The Compost Club

The Compost Club kicks off our K-6 school program with an presentation that requires audience participation. Each student is presented with leftovers from a mock lunch – the leftover food, the plastic baggies, the lunch sack, etc. Then the fun begins.

Students learn the simple fact that recycling and composting begins when we have the proper receptacle to put them in,  accuracy improves when we know what is recyclable and compostable, and participation increases when we feel motivated to do our part.

This pie chart shows where “trash” goes when the only option is a trash can. Grey represents “trash”, and lavender represents re-use. On average, each person produces about 3 lbs. of “trash” each day. With a population of 477,000 people in Sonoma County, even with recycling and composting statistics set aside, about 716 tons of waste head to the landfill daily.

The above numbers represents current landfill statistics. Look what could happen to the same amount of trash when both recycling and composting receptacles are available. The majority each person’s 3lbs. of daily trash can be recycled, composted, or better yet, rethought. Students notice that reusable lunch bags and containers produce no trash at all. In Sonoma County, about 358 tons of organic/compostable waste goes to the landfill daily.

The daily act of recycling and composting adds up, and The Compost Club has spurred that action. Thanks to students around the county, placing a half-eaten apple a day in the compost instead of the trash, the Compost Club has now diverted 100 tons of food scraps from the landfill. And better yet, we’ve motivated some schools to sell their compost as a school fundraiser.

One last thought to consider- the 358 tons of organic waste that heads to the landfill each day could instead generate 218,000 yards of compost in one year.  That amount of compost is enough to supply each household in the county with 1.5 yards of compost annually. If that compost were sold bulk in the marketplace, it would generate $ 6.5 million dollars to our economy.  The US EPA Landfill Methane Outreach Program points to that organic waste in the landfill and has declared it the single most influential human caused source of methane production. When we remove organics from the landfill, we reduce greenhouse emission and we generate income. When we remove organics from our trash can at home, we no longer need the same sized trash can, and we save on our waste hauling fees. Recycling does change the outcome, when we participate in the process.

The best outcome of the Compost Club work is simple grassroots change. Our ten school wide compost systems have diverted 100 tons of food scraps from the landfill. We seem to add one school each year to our effort. Waste stays onsite and gets recycled back to a resource. Pretty simple, yet important.

Based on our successes, we are ready to initiate a farm model. After completing an eight month Beginning Farmer Program, we have a formal business plan. This will allow us to start up a production oriented worm farm that brings income and lessens our dependence on grants and donations that fund our school program work. The existence of a Beginning Farmer program provided us the knowledge to get to this point, and reinforced the value of education whether you are on the side of educator or student.

I am reminded and humbled by what inspired me to do what I am doing today. Fifteen years ago, I served in the The Peace Corps in Panama. As a volunteer there, I  found a need to raise capital (grants) to expand a Farmer to Farmer education program that I helped lead, and the $3,000 we raised improved agricultural conditions for more than 20 communities.

A few weeks ago, I came across Thomas Barnes, a current Peace Corps volunteer in Panama doing much the same work , in the same region, for the same critical purposes. Thomas had raised the majority of funds needed to create an Organic Agriculture Training Center program at a school in his community (project cost $1600), and we kicked in our own funds to help them get closer. As of this week, the project is now fully funded . You can follow and learn more about the project on our new page – Panama Projects.

You might say that raising agricultural literacy is at the heart of all things compost, and that the true purpose of composting is the wiser use of our resources whether in an impoverished nation or a developed one like our own.