This information is provided to help community members understand how to initiate a community composting program in their community and to keep it sustained for the long haul.
Please contact us for assistance in setting up a composting program in your community. Call Noah Fishman, Program Manager, at (802) 472-5138 x202 or send a email to noah@highfieldscomposting.org
Whether you’re interested in creating a composting program capable of recycling food scraps and organic wastes from a whole community or you’re interested in targeting your efforts to a single school, business, or institution, the same players are involved in the process of community composting. To get a better idea of these players let’s take a look at three different programs for recycling food scraps in Vermont:
- Peacham, VT—In Peacham, Vermont food scraps are hauled from a 60 student elementary school on the school bus to a small near-by farm that composts the food scraps for a value-added quarter acre herb growing operation.
- Montpelier, VT— Food scraps are picked up from over 70 different businesses and restaurants in a dedicated, specialized collection route. Food scraps are hauled to one of three different composters in the region to be made into compost to be sold to the local community.
- St. Albans, VT— Food scraps are collected at and hauled from a handful of area supermarket, businesses, and schools to a 30-acre mixed-vegetable farm that composts the food scraps to fertilize its growing fields and to create a salable product for the local community.
The Stakeholders
All of these composting scenarios share some basic players that drive the composting process. They can be summarized as follows:
- Generator—Points of generation for food scraps: schools, restaurants, supermarkets, businesses, but also included under this category are other sources of organic wastes; e.g. horse stables, landscapers, woodshops, etc.
- Hauler—Whether it is a school bus or a specialized truck capable of hauling multiple tons of organic wastes, the hauler gets the food scraps and other organics from the generator to the composter.
- Composter—Composting sites can be part of an existing local farm, part of a municipality or solid waste district’s own efforts to establish composting infrastructure, or can be a private endeavor of a for-profit value-added processor.
- Farmer/Gardener—The end use for compost is best characterized by its use as a soil amendment for fruit and vegetable production by local farmers and gardners.