The Community Compost Project aims to develop a sustainable system of recycling household food waste into fertile soil, within which organic food can grow and flourish (and start the process again!).
We were shocked to learn that nearly half of all food is wasted in the United States, especially in light of the millions of people who go hungry every day in our country. When food goes to waste and is thrown away, it usually finds its way into commercial landfills where it is buried and slowly rots, breaking down anaerobically which produces greenhouse emissions. Composting uses aerobic processes, facilitating the quick breakdown of organic waste matter.
We will provide local Orlando residents a five-gallon bucket to collect their food scraps, instead of putting it in the garbage. Each week participants will put the bucket in their front yard, where we will come to pick it up and swap it with a clean bucket. We’ll then compost all of the food waste and turn it into rich compost. This will be used in our local garden programs to produce organic food for the community! Our goal is to rescue 10,000 pounds of food waste on bikes from going to the landfill in 2018.
The best part of this is that we’ll do it all without burning any fossil fuels. We’ve had a bicycle trailer made so we can do the entire community compost program by bike! And like the Gardens for Single Moms and the Community Fruit Tree projects, we are using the Orlando Community Compost Project as a beta test, hoping to take what we learn and share it with communities across the U.S.
