Volunteer Network Expands Access to Composting and Community Engagement
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: Philadelphia Parks and Recreation,
Andrew Kirkpatrick, Urban Greening Coordinator, Farm Philly
Program Overview
Philadelphia launched its Community Compost Network (CCN) in 2019 as a partnership between the City’s Office of Sustainability and Department of Parks and Recreation (Parks & Rec) under its Farm Philly program. Originally inspired by the DC Department of Parks and Recreation Community Compost Cooperative Network, Park & Rec’s Director of Urban Agriculture, Ash Richards, developed the program further, and it continues to evolve beyond the original concept. The CCN currently consists of 20 sites across Philadelphia – a mix of community gardens, farms, and schools – where residents are invited to compost their food scraps and yard trimmings. The program began with 11 sites in 2019, added a second cohort of nine sites in 2024, and accepted applications for up to ten additional sites in 2025.
Farm Philly provides each site with a 3-bin composting system, educational materials, hands-on and virtual training, and tools and supplies at no cost. Since the beginning of the program, Farm Philly has collaborated with PowerCorpsPHL, a youth workforce development initiative, to construct the composting bins and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) for support with program design and composting educational materials and training. A list of existing CCN sites can be found on Farm Philly’s website.
Municipal Motivation
Philadelphia’s Food Policy Advisory Council tours DC compost sites. Credit: Philadelphia Urban Agriculture Office
In 2016, Philadelphia’s then mayor, Jim Kenney, signed the Zero Waste and Litter Executive Order, committing Philly to the goal of becoming 90% zero waste and diverting nearly all waste from incinerators and landfills by 2035. Kenney’s Zero Waste and Litter Cabinet determined that efforts curtailing food waste, such as composting, would be the most impactful way to begin meeting that goal. According to Farm Philly, the CCN “provides a grassroots approach to reducing waste [and] is having a direct impact on neighborhoods and landfills, and is making a new resource from which residents can benefit. Residents in the Network are actively reducing the amount of waste going to landfill, and directly contributing to the City’s litter free and recycling goals.”
According to Parks & Rec, reducing wasted food is its primary waste reduction target, and the CCN now plays an important role in creating more equitable access to composting in the city. The City does not currently have a curbside organics collection program, though there is an interesting historical precedent: from the 1930s to the 1990s, Philadelphia collected tens of thousands of tons of food scraps from residents each year and paid farmers in New Jersey to feed them to their pigs. At the time the CCN launched, food scrap composting options were limited: a small number of private collection services were operating (such as Bennett Compost and Circle Compost), and nonfarm onsite composting was not yet a permitted activity. Pennsylvania has since created a new permit tier to allow for small-scale composting of source-separated organics via General Permit WMGMO17. Now the CCN is part of a broader composting ecosystem that features exemplary public-private partnerships.
Compost bins under construction. Credit: Philadelphia Parks and Recreation
Compost bins under construction. Credit: Philadelphia Parks and Recreation
Volunteers mixing organics. Credit: Philadelphia Parks and Recreation
Composting Activity
CCN sites use a 3-bin composting system called the Compost Knox that was designed by Urban Farm Plans (which no longer exists). The system, which consists of three 4-foot modular cubes, was originally designed for the DC DPR Community Composting Cooperative Network to withstand “abuse,” such as youth climbing on the bins, and to deter rodents.
CCN sites sign a simple Memorandum of Understanding with the City that outlines expectations for program participants and roles and responsibilities for each party. Sites then receive necessary supplies, including thermometers, wheelbarrows, shovels, and ongoing support from Farm Philly. Participants must “be willing to accept food scraps at their site and/or local neighborhood and assemble a dedicated team of volunteers committed to expanding this grassroots network.” Each site determines how it wants to manage members and accept and process food waste onsite: some sites are only open to members, while others are open for drop-off on a regular schedule.
Outreach
According to its website: “Farm Philly seeks enthusiastic partners interested in collaborating with residents to provide a valuable public resource to their neighborhoods.” Sites must apply to qualify for participation in the CCN, but applications are open to any publicly accessible spaces, including community gardens, farms, parks, places of worship, schools, and recreation centers. In the 2025 expansion of the CCN program, Farm Philly is prioritizing neighborhoods not currently served by a CCN site in an effort to achieve equitable distribution of program resources.
The initial idea for the CCN grew out of a compost design competition hosted by the Philadelphia Food Policy Advisory Council (FPAC) Zero Waste Subcommittee in 2017. Its solicitation gave designers a tall order with the prospect of a $500 reward. Successful entrants needed to create a system that is enclosed, affordable, rodent- and weather-proof, easy to build and maintain, and scaled to accommodate a neighborhood’s waste. Despite 20 submissions, none of the designs were deemed appropriate. Members of the FPAC instead selected Urban Farm Plan’s Compost Knox, a design they had seen during a tour of the DC DPR Community Composting Cooperative Network the year prior.
