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