LOCCAL

by Clytie Binder

In 2023 I embarked on a Churchill Fellowship research tour of parts of Canada, the USA, Mexico and Cuba to explore education models and partnerships to support community composting. I first became interested in the idea of community composting when I was studying for my master’s degree in Education for Sustainability and came across papers about community compost programs in New York City. I have always been involved in community gardening and, with the community, established a community garden in my neighbourhood. Through my work at Brisbane City Council, I developed a network of community compost hubs around Brisbane and became aware of the social, environmental, and economic benefits that community-based approaches to issues of waste and resource recovery can have. I noticed, however, that such initiatives are often overlooked by government organisations as being insignificant in their impact. The research, therefore, that I planned to undertake through this Churchill Fellowship, was to establish how community composting is supported in the identified areas and whether it is growing in prevalence or dwindling as more and more cities start their own organics kerbside collection programs.

This post is a summary of the full report. However the full report can be downloaded from this page which includes details of the wonderful initiatives I experienced in:

• Los Angeles (LA Compost)
• Mexico City (Huerto Roma Verde, Xochimilco)
• Cuba (Havana, Australia)
• Toronto (FoodShare, City of Toronto)
• New York City (Big Reuse, LES Ecology Center, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, New York Botanic Garden, Hudson River Park, Battery City Park, Department of Sanitation, Earth Matter)
• Seattle (Danny Woo Community Garden/ Restuarnt 2 Garden, Washington Correctional Center)
• Victoria (Compost Education Centre)
• Vancouver (Compost Demonstration Garden, Binners Project)

Sustainable Development

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) as defined by the United Nations does not only pertain to formal classroom situations but as an approach to social learning. Social learning refers to a shift in the hearts and minds of the population to bring about behaviour change for sustainability. This “encompasses the wide range of learning activities in basic and post-basic education, technical and vocational training and tertiary education, and both non-formal and informal learning by both young people and adults within their families and workplaces and in the wider community. This means that all of us have important roles to play as both ‘learners’ and ‘teachers’ in advancing sustainable development…Without change of this kind, even the most enlightened legislation, the cleanest technology, the most sophisticated research will not succeed in steering society towards the long-term goal of sustainability” (UNESCO, 2002). My interest therefore in community composting as a powerful tool in ESD for bringing about community responses to environmental issues is clear. It is not enough to ‘teach’ people about climate change, resource depletion or any other environmental issue. Bringing about sustainability requires communities and individuals to have the skills, means and desire to make changes in their daily lives.

City authorities the world over are grappling issues of trying to manage the large amounts of organic waste being sent to landfill and developing programs, campaigns, infrastructure and services to try to address this. While reducing waste in the first place is the top priority, home or backyard composting is encouraged as an easy way for residents to manage fruit, vegetable, and garden waste onsite. However, with more and more of Australians now living in apartments, the option of composting is more difficult. Kerbside collection of food and garden waste (FOGO) is now being rolled out in most cities across the country to massively increase the quantity of organic waste being diverted from landfill and to use it for improving soils or producing energy. Community composting is a third approach to collecting and processing organic waste and properly supported, can be a crucial part of a well-managed organic waste management plan for cities and towns.

Community composting encompasses making and using compost within the same community where the material is generated and involving the community in some way.  Observing community composting initiatives throughout my Fellowship has reinforced to me the value of connecting communities with the issues of resource recovery and processing as part of a transition to a circular economy model in ways that are nuanced and meaningful for local communities.

The Ellen Macarthur Foundation is the leading non-profit organisation that creates evidence-based original research on the benefits of a circular economy and how it can contribute to solving global challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss. Their report, ‘Cities and Circular Economy for Food’, explores the benefits of the transition to a regenerative food system and states:

“By making great strides in productively, the industrial food system has managed largely to meet the demands of a growing global population. However, this approach to food production, and the management of food by-products, is endangering biodiversity and human health. It has become clear that this food system is no longer fit for the 21^st century and that a new model is required”. Ellen Macarthur Foundation, 2019.

