THE COMMUNITY COMPOST MOVEMENT IS HERE
The Community Compost Movement Has Launched on the North Shore of Oahu
Words and Video by Leah Dawson
Changing Tides Foundation’s North Shore team has been working incessantly to divert the community’s residential food waste from the landfills on Oahu and spread aloha to our soils.
As we look for ways to live a more eco-friendly life, composting is a clear opportunity to make significant changes in our everyday lives and reduce our carbon footprint right from our own homes. Contrary to global practice, food scraps do not belong in the trash, they should be put back into the soil in order to continue to grow beautiful, nutrient rich food to feed our community.
The North Shore Community Compost Movement is a food waste pick-up service, launched by Changing Tides Foundation, that diverts household and restaurant food waste from the trash and back into soil at local participating farms. We utilize the Bokashi method, which is fermented bran activated with Effective Microorganisms that, when sprinkled on food scraps, eliminates odor while simultaneously fermenting the scraps, speeding up the process of the food’s ability to break down and aid the soil around it.
We can help sequester carbon by adding our food scraps to compost (which absorbs it right out of the air). If food is thrown in a trash bin, it rots in landfills, releasing methane, an extremely potent greenhouse gas, or burns in toxic incinerators.The eco-difference between the trash bin and the compost bin is ENORMOUS! Compost soil can absorb up to 5x its weight in water, making it an answer to soil desertification and erosion, while improving the vitality and growing conditions of the soil. It’s a Win-Win for the earth!
The residents of the North Shore community have the unique opportunity to be at the forefront of sustainability and the zero-waste movement! With our friends at Kokua Foundation leading the charge with composting and garden programs through Aina in Schools, as well as Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii diverting all of the food waste from special events like the Triple Crown and Pipe Pro, the stage on the North Shore has been set for the residents to join in with their household food scraps to help regenerate our local soils and eliminate the greenhouse gas emissions produced by our food scraps in the trash. Together as a community, we can create enormous benefit for environment and for our local soil.
If you live on the North Shore of Oahu, join the North Shore Community Compost Movement and get your first 2 weeks free!
Here’s how it works:
1. Sign up for a 2 week free trial on our website: CommunityCompostMovement.org.
2. We drop off your compost bucket with screw-top lid, Bokashi and a welcome packet with instructions the following Wednesday.
3. You put your food scraps in your bucket, sprinkling a bit of Bokashi each time you add scraps.
4. The next Wednesday, we pick up your bucket and swap it out for a new one. NO MESS, NO STRESS, NO HASSLES!
5. We take the food scraps back to our local farm partners and produce nutrient rich soil!
6. At the end of the year, we will provide you with your personalized carbon offset report so you can keep track of your environmental impact!
For more information, visit our website communitycompostmovement.org and follow us on instagram @communitycompostmovement and facebook: Community Compost Movement!
Becky Mendoza
Author