will be distributed in a more traditional manner, meaning we will market and sell it at a fair price.
3) 10- 20 cubic yards of the compost will be offered each year to Doghead Community Garden, where our neighborhood compost processing will be done.
We gathered for our first meeting today. Exciting plans ahead!
Our group is applying for a grant and apparently my membership is not showing up for the grant application
Action plan:
Timeline: We already began earlier this year with trial compost bins, and we have located equipment that is properly sized for a neighbor composting operation, for much lower costs than larger equipment. Our main focus now is to find a location or locations where we can begin our work.
Budget: We plan to use equipment that will allow us to process compost in a manner that can be sustained more easily (less physically demanding) and to process as much of the needs for gardening in our neighborhood as possible (larger quantities). In order to do this we will need equipment where the total may cost over $40K (including a budget of $20K for a pickup truck). We will do everything as affordably as possible (see attached file on wood grinders- we would use the smallest one), and seek to have a truck donated, for example. But, we also plan to use this equipment at multiple community gardens to process their food waste.
Impact: We plan to create a prototypical neighborhood compost processing model to dramatically increase the amount of food and yard waste that we can transform into garden compost for growing food.A very modest goal would be to process 5,200 pounds of material per month, making that compost available within our community. We would like to support the efforts of existing groups to divert food waste, making a relationship with at least one such group during our project.
Location: As mentioned above, we are in the process of looking for appropriate locations. We are making inquiries at a food processing plant, as well as at community gardens. We need a minimum of four aerated bins that are 8 feet by 8 feet, for a total of 320 square feet. Ideally, this would be located at a community garden that is participating in food waste collection (like Change X partners).
Our intention is to make contact with the New School Community Garden (a ChangeX group) and seek to involve some of the kids there, as well as at a local middle school.
Since we will be using power equipment we will not engage the kids in that part of the process. However, we would like to involve them in the collection and distribution, as well as in the maintenance of the worm composting bins.
