{"id":885,"date":"2019-04-01T20:52:59","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T20:52:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/?p=885"},"modified":"2023-03-27T15:51:03","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T15:51:03","slug":"do-the-rot-thing-inside-durhams-push-for-composting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2019\/04\/01\/do-the-rot-thing-inside-durhams-push-for-composting\/","title":{"rendered":"Do the rot thing: Inside Durham’s push for composting"},"content":{"rendered":"
Residents of the city of Durham recently received a survey about a sexy topic: food waste and composting.<\/span><\/p>\n Composting can sometimes seem like the province of hippies and\/or actual farmers, but Durham\u2019s current strategic plan calls for the city to evaluate ways to increase residential composting. The compost survey, which will be open to residents until the end of May, is the first step in that process. Muriel Williman, the senior assistant manager with the City\u2019s Solid Waste Management Department, is leading that effort.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>We want to take the temperature of our city\u2014compost humor\u2014to see what type of services would really work. Would people be willing to pay for it? Can we do a subscription-based program? And so on,\u201d Williman said. \u201cThe pilot will be designed, hopefully, to construct a program that is accessible and that works.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Looking through my own kitchen trash can, to the distress of my roommates, revealed that food waste makes up about a fifth of our apartment\u2019s trash: eggshells, fruit peels, asparagus stems, avocado skins and pits, piles of coffee grounds, and a decaying bunch of aspirational cilantro could all be sent to a composting facility instead. <\/span><\/p>\n For Durham, that\u2019s a pretty typical breakdown of household waste. A 2015 city \u201c<\/span>Waste Characterization Study<\/span><\/a>\u201d found that around 30 percent of Durham residential trash sent to landfills is \u201cfood and soiled paper,\u201d both of which could be composted instead. If food waste were its own country, it would be <\/span>the third largest emitter<\/span><\/a> of greenhouse gases, after China and the U.S., according to the United Nations. Most food waste in the U.S. occurs at the <\/span>consumer<\/span><\/a> level, rather than during food harvest, processing, or even sales.<\/span><\/p>\n Durham waste management\u2019s goal is to reduce the weight of city garbage by 10 percent within three years. After reducing the amount of trash we produce in the first place, compost and recycling are the two most obvious options. <\/span><\/p>\n The city government isn\u2019t alone. A growing number of local people are already composting, either in their backyard or using a service. CompostNow, a Raleigh-based community composting company, serves more than 2,600 Triangle residents, up from 639 members in 2017, according to Kat Nigro, who is the company\u2019s head of marketing and engagement. (She previously worked at Tilthy Rich, a bicycle-focused composter that CompostNow bought in 2018.)<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>I think composting is stepping out from the shadows of something your grandfather did or something crazy hippies do, and now it’s kind of stepping into mainstream culture. I think it’s having its moment right now,\u201d Nigro said. \u201cOur members are really vocal about the value of composting and they are not afraid to share it with their neighbors or their school, or get their office on board, and it’s been really amazing to see.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n CompostNow has diverted a little more than 4,000 tons of Triangle trash from landfills since 2011, but according to <\/span>WRAL<\/span><\/a>, Durham County produced <\/span>285,477 tons of waste in 2015, with a population of 297,219 people. In other words, we each produced approximately ten times our own weight in trash. But of course, not everyone produces the same amount of trash.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>The people who are contributing to climate change the most are the more privileged affluent communities, but unfortunately the people who are going to feel the effects of climate change first are going to be the lower-income communities. So that discrepancy is obviously on my mind,\u201d Nigro said. \u201cSome people look at us and say, \u2018You guys charge for the service?\u2019 and we say, yes, we have to charge for the service because of where we’re at with waste management right now. it’s still cheaper to throw away things, that’s the bottom line.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n CompostNow costs around $29 per month for weekly pickup. But in Durham, trash pickup is paid for by taxes and has no additional fee, though residents can pay $7.50 a month for weekly yard-waste pickup. It\u2019s those customers who would most likely be targeted by the pilot program, Williman said. Of the 20,000 current subscribers, about 10 percent might have the opportunity to also add their food waste as<\/span> as a test of potential curbside compost collection.<\/span><\/p>\n Williman hopes to design a program which is not only functional but accessible to all residents. The composting survey is offered in English and Spanish to help reach different communities in the city.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe want to make sure this program is accessible to people that come from different demographics\u2014maybe English is not their first language, maybe they’ve never composted before, maybe they’re in a lower economic bracket than someone with a college education who has property and has been composting forever,\u201d Williman said.<\/span><\/p>\n