Community Compost Movement
by Danielle Marriot, North Shore Community Compost Movement
The Community Compost Movement was started with the vision of changing the way we currently deal with food waste. Every year on Oʻahu, an estimated 157,899 tons of vegetative and non-vegetative food refuse is sent to H-POWER to be burned and used to create energy. We believe that there is a better way, that food does not belong in the trash and that we can use the nutrients in those food scraps as a valuable resource to feed our soils.
Starting on the North Shore, we created a pick up service and have now expanded to multiple drop off locations across the island. It’s simple, you put your food scraps in a bucket, add some bokashi, and we process them into beautiful compost, reducing our carbon footprint and putting carbon back in the soil where it belongs. Bokashi is fermented bran (using EM1, molasses, wheat/rice bran, and water) that speeds up decomposition, allows us to process meat and dairy, and greatly reduces odor. After about 6 weeks, most of the food is broken down and our piles are ready to sift. The compost we produce then gets redistributed to subscribers, local farms, and is available for purchase from the community.
Community composting encourages food independence & reduces local use of chemical fertilizers. Contributing to the cycling of nutrients from our homes back to farms fosters a healthy connection to locally grown, organic food. We encourage our subscribers to buy from and support our farm partners like Waihuena Farm, Full Circle Farm, and Keiki & Plow. By offering educational workshops, volunteer days, and compost consulting, we invite all who are interested in becoming confident composters and starting gardens of their own to find the system that works for them in their individual lives. Whether you live in an apartment, a house with no yard, or you have access to land, you can participate in revolutionizing our food systems here in Hawaiʻi and beyond.
It’s going to take a coordinated effort to move toward a zero waste economy that prioritizes the health of the land and people, and we think we can build that future one house, one garden, and one kitchen at a time. We are excited for the day when every school composts all of their food waste on site, when residents can opt in to an island wide food waste pick up service, and for when all people have access to organic, nutrient dense food. Join our movement today, check us out at communitycompostmovement.org and sign up for our compost service and learn how you can start composting at home.