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.
The compost program has been implemented into three different schools with varying attendance sizes from 150 to over 400 students. The participating schools are Dale City Elementary, Prince William Academy, and Nature Bridge. All three schools started the compost program on September 11th and will continue to use the program till the end of the school year in June of 2024. The majority if not all food scraps are being composted rather than sent to the landfill. Dale City Elementary has four 65 gallon toters that is picked up twice a week as all four toters are filled to roughly 85% by midweek. Prince William Academy has one toter and it to about 30%. While Nature Bridge has two toters and fill theirs to around 70%.
The grant was used to help purchase all materials to begin the compost program. Materials included fourteen 65 gallon toters, five 5 gallon buckets with lids, bungee cords to keep lids on the toters closed, compostable liners for both toters and buckets, and flyers. Remaining funds goes towards paying the hauler for pickup from the schools and drop off to the compost facility.
Keep Prince William Beautiful plans to ensure this program to remain in effect at these three schools, as well as expand to other schools and businesses in the county.
Timeline: When will you be able to start your project? How often will your team meet? Are there any key dates to share for the project?
Budget: You don't need to share exact prices, but please share how you're planning to spend the seed funding & what costs you're anticipating to get your project up and running:
Impact: How will your community benefit from this project? Do you have any measurable goals for your project, such as the number of people that will participate? Are you hoping to spread knowledge or increase interest in a specific subject?
Location: If your project requires physical space, have you decided the location? Do you have all necessary permission and permits to carry out your project at the chosen location?