The Neighborhood Compost Project: Cultivating Community through Compost

Click on the signs to enlarge
Left: Neighborhood-Scale Composting Process
Center: Welcome
Right: Composting Can Be Done On a Larger or Smaller Scale

About the project:

• A partnership with the City of Boulder Environmental Affairs and The Boulder Energy Conservation Center has allowed Growing Gardens to create a Neighborhood Composting Project.
• The Neighborhood Compost Project continues to be a successful model of waste diversion, recycling resources, and compost education
• The project uses plant materials produced by the community gardens, the greenhouse, the Cultiva! garden, the Horticultural Therapy program and the Children’s Peace Garden to create a windrow composting system (composting that places biomass in elongated heaps which are periodically turned for aeration).

Click on pictures to enlarge.

Where it happens:

• This composting demonstration site is located at our Hawthorn Sustainable Agricultural location (along with community gardens, backyard composting demonstration site, Cultiva! youth project field, and the Children’s Peace Garden). It is just east of the North Boulder Recreation Center, at
  14th and Jefferson Streets.

How the project works:

• Growing Gardens gardeners place their organic garden waste into central tote bins that are collected by a local waste hauler and carted to a central compost facility.
• Once the organic materials arrive at the compost site, they are placed through a grinder to create a fine particle size that is conducive to composting quickly.
• The materials are placed in large windrows and watered and turned on a regular schedule to facilitate the compost process.
• Once the process is complete, some of the compost is returned to Growing Gardens for the gardeners to use as a soil amendment in their plots.

Neighborhood Compost Project Partners

• Eco Cycle coordinated with Growing Gardens to bring School groups to the site and give tours to elementary aged children.
• The City of Boulder’s Department of Environmental Affairs is working with us to design and finance signs for the site and we are part of their pilot program for curbside compost pickup.
• Western Disposal gives in-kind support to help turn the large compost windrows. They pick-up compost weekly from the 6 community garden sites around the city and the Neighborhood Compost Site. They return the finished material in the spring and fall.
  

Site Tours and Service Learning

We offer educational site tours for school groups, youth groups, or other organizations. We focus on compost as a method of reducing resource use and a valuable food for plants. The tours introduce visitors to the site, which is open to the public, and shows how our programs are working together to create a sustainable system that cultivates community. At the backyard demonstration site, visiting groups can get ideas of how to compost at home. There are also service learning opportunities for groups that want a "hands-on" educational experience. Groups are welcome to join us to build or turn a windrow pile.

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