One of the most significant features of community composting is the strong connection between regenerative food production in urban and peri-urban agriculture and community composting and its role as a significant part of the transition to the circular economy. Localised food production that improves rather than degrades the environment, not only returns organic waste to the soil rather than to landfill, but provides fresh and healthy food to local, often marginalised people without the need for large transport or machinery infrastructure. The report also points out that:

“Given that 80% of all food will be consumed in cities by 2050, the report highlights their critical importance in triggering the shift towards a regenerative system fit for the long term. Three main ambitions emerge: source food (use by-products more effectively, prevent waste); design and market healthier food…These take the form of environmental improvements including a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 4.3 billion tonnes CO2 equivalents, a reduction in health costs associated with pesticide use of USD 550 billion, along with other health benefits, and an economic opportunity for cities edible food waste and make better use of food by-products, worth USD 700 billion.” Ellen Macarthur Foundation, 2019.

The transition to a circular economy is well under way in many countries including Australia. This challenge has been described as the new industrial revolution as it will require a massive change in the way that we think about, operate, report on and value every element of our economy. Challenges cannot always be solved by creating better technology or controlling nature with engineering solutions. Supporting the community to form connections and find a sense of place to care for and protect will lead to longer-term and deeper improvement in environmental outcomes.

Community composting, any sort of composting effort that happens in a group, allows connections between soil health, growing food, minimising food waste, reducing waste to landfill while forming social connections and building local skills. Composting can occur on a small or large scale, but community or midscale composting support is often overlooked by governments. The environmental, social and economic benefits of community composting can be felt from a nation-wide (even global) to a very local level. It has large-scale positive effects on our environment and very localised social benefits and cost saving for local governments and communities. Community composting is one approach to increasing the amount of composting in cities and towns but also has the added benefit of bringing together communities to learn from each other.

On top of the benefits of composting itself, community composting offers a raft of additional benefits beyond simply reducing waste to landfill. Community composting is often seen as a minor solution to waste issues that does not divert enough waste to landfill to justify investment. However, viewed holistically and from a multi-disciplinary point of view, its value is immense. If a price were placed on each of the environmental, economic, health and social benefits to society and were paid for separately the true value would be significant.

The benefits of community composting

Environmental

• Reducing organic waste to landfill and greenhouse gas emission
• Little or no use of fossil fuel machinery or transportation
• Links with other local environmental initiatives such as land care Improved local soil
• The production of a high-quality, uncontaminated clean compost
• Education about composting, food waste reduction, soil health and other related areas, nuanced to the local community.

Economic

• An immediate end use of the compost in urban agriculture
• Employment and volunteering opportunities
• Opportunities for small to mid-scale compost technology innovation
• Dynamic and flexible operations with the ability to scale up or down easily.

Health

• Physical exercise and outdoor activity
• Mental health benefits of volunteering and meeting people reducing isolation and loneliness
• Supporting urban agriculture – leading to access to fresh, healthy food  

Social

• Connections formed between neighbours, generations, cultures, schools and other institutions
• Reduction in neighbourhood crime, informed, educated and empowered citizens, involved in civic issues
• Fosters values of community, environmental justice, and equity
• Producing and using compost locally increases transparency and public trust.

Mechanisms that support community composting

• Funding that allows for ongoing staffing, facilities and permanence allows operators to focus on the work at hand rather than wasting time with grant applications or other funding sources.
• Measurements that show the true impact of the programs, not only limited to the amount of organic waste diverted from landfill. While tonnage collected is important, recording other factors including health, social, environmental, political, emotional or other outcomes help give holistic value and recognition to the work.
• Clearly defined and user-friendly guidelines for local, state and federal regulations, with nuances to allow for mid and medium scale operations.
• Support with collections to allow for managing large or fluctuating amounts of material.

Mechanisms that hinder community composting

• De-funding community composting initiatives in favour of kerbside organics collection. The economic and political landscape tends to favour large-scale industrial compost operators and small to mid-scale operations are often not seen as significant. Many of the community compost operators I spoke to are concerned about losing funding that they have grown to depend on to run their programs.
• A lack of data that truly reflects the impact and value of community-based initiatives such as community composting.
• Procurement systems that favour large players.

Recommendations

In response to the learnings I have taken from this Fellowship, I have prepared a number of recommendations for policy makers, community groups and industry. I believe it is crucial that, as we transition to a circular economy, we avoid making the same mistakes that we did in the last century. In the transition we must take care to collaborate with community rather than impose systemic or infrastructure changes without true consultation and partnership in the process. While this may be more difficult, messier and, to a degree, unprecedented, it will be much more likely to succeed.

