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Composting in West Broadway 2012-2013 Report Prepared by: Bowen Smyth, Compost Coordinator Published: October 31 st , 2013

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Page 1: Composting in West Broadway€¦ · Composting in West Broadway 2012-2013 Report Prepared by: Bowen Smyth, Compost Coordinator Published: October 31st, 2013 . ... Vermicomposting

Composting in West Broadway

2012-2013 Report

Prepared by: Bowen Smyth, Compost Coordinator

Published: October 31st, 2013

Page 2: Composting in West Broadway€¦ · Composting in West Broadway 2012-2013 Report Prepared by: Bowen Smyth, Compost Coordinator Published: October 31st, 2013 . ... Vermicomposting

COMPOSTING IN WEST BROADWAY: 2012-2103 REPORT

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Table of Contents

Composting in West Broadway: Goals & Achievements ………………………………………………………… 3

Training & Education ..…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 5

Community Compost Sites …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 6

Apartment Composting ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 7

Vermicomposting ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 8

Recommendations ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 9

Numerical Overview …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 10

Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 11

Initiating our first apartment compost bins with a pail of kitchen scraps.

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COMPOSTING IN WEST BROADWAY: 2012-2103 REPORT

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Composting in West Broadway: Goals & Achievements

West Broadway’s composting project is the culmination of many years of research, funding applications,

and consultations. In the fall of 2009, staff at West Broadway Community organization brought

community members together to envision the future of composting in the neighbourhood. At that time,

West Broadway Community Organization was overseeing 20 compost bins at six sites with the help of a

volunteer compost committee. They had also identified a number of apartments and organizations in

the neighbourhood with an expressed interest in composting.

Using the PATH (Planning Alternative Tomorrows with Hope) graphic tool as a framework for this

planning process, the community identified seven goals that they wanted to realize within two years.

The list below identifies five PATH goals that were accomplished in 2012-2013.

1. Secure infrastructure and equipment for composting.

Eight new community compost bins built

Two new community compost sites established

Permanent leaf storage site plans in progress

Built outdoor storage for wood at West Broadway Community Organization

Purchased tools to enhance bin building and site maintenance (mitre saw, compost thermometer, extension cord, new drill, and sharpened hand saws)

2. Increase awareness about composting through social marketing, education, and signage.

Full signage added to two community compost sites

11 workshops and one Master Composter course offered to community members

Media coverage of composting workshops, events, and accomplishments aired on CBC, CKUW, and UMFM radio stations.

3. Establish West Broadway as an apartment composting pilot for Winnipeg.

37 apartment composting kits distributed

12 bins built at eight buildings

Highest participation rate discovered to be at community compost sites located throughout West Broadway

4. Train five to ten Master Composters in West Broadway.

18 Master Composters trained in West Broadway

Five Master Composters volunteering and/or working in West Broadway

5. Develop a compost-related business.

Three bins built for service, with a request for two more bins in 2014

Research conducted and grants submitted for organic waste collection at neighbourhood businesses and organizations

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COMPOSTING IN WEST BROADWAY: 2012-2103 REPORT

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Creating employment by building fee-for-service bins from salvaged wood.

Some goals identified in the PATH planning process were either wholly or partially unachievable, due to limited interest and/or resources:

1. Secure city support and money for composting in West Broadway (bins, tax incentives)

City continues to take a “hands-off approach” with neighbourhood organizations and community garden/compost sites

2. One full-time staff to oversee and coordinate composting activities in the community

Received funding for one part-time staff for 15 hours/week for 18 months

Demand for maintenance of community compost sites continues to surpass the

capacity of one part-time staff, in spite of strong volunteer commitment

Some recommendations for future composting activities have been included at the end of this report.

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COMPOSTING IN WEST BROADWAY: 2012-2103 REPORT

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Training & Education

A total of 136 participants—including 4 youth—attended the 11 free compost training events that we

offered. Participants from outside the West Broadway neighbourhood were welcome to join these

workshops when space and resources permitted. Workshops were promoted via posters, emails, social

media, and public radio.

