Action plan:
Timeline: We already began earlier this year with trial compost bins, and we have located equipment that is properly sized for a neighbor composting operation, for much lower costs than larger equipment. Our main focus now is to find a location or locations where we can begin our work.
Budget: We plan to use equipment that will allow us to process compost in a manner that can be sustained more easily (less physically demanding) and to process as much of the needs for gardening in our neighborhood as possible (larger quantities). In order to do this we will need equipment where the total may cost over $40K (including a budget of $20K for a pickup truck). We will do everything as affordably as possible (see attached file on wood grinders- we would use the smallest one), and seek to have a truck donated, for example. But, we also plan to use this equipment at multiple community gardens to process their food waste.
Impact: We plan to create a prototypical neighborhood compost processing model to dramatically increase the amount of food and yard waste that we can transform into garden compost for growing food.A very modest goal would be to process 5,200 pounds of material per month, making that compost available within our community. We would like to support the efforts of existing groups to divert food waste, making a relationship with at least one such group during our project.
Location: As mentioned above, we are in the process of looking for appropriate locations. We are making inquiries at a food processing plant, as well as at community gardens. We need a minimum of four aerated bins that are 8 feet by 8 feet, for a total of 320 square feet. Ideally, this would be located at a community garden that is participating in food waste collection (like Change X partners).
Our intention is to make contact with the New School Community Garden (a ChangeX group) and seek to involve some of the kids there, as well as at a local middle school.
Since we will be using power equipment we will not engage the kids in that part of the process. However, we would like to involve them in the collection and distribution, as well as in the maintenance of the worm composting bins.
