We got a place we can use on a square in our quarter. There’s small houses and apartments nearby, so that’s people who can’t really compost at home easily.
We have a compost bin with three bays of about 1.5 m³ each. The tools for turning are in whichever bay is most empty (pitchfork shovel sieve and broom). The bins have lids and we have fenced it. Then fence is to prevent trash in and around the bins, we did get a little before. Outside the fence we also have four big planters with vegetables and flowers in front. Ideally I’d want some water to water the planters and so people can rinse their buckets.
It’s intended for the people of our part of town, until we get so much we can’t compost fast enough. In practice everyone who wants to join can.
They get a 25 L bin to collect their kitchen scraps. There’s two times a week people can come drop off the bins, an hour Tuesday evening and an hour Wednesday afternoon. The sorting rules are on the bins and an information plaque on the fence. We allow raw vegetable scraps, dead house plants, herbivore poop; we don’t allow cooked food, cat poop, egg shells (salmonella risk), “recyclable” plastic (can’t see if it’s the correct kind of recycleable). The bins are large enough to be practical but also small enough that a lot of people can help.
So the work us volunteers do is: open and close the gate; check the bins for wrong stuff; turn the compost when a bay is almost full (or whenever I want); get the small bins to people who want to join; care for the veggies or keep the area relatively neat. There’s five of us so I only have to be there on time like twice a month tops.
That it’s only open twice for an hour has also made it a bit of a social thing, some stay to chat.
City has asked if we want to start up heaps in other parts of town too. Probably will if we find local volunteers there.
A neighbour I didn’t know started it. I just volunteered to help, she moved away, I have four more volunteers helping so it’s nearly no work individually. It’s a citizen initiative, but we did ask the city for free stuff, namely an Ecoo compost bin and permission to use that spot.
I help run a communal compost heap, it’s easy work and saves a lot of trash from going to the trash furnaces.
I’d like to learn more, how is it organized?
We got a place we can use on a square in our quarter. There’s small houses and apartments nearby, so that’s people who can’t really compost at home easily.
We have a compost bin with three bays of about 1.5 m³ each. The tools for turning are in whichever bay is most empty (pitchfork shovel sieve and broom). The bins have lids and we have fenced it. Then fence is to prevent trash in and around the bins, we did get a little before. Outside the fence we also have four big planters with vegetables and flowers in front. Ideally I’d want some water to water the planters and so people can rinse their buckets.
It’s intended for the people of our part of town, until we get so much we can’t compost fast enough. In practice everyone who wants to join can. They get a 25 L bin to collect their kitchen scraps. There’s two times a week people can come drop off the bins, an hour Tuesday evening and an hour Wednesday afternoon. The sorting rules are on the bins and an information plaque on the fence. We allow raw vegetable scraps, dead house plants, herbivore poop; we don’t allow cooked food, cat poop, egg shells (salmonella risk), “recyclable” plastic (can’t see if it’s the correct kind of recycleable). The bins are large enough to be practical but also small enough that a lot of people can help.
So the work us volunteers do is: open and close the gate; check the bins for wrong stuff; turn the compost when a bay is almost full (or whenever I want); get the small bins to people who want to join; care for the veggies or keep the area relatively neat. There’s five of us so I only have to be there on time like twice a month tops.
That it’s only open twice for an hour has also made it a bit of a social thing, some stay to chat.
City has asked if we want to start up heaps in other parts of town too. Probably will if we find local volunteers there.
I think that’s a great idea, how did you get started?
A neighbour I didn’t know started it. I just volunteered to help, she moved away, I have four more volunteers helping so it’s nearly no work individually. It’s a citizen initiative, but we did ask the city for free stuff, namely an Ecoo compost bin and permission to use that spot.