In tandem with area partners, Boxerwood is launching a new project focused on diverting food waste from the landfill. In this pilot study, 60 volunteering households will each be given a high-quality, self-enclosed, single-unit backyard composter in return for tracking their waste diversion for three months. The goals of this “citizen science” project are to encourage family learning, promote stewardship, and gather baseline data for future endeavors. Funding for the project comes from competitive grants from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
“It’s a pretty simple idea actually,” explained Education Director Elise Sheffield, “switch out something harmful for something good.” Hauling food waste to landfills increases costs for municipalities. Decomposing organic material in landfills also releases methane, a harmful greenhouse gas. Composting food scraps, on the other hand, builds soil and sequesters carbon: positive outcomes. For this reason, municipalities across the nation are now encouraging citizen composting, but not everyone has the tools or know-how for getting started.
The Great Backyard Compost Challenge tackles some of those obstacles. “Basically we were looking for ways to promote family stewardship in midst of a lock-down pandemic and came up with this idea, “ said Sheffield. As part of the study, each selected household will receive a composting kit (Earth Machine 80 gallon outdoor composter, pail, hand scale). Each Saturday, a designated member of each household uploads to the Boxerwood website the total weight of his or her households’s diverted waste. Boxerwood will display everyone’s data (anonymously) via an online excel sheet. By the end of the three months, the project will offer a good baseline for future actions. Participants will also receive a weekly waste reduction tip by email.
“We brought this idea to the City of Lexington last fall and the City really liked it,” said Elise. Together the City and Boxerwood submitted a grant request for $10,000, half of which was for materials and the rest for Boxerwood’s management. Thanks to bulk purchases, the project was able to buy forty very durable composters for Lexington families.. A separate DEQ grant, shared with the Clean Valley Council of Roanoke, also provides twenty composters for families from Rockbridge and Buena Vista.
The project runs mid-March to early June 2021. Interested in being one of the participating households? Let us know by clicking this link. The project is open to everyone, but only those not currently composting are eligible for the compost kits. Youth participants and their families get first dibs, and others will be selected by lottery. There is no cost to participate and indeed at the end of the study, households who wish to continue to divert waste may keep their composting kits, a $150 retail value.