Education
Before the CCN program began, various City agencies and staff learned about local composting models and sought lessons learned from other cities. Philadelphia FPAC toured the DC DPR Community Compost Cooperative in 2016. PPR has consulted with ILSR at various points in their development of the CCN program. ILSR has provided program design support and a variety of composting training and education resources, including hands-on and virtual training, site signage templates, a site agreement template, and other resources to assist sites training their own participants. Farm Philly now partners with Bennett Compost for hands-on training.
The importance of exposing prospective CCN site managers to basic training on composting best management practices has been a priority of the program since it began. In 2019, ILSR led a two-day in-depth, hands-on composting training for 20 individuals representing the 11 organizations that made up the CCN’s first cohort. The training covered the fundamentals of composting recipe development and compost pile building and management. Participants were asked to brainstorm and plan how they would compost at their specific sites. To re-engage these sites after the pandemic, ILSR hosted virtual technical support sessions, and Bennett Compost provided local hands-on training. Now, participants are provided with access to ILSR’s Community Composting 101 Online Certificate Course in addition to local hands-on workshops.
To further support local composting in the city, Philadelphia released its Philadelphia Community Compost Manual. The manual was written in collaboration with local composters and ILSR, with ILSR providing editing support and contributing key sections. It provides an accessible way for community groups, community gardens, or a collective of residents to take on environmental justice and waste in their neighborhoods by creating their own community-led composting sites.
Compost Markets
The CCN sites collect food scraps and turn them into compost for use in gardens, parks, and green spaces.
Costs & Benefits
Each 3-bin system costs roughly $1,500 in materials, plus $750 for additional tools and equipment. PowerCorps is contracted for $2,000 per bin to build and deliver to each site.
Farm Philly has one full-time staff position dedicated to CCN. Aside from this full-time personnel, the program costs approximately $6,000 per year to run the workshop and other related programs and meetings. Ideally, any city looking to start a compost program would budget for volunteer stipends to ensure long-term sustainability of the program and acknowledge the public benefit these sites provide.
In the City’s announcement of the 2024 expansion of the CCN program, it lists the following benefits of community composting: waste reduction, soil enrichment, street cleanliness, citywide impact, and accessibility.
Funding
Grants from private funders and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture initially funded the CCN. ILSR’s technical assistance was funded by various grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 3.
Lessons Learned
Keys to success include:
Having support from other local government agencies and building on momentum
Learning from another municipality (DC DPR)
Partnership for building bins via PowerCorps
Partnership to support program design and education via ILSR
Some other lessons learned:
Consider bin design to address repairs
A plan is needed for more grant funding to purchase supplies
Determine how to provide sites with adequate carbon (such as creating a leaf bank or delivering loads of wood chips)
Raise money to cover ground preparation for bin systems. The bins that were placed directly on the bare earth had problems with settling over time when they were fully loaded. Farm Philly now requires all sites to have either gravel or concrete pads in place before bins are delivered.
Visit all sites and meet with partners
Survey each site: Assess conditions and support each site so that they can follow program requirements
Provide repairs as needed with Farm Philly’s contractor
Work with partners to formulate action plans to get sites
reactivated
Conduct monthly meetings/check-ins with each site
Support recruiting volunteers
Support succession planning when leadership changes
Support with community engagement to involve nearby neighbors
Support to build out partnerships with other community stakeholders and/or local businesses
Provide signage if needed, and ensure each site has signage
If the site is struggling, but wishes to remain a partner, consider a six-month back-on-track period. Assess with each site if they have the capacity to run the community operation, or if they need support opening it up to local residents (e.g. sites should delegate this operation if they don’t have the capacity to run it)
If the site is unresponsive or no longer wishes to participate, create a plan to remove compost bins and decommission the site from the CCN
Host workshops and refreshers, based on sites’ interest and partner capacity
Host floating meetings at sites to build peer-to-peer relationships
Host the annual CCN gathering (summer)
Require sites to designate a dedicated site manager and at least two compost captains
This will help reinforce accountability around data collection and record management
Work with partners to refine membership models to ensure public access
Request each site update the status of public participation (e.g., is the site open to the public for drop-offs, how and when, or composting on site)
Mandatory community drop-off day if they are providing public access
Assess with Cohort 1 the cadence of this drop-off (e.g., once a week, 1 hour per week, etc.)
Establish a calendar of quarterly meetings to convene sites, share feedback, and recognize and celebrate achievements
Establish a pilot program for the delivery of compost and wood chips at the beginning of the season
Keep Compost Local: A Roadmap for Local Governments to Build Community Prosperity with Composting
A report providing guidance for municipalities to support and partner with local composting initiatives, meeting their composting targets while fostering myriad economic and cross-sectoral benefits.
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