Our most successful training event was the Master Composter course, a 5-day course that certified 18

new Master Composters. Offered in conjunction with Green Action Centre, this event attracted 5 new

volunteers who contributed over 50 volunteer hours to our program. Volunteers participated in

collecting salvaged wood for compost bins, building wooden bins, assisting with workshops, and

maintaining community compost sites.

Since Green Action Centre offers a blitz of basic composting workshops every spring, we found that

some of our workshops were poorly attended. As much as possible, we attempted to attract larger

turnouts by offering new information, or incentives such as free compost and kitchen collectors.

Date Event Participants

June 13, 2012 Apartment Composting 13

August 1, 2012 Vermicomposting 8

October, 2012 Master Composter Course (facilitated by Green Action Centre) 18

September 15, 2012 Soil Food Web (offered off site at Harvest Moon Festival) 24

November 14, 2012 Winter Composting 3

December 12, 2012 Green Holidays 5

March 1, 2013 Feeding Your Soil (offered off-site at Growing Local Conference) 50+

May 11, 2013 Backyard Composting 0

June 11, 2013 Organic Lawn Care (facilitated by Manitoba EcoNetwork) 4

July 16, 2013 Community Composting cancelled

August 13, 2013 Composting for Youth 2

September 24, 2013 Harvesting Compost 9

2012 Master Composter graduates.

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COMPOSTING IN WEST BROADWAY: 2012-2103 REPORT

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Community Compost Sites

Our community compost sites are by far the most successful aspect of the compost research project.

With 28 bins at eight sites conveniently scattered throughout the neighbourhood, we can still barely

keep up with the demand for these bins. West Broadway Community Organization provides support by

offering training sessions to increase awareness and effective use of the bins, finding and coordinating

volunteers, tracking volunteer hours, and responding to questions from the community.

Our community compost sites could not succeed without the small but dedicated group of volunteers

who maintain some of our larger sites. Bins need to be aerated, watered, and balanced with carbon

materials at least once each week during the warm months in order to maximize compost production

and minimize odours and pests.

Due to our cold winters, organic waste remains frozen for roughly half the year, so most of our bins

reach maximum capacity at this time and some sites need to be shut down. We received a phone call

from one avid composter who intended to start scattering organic waste in nearby bushes and natural

areas when their community compost site closed for the season. We were relieved to be able to redirect

this person’s organic waste to a larger site nearby.

Although this may be an extreme case, our community compost sites remain actively used even in

temperatures below -20C (see photo below). This speaks volumes to the dedication people put in,

without recognition or reward, to contribute to waste reduction in our neighbourhood.

Six of the nine bins at our busiest community compost site.

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COMPOSTING IN WEST BROADWAY: 2012-2103 REPORT

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Apartment Composting

Apartment composting sites worked in a similar way to the community compost sites: wooden compost

bins were installed on the property of an existing apartment, offering apartment dwellers the option to

compost in the same location where recycling and garbage were disposed of. In total, we were able to

install 12 new bins at eight buildings.

Our successful sites were ones in which we managed to secure both approval from property

owners/managers to install compost bins, as well as staff or volunteers to manage the new bins.

Unfortunately, these two requirements did not always come hand-in-hand, so we ended up with some

underused apartment compost bins where we gained permission to build, and some disappointed

apartment dwellers who were eager to manage bins for their building, but who were unable to secure

permission from their landlord or property manager.

Volunteers assisting with bin building at one of our apartment composting sites.

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COMPOSTING IN WEST BROADWAY: 2012-2103 REPORT

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Vermicomposting

Vermicomposting was another pilot component of this project, and unfortunately was not nearly as

successful as we had hoped. We projected that over a two year period, 50 families would begin

composting as a result of our efforts. Our projections were high because roughly 85% of West Broadway

residents live in apartments or other shared, rented properties without access to land for backyard

composting. Since Winnipeg does not yet have a city-wide organic waste collection program, we hoped

that giving people access to vermicomposting resources would offer an alternative to tossing organic

waste among this population.

