City Taps Community Composter Network and Infrastructure

This case study was originally published in Keep Compost Local, a report offering survey data, case studies, and policy recommendations to equip governments to collaborate with local composters and foster community prosperity.  

Municipality and Interviewee: Los Angeles Sanitation and Environment, James Roska, Environmental Engineer, Solid Resources Support Services Division

Community Composter: LA Compost (Michael Martinez, Founder and former Executive Director; Gina Vollono, Senior Operations & Special Projects Manager; Maggie Smart McCabe, Compost Hubs Program Manager; and Ryan Jackson, Executive Director)

Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs)

The Los Angeles Sanitation and Environment (LASAN) Department, in collaboration with LA Compost, applied for and received two U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Composting for Food Waste Reduction (CFWR) grants. LA Compost, founded in 2013, manages food scraps drop-off sites and composting hubs in the City of Los Angeles and other jurisdictions in Los Angeles County. It uses a model of decentralized community composting hubs that are “maintained and enjoyed by activated community members.”

The first grant, for $85,800 (2021-2023), was used to expand LA Compost’s existing farmers’ market drop-off sites from two locations to five additional farmers’ markets in the city. The grant also funded the construction of a Regional Compost Hub in Griffith Park, which is operated by LA Compost under an Agreement with the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks (LARAP) Department. Food scraps collected from Los Angeles farmers’ markets are composted at this Compost Hub. LASAN collaborated with LARAP to create the Hub. The USDA grant funds supported the development of one additional Regional Compost Hub, which was completed and became operational after the grant period. Funds from the City’s Board of Public Works were used to supplement the first USDA grant for an additional ten farmers’ market locations and three Regional Compost Hubs. The total funding from the first USDA grant and the City’s matched funding was equivalent to $990,000 for this first agreement.

The second grant, awarded in 2024 for $400,000 and ending in 2026, builds on the drop-off and Regional Compost Hub programs created via the 2021 USDA CFWR grant. The grant funds are enabling LASAN and LA Compost to collaborate in supporting the existing locations and adding five farmers’ markets and one Regional Hub, for a total of 20 farmers’ market drop-off sites and six Regional Compost Hub sites. This brings the total to 26 food scraps reduction and composting locations in the City of Los Angeles. The markets are open multiple days during the week in addition to weekends.

Municipal Motivation

Since LA Compost was founded in 2013, the nonprofit organization has steadily and successfully built awareness about composting, use of compost, and why food scraps need to be diverted from the landfill. Its established presence in many neighborhoods in the City of Los Angeles (and elsewhere in Los Angeles County) made LA Compost an obvious partner in the City’s USDA CFWR grant applications. “LASAN has leaned very heavily on LA Compost to do outreach and education at the markets, and it has been very effective,” notes James Roska.

To comply with the requirements of California’s SB 1383 law, the Short-Term Climate Pollutant Reduction Act, in 2022 LASAN launched OrganicsLA, a curbside organics recycling program. Households already had a green cart for yard trimmings and were instructed to add all of their food scraps and soiled paper to the carts. By January 2023, LASAN had expanded organics collection to all 750,000 single-family residents and multi-family units up to four units in the city. The City offered residents a free kitchen pail for their food scraps. The pails were made available at distribution sites for pre-registered households, and in the summer of 2023, LASAN began dropping them off directly to residents.

LA Compost also helped the City distribute kitchen pails at the farmers’ markets. “Being a distribution point helped a lot with community outreach for OrganicsLA,” explains Maggie Smart McCabe at LA Compost. “People didn’t have a grasp of what food scraps composting was, so engaging them at the farmers’ markets was very helpful to the City.” Adds Roska: “The LA Compost drop-off sites at the farmers’ markets were a natural point of contact to engage with residents about food scraps composting.”

Multifamily buildings are required to contract directly with a hauler to collect food scraps from their tenants. For buildings that are not yet compliant, the ability for residents to bring their food scraps to the drop-off locations is also a benefit to the City. In addition to locations at the markets, LA Compost has a drop-off spot at a large community garden that it operates.

In September 2021, LARAP and LA Compost officially launched the Griffith Park Regional Compost Hub; it has since been operational for food scraps processing, community education, and volunteer opportunities for community members. In addition to Griffith, two more Regional Compost Hubs have launched (Sepulveda Garden Center in the San Fernando Valley and the Audubon Center at Ernest E Debs Regional Park in Northeast LA), with three more on the way. “Having the additional capacity will enable us to be more directly involved with managing food recovery donations that are not edible,” notes Gina Vollono at LA Compost. “At the farmers’ markets, we assist with capturing edible food for community kitchens, and can start to divert food items that are no longer edible. It is an interesting opportunity for LA Compost.”

