In Building Local Power this week, we’re delving into the potential community-based composting holds to empower historically marginalized communities in cities across the United States. … Read More
The DPR Compost Cooperative at the Howard University Community Garden in NW Washington, DC (Shaw/Howard area), which just celebrated its two-year anniversary, showcases what a collaboration between a local government department, non-profit organizations, small businesses, institutions of higher education, and members of the community can accomplish for composting efforts.… Read More
The first Earth Day in 1970 sparked not only the beginning of the environmental movement, but also the birth of the modern recycling movement. Today, recycling of paper, bottles, and cans is the norm, but food waste recovery remains paltry. Less than 5% of food thrown away is recovered. According to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), almost half of typical garbage could be converted into compost (Source: ILSR’s Infographic).… Read More
“The Nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1937 With almost 30% of U.S. cropland eroding above soil tolerance levels – meaning the long-term ability of the soil to sustain plant … Read More
Composting protects the soil and climate while creating jobs. Learn how in our series of posters, available in a variety of formats for easy sharing and distribution. Each poster is available for your use (with attribution to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance) so you can educate your community about the benefits of composting. All posters are available … Read More
The City of Baltimore is dedicated to developing sustainable local food systems by encouraging urban farming. Compost is an important ingredient for filtering and immobilizing pollutants from our soils. ILSR’s Composting for Community Initiative is proud to help support the City’s food growing goals by partnering with ECO City Farms, Civic Works’ Real Food Farms, and Urban Farm Plans by bringing the Neighborhood Soil Rebuilders Master Composter training course to the Baltimore community! … Read More
In a great article for Waste Dive, reporter Cole Rosengren features our recently released report on the possibilities that the city of Baltimore has in increasing its proportions of recycling and increasing economic development from the policy change.… Read More
We’ve developed this Hierarchy to Reduce Waste & Grow Community in order to highlight the importance of locally based composting solutions as a first priority over large-scale regional solutions. Composting can be small scale and large scale and everything in between but too often home composting, onsite composting, community scale composting, and on-farm composting are overlooked. … Read More
Since we wrote about Maryland House Bill 1349, “Compostable, Degradable, and Biodegradable Plastic Products – Labeling,” in late February, it has made significant progress in the Maryland state legislature. As of March 23rd, the bill passed its third reading in the House and moved on to the Senate. Since the bill was not cross-filed with the … Read More
