Got my street to agree to a community compost bin in 4 months flat!

Last month I biked to city hall with a petition signed by 12 neighbors. We had been dumping kitchen scraps in our own bins for 3 years but wanted something bigger. I knocked on 40 doors over two weekends and only 3 people said no. The city gave us a free bin and pickup last Tuesday! Anyone else set up a shared compost pile in their alley?

3 comments

3 Comments

jadej5029d ago

We did something similar in our alley last year. Got a big plastic tote from a local hardware store for free, drilled some holes in it, and posted a simple sign asking people to only add veggie scraps and yard waste. Had to chase off one dude who kept tossing in leftover pizza, but after a polite reminder he stopped. Now we have about 8 households using it and the city picks it up every other week.

aaron_mitchell29d ago

Honestly that's a really good setup you got going. But I gotta say, the whole "drilling holes" thing might not actually help as much as people think. Those holes are supposed to let air in for composting but if you're just collecting scraps for the city to pick up, you're basically giving oxygen to stuff that's gonna rot anyway. Ngl, I learned the hard way when our bin got super smelly and attracted flies. The holes really only matter if you're actively turning it into compost yourself. Other than that, sounds like you guys nailed the community part of it which is the hardest thing to get right.

leehall29d ago

Read that this can actually help reduce methane vs sending stuff to the landfill, which is pretty cool. Way better than the pizza guy making a mess of it lol.