Contract Agreements

LASAN uses a Letter of Agreement as its contracting mechanism. Funds for the work LA Compost does under the two USDA grants are paid by LASAN, which in turn is reimbursed by the granting agency. Contracting with community-based organizations like LA Compost for services outside of grant funds “depends on what money is available for a budget year and the City’s interest and ability to execute it,” notes Roska.

LA Compost has a separate contract with LARAP, signed in 2021. It was originally for a two-year term, but in 2023, it was extended for one additional year. In its request to the Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners in April 2023 to extend the contract, LARAP noted that since the Hub launched in September 2021, “roughly 8,000 pounds of organic material per week were diverted at the Compost Hub, generating roughly 800 pounds of finished compost per month. In the first year of the Compost Hub, LA Compost was able to divert 415,986 pounds of organic material, equaling 371.95 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) diverted from the atmosphere … Since the Compost Hub opened, LA Compost has served a weekly average of 365 households at these collection locations.”

LA Compost’s contract with LARAP is essentially a “Right of Entry” agreement to access the parks, rather than having a lease for each Hub. LARAP provides keys to unlock the park gates. In addition, the contract includes a one- to two-year trial period where LA Compost needs to prove it is a good steward, not causing litter, noise, odors, or attracting vectors, and being open during hours that suit the neighborhood where the Hub is located. “Once we prove we are good partners and neighbors, then LARAP executes a 10-year Right of Entry agreement,” explains Michael Martinez, founder and former Executive Director of LA Compost. “The key is to not get complaints and to create an understanding of the role of composting in City parks.”

He adds that none of the parcels of parkland identified as Compost Hubs are duplicative. “One could be 0.25 acres for a small aerated static pile system, and another could be 8,000 square feet that could accommodate 3-bin systems as well as serve as a demonstration site for other methods of composting. Ultimately, our goal is to have the Compost Hubs equally distributed around the city. Certain areas, like South Central and Southeast Los Angeles, are not as park-heavy, but we still want to create something inclusive.”

Composting Activity

LA Compost uses passively aerated static piles, turned windrows, and 3-bin hot composting methods to process food scraps at its 14 Compost Hubs (separate from the Regional Compost Hubs) located at community gardens and urban farms, schools, parks, and parking lots in Los Angeles and surrounding communities. None are on municipally owned land. LA Compost leads site maintenance at most of the Hubs; it also provides resources, tools, and is available to conduct training. Food scraps accepted are vegetative only, along with food-soiled paper and egg shells.

Over the years, LA Compost has procured four electric bucket loaders to use at its composting sites. Sustainable Generation, a compost system vendor, donated a small GORE system to trial at one of the locations. Currently, the organization has a high-roof Sprinter van, several smaller vans, and a stake bed truck with a lift gate; none are ideal as its farmers’ markets program expands.

Outreach & Education

LASAN has a webpage for food scraps drop-off at the farmers’ markets and will do outreach via social media when an event is happening or when a new farmers’ market opens, says Roska. Outreach is done in partnership with LA Compost. At community events, outreach about the drop-off program at the farmers’ markets is directed to multifamily households whose buildings might not offer food scraps collection.

LA Compost offers a wide range of outreach and education related to composting. For instance, its Community Soil Health initiative offers accessible educational programming and technical resources on using sensory observation, microscopy, and other basic lab tests to study compost and soil. They are connecting composting to soil science and community health through offerings such as hands-on soil health workshops, Magic Soil Bus youth programming, and educational guides (such as the Soil Health Discovery Guide and Soil + Soul Healing Toolkit: Compost Issue).

Compost Markets

Most of the compost produced at LA Compost’s Hubs goes back to its members (individuals who sign up and volunteer at its composting sites) on distribution days for use in their gardens, at schools, and in green spaces. “We also give out compost samples in small bags at the farmers’ markets, for example, at each change of season, e.g., spring equinox, winter solstice,” says Smart McCabe. “We also have people coming to the markets if they missed one of our regular distribution days.”

