- project leader
- Lynne S
- location
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219 Loyola Avenue(NOLA)
- latest update rss
- Compost Now receives 2018 Louisiana Dept of Environmental Quality award
the project
--- We're happy to announce that we've also secured an additional $2,700 through GiveNOLA Day. Thank you for your continued support! ---
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Residents bring their FROZEN fruit and vegetable scraps, eggshells, nut shells, tea bags, coffee grounds, filters, plain grains, plain pasta or plain bread. Bring frozen food waste in a paper or compostable bag or bring scraps in a reusable container.
NO MEAT, NO DAIRY, NO OILY FOODS, NO BONES.
Why FROZEN? The agreement with the NOPL is that scraps must be frozen, to avoid potential smells, roaches and rodents at the library. Also, freezing your scraps means no smell, fruit flies, roaches or rodents for you at home PLUS freezing breaks down the cell membrane, speeding up the decomposition process.
Not everyone is ready to build and maintain a compost bin in their backyard or have a worm bin in their home - that's fine. You can still help reduce the amount of food waste going into landfills by participating in this free, easy & convenient food waste collection program!
Please DO NOT drop off any food waste outside the scheduled times. Doing so jeopardizes the entire program.
Check out our calendar and other updates about Compost NOW! here.
the steps
Once we have secured enough funding, we will:
1) Work with local urban farm youth programs to find potential interns to help staff food waste collections
2) Place advertisements for part-time staff in local green-friendly outlets
3) Hire four part-time staff or interns who will each be responsible for covering 3 weekly shifts every month, plus one outreach shift from January - May.
4) Train and supervise part-time staff in how to interact with residents dropping off their scraps, and library users passing by who may have questions
5) Promote the food waste collection program and new drop-off sites via flyers, email newtorks, social media, Facebook ads and -- of course - word of mouth.
6) Collect thousands of pounds of food waste every month!
7) Work with Schmelly's and local urban farms and gardens to compost the food waste (or feed to farm animals) we deliver
8) Host at least one free educational program at the library during International Compost Awareness Week about DIY composting at home, including vermiculture (I sometimes bring a traveling worm bin to show the kids)
why we're doing it
Compost NOW (New Orleans Waste) was launched in January 2017 at two library sites; by the end of the year we were at five library sites with demand growing in neighborhoods throughout the city.
We would like to host collection programs at a minimum of eight different locations, six days a week. Our composters are wonderful people; we want to make it easy and convenient for them to drop-off their frozen food waste each week.
New Orleans has always been known as foodie town, long celebrating "locally sourced" food. Our growing green movement has seen a huge increase in solar panels and bike lanes post-Katrina, but we do not have curbside glass recycling much less a municipal residential food waste program.
While there are many excellent people working towards a municipal program "some day", I knew from experience that the community did not need to wait!
I approached the New Orleans Public Library about allowing Compost NOW to host free, weekly food waste collections based on a successful program which I started and ran for years -- and which is still ongoing at Queens Library.
I found an excellent partner in Schmelly's Dirt Farm who makes sure the food waste is transported to local farms and turned into nutrient-rich compost or fed to the farm pigs and hogs!
Not everyone has the time or interest in maintaining their own compost bin, and many renters have no access to outdoor space. This project allows everyone the opportunity to easily divert their food waste from the landfill while knowing the resulting compost will be used to improve soil being used to grow healthy food locally.
budget
| RAISED = | $1,253.00 |
| less ioby Platform Fee | $35.00 |
| less ioby Donation Processing Fee (3%) | $35.48 |
| TOTAL TO DISBURSE = | $1,182.52 |
| PROJECT SUBTOTAL = | 1,983 |
| ioby Platform Fee | $35 |
| ioby Donation Processing Fee (3%) | $59 |
| TOTAL TO RAISE ON ioby= | $2,077 |
updates
Compost Now receives 2018 Louisiana Dept of Environmental Quality award
Posted 04/13/2018 - 5:28pm
Drop off schedule
Posted 04/13/2018 - 5:25pm
photos
This is where photos will go once we build flickr integrationdonors
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Wendy Brawer
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James Brinson
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Anonymous
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James Brinson
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Anonymous
