Linda Bilsens Brolis, project manger at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, processes food waste to create compost at the Howard University Community Compost Cooperative. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)
City planners envision a future in the nation’s capital where every household is provided government-issued bins for organic waste alongside recycling and trash bins. A truck would pick up food and yard scraps at the curb once a week and transport them to a composting site inside the city limits.
District officials estimate that with curbside pickup, about 148,000 tons of organic waste could be composted annually — about 60 percent of the food and yard waste generated in the city each year. As a bonus, it would create a nutrient-rich soil additive for growing food and plants. …
Brenda Platt, co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance — a District-based national nonprofit that has pushed for composting programs — said the success of a wide-scale composting program depends on education. She urged the city to establish more programs in schools to teach children the importance of composting, while ensuring residents understand how it helps the environment and how to get involved.
“It builds a culture of composting know-how in the community,” she said. “There’s also a connection between the schools and the curbside program: Young composters become adult composters.”
Nick Stumo-Langer was Communications Manager at ILSR working for all five initiatives. He ran ILSR's Facebook and Twitter profiles and builds relationships with reporters. He is an alumnus of St. Olaf College and animated by the concerns of monopoly power across our economy.