Recommendations for policy makers:

Take an integrated approach to organic waste management:

• When bringing in kerbside collection of organic waste (FOGO), be careful not to ‘throw the baby out with the bath water” by de-funding existing community compost programs. Long established community programs are made up of hard-earned community trust and lines of communication.
• Re-frame community compost groups as partners. These partnerships can be leveraged to assist with communicating messaging about programs, such as the major behaviour change that will be required from residents with the roll-out of kerbside organics collection.
• Change how contacts and procurement are designed to make it easier for community groups to compete with larger providers for organics waste collection and processing.
• When introducing kerbside organics collections programs factor in the use of the finished compost in public parks with signage explaining that it comes from what was collected through the program. This will increase trust and understanding of the circular process and drive improved behaviours in the sorting and collecting at the household level.

Provide quality training in composting to ensure best practise:

• Support a range of levels of training from introductory workshops to recognised qualifications.
• Embed compost training as essential part of any horticulture, agriculture or land management training course.
• Provide training to relevant staff in local governments and any enterprise involved in gardening and landscaping. This measure would help to increase the demand for both food and garden waste for feedstock and finished compost for use in their work.

Take a broader multi-agency approach to measuring outcomes and providing funding:

• If programs such as community composting are only measured in terms of how much waste is diverted from landfill, many of the benefits go overlooked and continued funding is hard to justify. The value these initiatives – while individually may seem insignificant – in concert are very powerful.
• Investing in the community composting sector must be seen as investing not only in waste management but also in an environmental, social, and economic package. Work across other agencies to co-fund projects.
• Provide consistent and long-term funding so that community initiatives do not need to spend significant amounts of time continually applying for new grants.
• In measuring outcomes and value for money calculate the true value that volunteers bring to the plate and provide incentives for volunteerism.
• Assist community groups with measuring their impact by provide training and templates for reporting data to feed back.

Write community composting into Circular Economy transition strategies:

• Design policy around supporting community-based approaches to trigger businesses, schools, universities, and other institutions to implement programs.
• Plan for funding and small business models to support jobs in the community composting sector.
• Support innovation into mid-scale compost technology
• Rethink how we use public and private spaces and zoning criteria in our towns and cities to provide enough land for urban agriculture and community composting.
• Legislate to design out common contaminants such as plastic fruit stickers, plastic bread tags, plastic in tea bags and elastic bands.

Model best practise:

• Government bodies must set an example by displaying ideal practises throughout all departments. For example, government buildings to include organic waste management and all government staff inducted in how to separate their waste.
• Government buying power can stimulate the compost market and help support community and private providers by buying back finished compost for use in parks, schools, road works etc.
• ‘Walking the talk’ will help build trust between authorities and community and lead to a better outcome for solving waste issues.

Recommendations for community

Measure the impact:

• Develop ways to measure a variety of quantitative outcomes such as:
• Tonnage of organic waste diverted from landfill
  • Amount of contamination removed from the material
  • Number of volunteers and volunteer hours
  • Number of paid staff
  • Number of mental and physical health improvement outcomes
  • Number of interactions with community members – both those involved and those not involved in the program
  • Amount of finished compost produced.
  • Number of gardens/ plots/ people using the compost
  • Measurements of plant and soil health before and after compost application.
  • Income generated by community composting or related activities.
• Develop ways to measure qualitative outcoming such as:
  • Case studies of how lives have been impacted by engagement in the program.
  • Examples of conversations or connections formed between participants or the wider community.
  • People’s stories and how they relate to being involved – impressions of the effect on their mental and physical health.
  • Links between the group with other community groups or organisations.

Become providers of services:

• Bid to offer collection services to local businesses, schools etc
• Work closely with schools, churches, retirement homes and other community groups to gain increase legitimacy and support.

Recommendations for industry

Research and development:

• Develop mid-scale composting technology to support community scaled initiatives.
• Partner with community composting initiatives to trial and develop technology.

Develop relationships between the composting industry and community sector for:

• research opportunities
• employment opportunities
• sponsorship.

More information

See Clytie’s Fellowship page to download the full report

Episode 124 of Morag Gamble’s Sense Making in a Changing World Podcast discussing this topic.