What does local composting look like in places with lower population density? How do you conduct successful education and outreach in small towns?
Rural communities face a unique set of challenges and opportunities when it comes to local composting. In this webinar, you’ll hear successful strategies and lessons learned from diverse perspectives, including a local government, a tribal program, and a collaborative regional network of composters. The three panelists – Jennifer Perry of River Valley Regeneratives and Co-Founder of Compost For Good (N.Y.), Lindsey Walker of Emmet County Recycling (Mich.), and Gatgyeda Haayk of the Metlakatla Indian Community Composting program (Alaska) – will cover everything from outreach to operations in programs ranging from residential drop-off to commercial collection.
If you’re involved in an existing rural composting initiative or interested in supporting composting in your community, this webinar is for you!
Registration is $20.
Free registration is available for government affiliates, farmers, members of tribal communities, educators, and members of the Community Composter Coalition (CCC). Government affiliates should use the discount code GOV, farmers should use FARMER, K-12 educators and schools should use EDU, tribal community members should use TRIBE, and CCC members should use CCC at checkout for free registration.
A recording will be made available to registrants.
Note: AI companions (including notetakers and assistants) are not permitted at this event. We ask that you disable your AI companions before joining the live meeting.
Gatgyeda Haayk, Head – Metlakatla Indian Community Composting Program at S’ndooyntgm Galts’ap Community Garden (Alaska)
Gatgyeda Haayk (Got-Gyed-Duh Hiike) is from Metlakatla and a mother of four beautiful human beings. Gatgyeda has been the community garden champion at the Metlakatla Indian Community S’ndooyntgm Galts’ap Community Garden for the past 9 years. Gatgyeda also created the composting program and is expanding it to a community-wide collection program with the hopes of generating enough compost to sell to the lower Southeast Alaska region to sustain the program.
Jennifer Perry, Owner and Co-Founder – River Valley Regeneratives and Compost For Good (N.Y.)
Jennifer Perry is a co-founder, project manager, and grant writer for Compost for Good (CFG) in the N.Y. North Country. CFG provides support for community-scale composting initiatives through technical assistance, microscopy consultations, guidance documents, educational videos, peer-to-peer connections, grant assistance, and more. Jennifer also co-owns and operates River Valley Regeneratives – a food scrap hauling, composting, and market garden business in the Adirondack Mountains where she and her partner have diverted 2.5 million pounds of food scraps to soil-enriching compost.
Lindsey Walker, Market Development, Commercial Accounts, and Recycling Outreach – Emmet County Recycling (Mich.)
Lindsey currently holds a position in Market Development, Commercial Accounts and Recycling Outreach at Emmet County Recycling. She is also an elected official in her hometown of Petoskey, having been elected to City Council in November 2018. She holds a master’s degree in International Development and Management from the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont. Lindsey will be speaking from the perspective of a local government commercial collection and drop-off program in a rural county.
Clarissa Libertelli, Manager – Community Composter Coalition, Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR)
As Coalition Manager, Clarissa supports networking, knowledge-sharing, and collective problem-solving within a network of over 450 community composters and supporters. She also works to promote community composting through resource and funding development, creative storytelling, and convening ILSR’s National Cultivating Community Composting Forum. Clarissa received her B.A. in Environmental Studies and Political Science at the University of Vermont.
Together with our broader library of composting-related webinar recordings, this event supports the growth of a distributed and diverse composting infrastructure that includes community-scale and on-farm systems.
An interactive question-and-answer session with leading compost professionals.
A webinar featuring lessons learned and tips for replication from community-oriented composters in partnership with local governments.
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.
A snapshot of the operations, diversion, community impacts, finances, government partnerships, and contamination rates of this distinct and often underrepresented slice of the composting sector.