The Compost Club

Founder’s note

The Compost Club has completed its work and will disband as an organization. This website will remain as a resource for another year or so.

Since 2003, it has been my pleasure to assist schools and organizations recycle their organic waste. The Compost Club helped institutions in Sonoma County and our corner of northern California to change their waste handling techniques. During several of the years our organization was active, 100% of Sonoma County’s 1,200 tons of daily trash was delivered to five neighboring counties. Of this amount, 50% was organic material eligible for “composting” rather than its landfill bound destination. A cry for “education” has been a consistent element to this problem.

Personally, “The Compost Club” was a method to continue the “third goal” of the US Peace Corps, where returned Peace Corps volunteers bring home the lessons they learned abroad.  As an Agroforestry volunteer in Panama, I witnessed how the production of compost from waste products improved the success of crops for subsistence farmers and their families faced with chronic poverty. I wanted to bring the value of good soil and recycling back home, so I started the Compost Club. I lent my skills as an agricultural extension educator and professional grant writer to grow the organization. With each new grant, we set up school wide composting systems. At some schools, we helped divert 75% of all waste generated. Our emphasis on social change, to fundamentally change how waste was handled, caught on here and there.

In the process, I became a self-taught “go to” person on all things vermiculture, and have trained several hundred educators in composting techniques. Some say I have earned the equivalent of  a Masters Degree through this journey. On the flip side, it has been a challenge to convey the same excitement over good soil and the value in diverting organic waste back to soil in my own country. We are fortunate enough to live in a country where resources are plentiful, and hopefully wise enough to understand that and not take it for granted. Since I was reluctant to believe we would recognize the last part of the sentence without a role model, I propelled the Compost Club into a program for my community.

Our grant work started succesfully, and we gained a positive reputation in our county. Unfortunately, after several efforts to raise grant funds for our important work in the last few years, it became clear that organic waste diversion was not yet a priority for most foundations or grant programs, all others things considered in these economic times. It was not yet a compelling force for social change. It also highlighted that the professional industry handling large volumes of composting materials (county and regional volumes, megafarms,etc.) have no giving programs. While we are accustomed to seeing grant funds for important topics such as diabetes prevention, gang prevention, arts programs, watershed protection, these programs are nonexistent in the waste industry. Though “sustainability” and “organic waste diversion” have become buzzwords, and county governments have voted to reduce 75% to 90% of the waste stream,  neither industry nor local waste management authorities have created stable funding mechanisms to drive the education that results in this practical change (the exception in northern California is Alameda County’s Stopwaste.org).

The journey always teaches us. I appreciate what I have learned and it has kept alive many elements of the development work that led me to start The Compost Club. Someday, I will return to those shores with solutions to chronic poverty, in the land where material riches are poor but spiritual and community bonds are platinum. My interest in composting has evolved into sustainable farming systems, where waste to energy creates the foundation for a “farm without end.”

Partial view of six bin commercial sized system

On Wednesday May 4th, The Compost Club will host a free talk on school composting at Wright Charter School in Santa Rosa. We will cover  practical aspects of mid scale vermi-composting. The event is from 6-7:30pm. RSVP directly to office@sonomacompost.com. This is an informal event where question and answer will lead the discussion.

On Friday May 6th, The Compost Club will host a free workshop “Vermiculture: What you need to know”. The event will be held at The Bishop’s Ranch between 6-8pm.  Space is limited to 16 participants. RSVP to office@sonomacompost.com

The Bishop’s Ranch workshop will include a hands-on look at The Bishop’s Ranch vermiculture system, which handles up to 120lbs. of kitchen food scraps each week. You will see our process and routine that includes bin design and construction techniques, weekly feeding, troubleshooting, harvest, compost curing, sifting (utilizing our new trommel screen harvester), preparation of materials for use, as well as a short overview on Compost Tea preparation and use.

The workshop will also provide a clear distinction between thermal composting and composting with worms. It will include a slide show that covers basic worm biology, critters in the bin, soil ecology, carbon offsets from vermiculture, garden application of compost, and will showcase the ten plus schools and organizations that have institution wide composting inspired by Compost Club funding and assistance.

I was recently looking over a Request for Proposals (RFP) announcement for an EPA grant program related to Environmental Education.  While RFP’s arent meant to win a Pulitzer Prize, I found a very well written definition of environmental education. I have posted the information below as a guide for those that dream and design programs for the K-12 environment.

