Community composting comes to St. John's with plans to expand

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A small-scale composting programis underway in one St. John's neighbourhood, in aneffort to tackle organic waste that organizers hopeprovides a blueprint for other parts ofthe city to follow.

The Georgestown Community Compost program looks unassuming from where it sits by Bonaventure Avenue, with three metal rotating composter bins set up on the grounds of Kings Gate condos, at its community garden. But it's the result of more than a year of hard work between multiple organizations to make happen.

"Initially, it felt like a huge task," said project leadViviana Ramirez Luna,speaking to the CBC in May prior to its launch.

Ramirez Luna had been composting in her own household for years, as part of her own personal efforts toward a low-waste lifestyle. With acitywide compost program still a dream the City of St. John's put any suchplans on hold in 2017 she came across the concept of community composting, that focuses on small groups of people pooling their kitchen scraps into something more.

"I'm fascinated because it's the whole package," said Ramirez Luna.

Environmentally, community compostingdiverts someorganics from the landfill, she said, and adds in educational andsocial benefits, as people learn about a second life for their peels and crusts.It's alsofar cheaper than a large-scale effort that would require curbside collection and a potential industrial processing facility.

Ateam effort

The Georgestownpilot project is a team effort, spearheaded bythe Social Justice Co-Op N.L.,with Stella's Circleand Planeet Consulting, Ramirez Luna's zero-waste business, also on board.

The project secured fundingfrom the Multi Materials Stewardship Board, the City of St. John's and Food First NL, and then sought out buy-in from the local community.

"Alot of people want to compost but they find that it's too much work, or they don't have the space, or are overwhelmingly concernedabout rodents and odours, which is understandable," said Ramirez Luna, explaining that the bins they are using are both rat-proof and stink-proof.

The program is already at its 30-household capacity. "Uptakehas been great. People want to do it," she said.

Each household has an organic collection bucket, and were given educational material and an orientation session on what goes into the bins. Most plant-based scraps are fine, but the bins can't handle items like meat, seafood and pet waste.

People empty their own buckets whenever their own schedule suits, and a compost technician hired through the program takes care of rotating the bins from time to time, and adding 'brown material' like leaves to the mix to balance out the composting process. before the final product goes into the local community garden.

That technician was hired through Stella's Circle, a charity in St. John's that helps adults with housing, training and employmentservices.

Getting involved in composting was "the perfect fit," said Rob McLennan,director of employment services with Stella's Circle, since the charity runs a variety of programs atthe community garden in partnership with the condominium.

"It's a catalyst for inclusive activity, that is really lifting up the talents and interests of people. It's great to engage people where they're at," he said.

The technician is gettingjob experience in an area they're interested in, said McLennan.

"We just find that increasingly there's lots of people that want to become involved in employment that is connected, linked to green outcomes," he said.

Future growth for kitchen garbage

There are plans to expand the program and offer a similar setups in other neighbourhoods in St. John's, said Ramirez Luna.

In that process they'll be learning from behind-the-scenes hiccups withthe Georgestown program.The initial site turned out to be on city property, causing permitting and liability issues. Kings Gate condo came to the rescue, she said, making part of its property readily accessible to the public and taking on the needed liability insurance itself.

"We want to show that this works, we don't want to upset anyone. These types of bins and programs have been successful in other towns in Newfoundland and Labrador, and other countriesand provinces," she said.

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With the current program, Ramirez Luna said organizers also hope to identify what works, and what doesn't, before expanding.

"We know there's always those who are motivated to do it, and those who are not, for different reasons. And we also want to learn that,why people are not composting, and how these programs are the solution for that," she said.

Ramirez Luna hopes one day there will be municipal composting, but said community efforts can lead the way.

"This is going to show that we're diverting a lot of organics, that we're creating jobs, and it will be an alternative to large scale city-run composting program, which is going to take a long time."

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