4th Annual Backyard Compost Challenge

This story first appeared in The News-Gazette on February 14, 2024.

In partnership with all three local jurisdictions, Boxerwood is once again

facilitating a springtime conservation challenge in which 80 local households receive free backyard composters in exchange for participating in a 10-week food diversion study. Now in its fourth year, The Backyard Compost Challenge has already helped 230 local households adopt composting practices. Cumulatively, the project is now diverting more than 24,000 pounds of food waste annually from the Rockbridge Regional Landfill.

Many participants sign up for the project for its soil-generating potential, but the initiative brings collective benefits as well. “Keeping food out of the landfill reduces methane which is a powerful greenhouse gas,” explained Boxerwood sustainability educator Ginny Johnson. According to Johnson, diverting 24,000 pounds into local composters has the same positive effect as preventing the release of 70 tons of carbon into the atmosphere. “Managing a changing climate is a big task,” said Johnson, “but keeping food waste out of the landfill is one way many of us can take a positive step right here at home.”

As in previous years, newly recruited households will weigh and divert food scraps to their grant-funded composters each week and report their results to Boxerwood, which will post aggregate data on its website. Last year, 98% of participating households successfully completed the project and committed to continue the practice going forward. The success of the project prompted an unusual fourth year of competitive funding awarded by the Virginia Dept. of Environmental Quality (VA DEQ).

The motivation behind the program is to give households the tools to adopt more earth-friendly practices.  For these reasons, municipalities across the nation encourage citizen composting, but not everyone has the tools or know-how for getting started. The Backyard Compost Challenge tackles those obstacles by providing composting kits plus supportive coaching from Boxerwood. The kit includes the original outdoor “Earth Machine” (an 80-gallon sturdy black plastic composter), a household collecting pail, and a hand scale. Participants do not need prior knowledge of composting and the Earth Machines were selected for their durability and simplicity of use.

The project runs March 9 to May 20, 2024. Participation in the study is open to all residents of Buena Vista, Lexington, and Rockbridge County, but only households not currently composting will be eligible for the free compost kits. According to organizers, priority goes to households with children with others selected by lottery. There is no cost to participate and indeed at the end of the study, households who wish to continue to divert their food waste may keep their composting kits, a $150 retail value. Interested households must register online, and the deadline to sign up is March 1, 2024.