The  above chart and information below is directly from the EPA grant announcement RFP.

” By itself, environmental information only addresses awareness and knowledge, usually about a particular environmental issue. Outreach involves information dissemination and requests or suggestions for action on a particular issue (often without the critical thinking, problem solving and decision making steps in between). EE covers the range of steps and activities from awareness to action with an ultimate goal of environmental stewardship. Below are definitions of these and other terms used throughout this solicitation.

(1) “Environmental Education (EE)” increases public awareness and knowledge about environmental issues and provides the participants in its programs the skills necessary to make informed environmental decisions and to take responsible actions. EE is based on objective and scientifically-sound information, and does not advocate a particular viewpoint or a course of action. EE teaches individuals how to weigh various sides of an issue through critical thinking and enhances their own problem solving and decision making skills on environmental topics.

(2) “Environmental Information” provides facts or opinions about environmental issues or problems.  Information is essential to any educational effort.  However, environmental information is not, by itself, environmental education.  Information provides facts or opinions whereas education teaches people how to think, analyze, and solve problems.

(3) “Environmental Outreach” disseminates information and sometimes asks audiences to take specific action, but doesn’t necessarily teach people how to analyze an issue.  Outreach often presents a particular point of view, and often in pursuit of a particular goal.  Examples may include a community meeting to inform residents about a toxic site in their area and where they can go for help, or a campaign to get volunteer participants for a beach or stream cleanup event.

(4) “Environmental Stewardship” is voluntary commitment, behavior, and action that results in environmental protection or improvement.  Stewardship refers to an acceptance of personal responsibility for actions to improve environmental quality and to achieve sustainable outcomes.

Stewardship involves lifestyles and business practices, initiatives and actions that enhance the state of the environment.  Some examples are:  living or conducting business in such a way as to minimize or eliminate pollution at its source; use energy and natural resources efficiently; decrease the use of hazardous chemicals; recycle wastes effectively; and conserve or restore forests, prairies, wetlands, rivers, and urban parks.  Stewardship can be practiced by individuals, groups, schools, organizations, companies, communities, and state and local governments.”

Last year, we added up our effort to divert food scraps from the landfill. We found out that we have diverted 14 tons of carbon to date from the sites we track. There are many more schools and businesses we have assisted that are not on our list.

So, here’s your chance to stand up and be counted. Composting is the next greatest recycling victory, so join us in this noble effort. In turn, we will help you calculate your carbon offset and be recognized in your community.

Click here to get started

A few months back, I took a detailed look at a useful publication entitled “A Child’s Garden of Standards.” This publication correlates academic standards to garden, recycling, and composting lessons for Grades 2-6. It is a project that was spurred on by our local Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (OAEC) and the former California State Superintendent of Schools, Delaine Eastin.

In preparation for a Vermiculture training workshop at the time, I condensed the list into a PDF that presents all vermicompost related lessons. I added a few that The Compost Club has come across and used in the classroom, including some appropriate for middle school classrooms. You can download this useful document here. Outline of Lesson Plans- Vermiculture Education

The Compost Club project began in 2003. Between then and now, we witnessed our nation advance new concepts like  ”global warming” and “carbon credits”. We witnessed California’s passage of AB32, the greenhouse gas bill, and we experienced the Sonoma County commencement of household then commercial curbside food scrap pickups. We introduced the practice of school-wide composting, and prepared those schools for the curbside options now accessible to the public. Our founder was recognized for his work as an agent of social change, proceeding to the semi-finalist standing for a prestigious fellowship from Echoing Green.

Looking back and forward, we succeeded at what we intended to do- engage schools in the institutional practice of organic waste reduction. While we will still help schools set up onsite systems, the playing field has changed. Resources and information on school composting are now at fingers reach. Our own funds to deliver our services are at an all time low, so we continue to study our next logical organizational move while we continue to share what we have learned through this website.

Our New Year’s resolution is to focus energy where need is most critical. This year we will explore international needs related to organic waste recycling, serving communities in chronic poverty.  We hope to sponsor projects that turn food scraps to food slurry, capturing the methane gas to utilize as firewood and cooking fuels. Converting those same gases to electricity where appropriate is of interest to us as well.  With a board comprised of two former Peace Corps members, and world travelers, we’ve got our eyes open and have done our homework on “good” international development. This year will be a good year, as have been the years past. Let us know of projects out there as we take our next great leap.