Unfortunately, uptake on vermicomposting workshops and resources was very low. We found that the

majority of apartment dwellers interested in composting were already accessing our community

compost sites, or were more interested in our apartment composting project that made outdoor

wooden bins available on site.

A large number of apartment dwellers in West Broadway live at or below the poverty line. With many of

these individuals and families struggling to meet their basic needs for food, shelter, and health care,

composting—let alone vermicomposting—was usually not a priority. Even for participants who had

greater access to time, money, and other resources, vermicomposting proved to be a challenging skill

with a low rate of success. For these reasons, we redirected time and resources from the

vermicomposting project to existing projects that were proving to be more successful: apartment

composting and community compost sites.

Searching for worm eggs in vermicompost bins.

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COMPOSTING IN WEST BROADWAY: 2012-2103 REPORT

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Recommendations Based on our research and on-the-ground experience with composting in West Broadway, a list of recommendations has been included for future composting projects, listed in order of priority.

1. Develop financial sustainability.

Continue to submit funding applications for full-time, long-term Compost Coordinator

Continue to research and secure funding to implement organic waste collection

service for area businesses and restaurants

Research the possibility of establishing a compost-based social enterprise

Develop means to continue hiring people with barriers to employment for contract

labour (bin building, site maintenance, etc.)

2. Invest in community compost sites.

Focus on maintaining existing sites/bins before investing in new sites/bins

Build long-term leaf storage site

Add signage to remaining community compost sites

Research and implement more accurate ways of tracking number of people composting and amount of organic waste diverted from landfill

Redirect focus from apartment composting and vermicomposting to community compost sites

3. Increase awareness of composting and waste reduction.

Promote West Broadway’s waste reduction successes

Continue offering workshops and opportunities for education, expanding topic content beyond basic composting

Secure funding to offer additional Master Composter courses

4. Identify and expand human resource capacity.

Develop a better system for recruiting and investing in volunteers, and for tracking

volunteer hours

Establish positive partnerships with public (municipal) and private (business) sectors to collaboratively set and achieve waste reduction targets

One of our more idyllic apartment compost sites.

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COMPOSTING IN WEST BROADWAY: 2012-2103 REPORT

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Numerical Overview

People

500 – estimated number of people composting in West Broadway

> 500 – volunteer hours contributed

136 – workshop participants

47 – compost volunteers

Planet

33 – estimated tonnes of compost harvested

37 – apartment composting kits distributed

112 – estimated tonnes of organic waste diverted from landfill

129 – estimated tonnes of C02 emissions reduced through composting

Profit

$16,934 – cost savings for community if compost produced was purchased at $5/30L bag

$9,296 – estimated savings from composting instead of landfilling ($83/tonne)

$630 – saved by building bins from salvaged wood rather than new wood

Building plans for a double compost bin. Parsley growing in compost in November.

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COMPOSTING IN WEST BROADWAY: 2012-2103 REPORT

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Acknowledgments

West Broadway Community Organization’s community composting

program was made possible by the generous support of…

funders who gave us the financial means to accomplish our goals:

project partners who worked with us in some capacity, providing

resources, training, promotion, inspiration, and support:

Blue Butterfly Dreams

Brickworks (Toronto)

Broadway Neighbourhood Centre

CBC Radio

CKUW

Daniel McIntyre/St. Matthews Community

Association

Doug Weatherbee, Soil Doctor (Mexico)

Ernst & Young LLP

Good Food Club

Government of MB - Urban Green Team

Green Action Centre

Greenheart Housing Coop

Harvest Moon Society

Hintsa House

Klinic Community Health Centre

Manitoba Hydro

Master Composters

Nature’s Perfect Plant Food

Nioex Systems (Brandon)

ORBIS (Toronto)

Resource Assistance for Youth (RAY)

Spence Neighbourhood Association

Take Pride Winnipeg - Urban Green Wave

The Forks

The Stop (Toronto)

Westminster Housing Co-op

Westminster Housing Society

UMFM

University of Winnipeg

Urban Eatin’

and all of our community volunteers. Thank you!