Costs & Benefits: Los Angeles Sanitation and Environment

LA Compost’s assistance in distributing kitchen countertop pails for the City’s curbside program was a significant benefit to LASAN. “We were distributing the pails at Sanitation’s facilities, public libraries, and other municipal buildings,” explains Roska. “We spoke with LA Compost about helping to get more pails out. As our partner managing the drop-off programs, they were willing to distribute them at the farmers’ markets, along with our educational materials.” More broadly, he adds, “one of the benefits of working with a community partner is that they have an existing and expanding rapport in the communities they are servicing. The City goes to community events and neighborhood council meetings, but LA Compost has its own relationships with community members.”

Cost savings resulting from the public-private partnership are difficult to quantify, says Roska. The City traditionally looks at the costs associated with collection and tipping at disposal or processing facilities, and the savings gained. “We see cost savings in the community engagement and educational aspects, but those are harder to quantify,” he notes. “For example, do we base it on the number of interactions with residents? What we do know is that these communal interactions bring more awareness in general about the environment and sustainability. That is the way the City sees benefits. We are supporting a local nonprofit and keeping the work — and job creation — local. Grant funding enables more pilot-scale programs to expand. In our case, having community-based organizations makes it possible for the City to collaborate on grant applications.”

And the proof is in the food scraps collected and the compost produced. From October 2022 to December 2024, 610,000 pounds of food scraps were dropped off at the City’s farmers’ markets.

Costs & Benefits: LA Compost

Starting small and “growing to where LA Compost has become legitimate in the City’s eyes” is a huge accomplishment that the organization has achieved, says Vollono. “I’ve witnessed the ripple effect and product of partnerships that make it possible for people to participate. It is amazing to watch people in suits show up to help turn a pile!”

In addition, notes Smart McCabe, LA Compost is one of the few organizations that creates opportunities for people to get involved with and maintain their local parks. “A lot of people who haven’t grown up near a park are able to get involved with maintaining a park,” she says. “We have created a very good foundation to literally bring people together and build soil.”

From an operations perspective, staff and overhead are by far LA Compost’s largest costs. In 2018, the organization had six employees; today it has close to 30, with approximately 1,500 members. Funding from grants provides roughly 70% of its operating capital. “We’ve grown a lot, mostly due to partnerships and municipal funding,” says Vollono. In 2024, LA Compost collected and diverted a little over 2,000 tons, including food scraps, mulch, sawdust, and horse stable bedding.

PPP Lessons Learned

LASAN: The public-private partnership with LA Compost has been enabled by the grant funds, notes Roska. “We don’t have a standing line item to do these kinds of partnerships. The grant funds are very helpful to kickstart the process.” He adds that LASAN’s situation is somewhat unique because it had been in discussions with LA Compost about collaborations for many years and was aware of the work it does — increasing local composting and working with community gardens. “For a successful public-private partnership, it’s necessary to find the right partner with the ability to conduct the work as well as have a vision and scope of work that aligns with each other’s goals so it is sustainable for all,” he adds. “Once the proper partner is identified and an agreement gets put in place making it official, the collaboration that ensues highlights each other’s skills and capacities. The collaborative effort helps all parties succeed at a citywide level and at a hyperlocal level.”

LA Compost: LA Compost is establishing public-private partnerships with other municipalities in Los Angeles County, including the City of Glendale and the City of Culver City. “The proposals offer different options to meet each City’s goals,” says Martinez. “In Glendale, we received a three-year contract to create and manage three community-sized compost hubs and provide staff at the City’s farmers’ market for food scraps drop-off. The contract also has funding for outreach and education. In another instance, we are only doing staffing for farmers’ markets.”

He adds that the LARAP Right-to-Entry model could be duplicated in other municipalities as a tool for land access for small composting operations. LA Compost has been in conversations with CalRecycle, the state agency that sets regulations for food scrap composting operations, about creating a permit tier for community/park-size sites. Currently, the allowance is limited to less than 100 cubic yards of materials for composting on-site at any one time within a 750-square-foot area.

More Information

• LA Compost website
• LA Compost Farmers’ Market Collections website
• LASAN Farmers’ Market Drop-Off website
• Growing Communities Through Compost In The City of Los Angeles, USDA CFWR Project Description
• ILSR Podcast: The Learning Is In the Doing (feat. LA Compost)
• ILSR Webinar: Using & Selling Compost from Community Sites (feat. LA Compost)
• ILSR Webinar: Scaling Up Local Circular Composting (feat. LA Compost)
• Compost and Soil Microscopy Mini-Course

Featured Photo: Community Compost Day LA group photo. Credit: LA Compost