Are you a local government interested in reducing and recycling wasted food and curious to learn how you can help spur community-scale composting? Or perhaps you are a community-oriented composter or micro hauler searching for public-private partnerships. This webinar series is for you!
Listen to these recorded webinars to learn how cities are providing community-scale composting with a wide range of support including:
- Establishing community composting at urban gardens,
- Training community members on how to compost successfully,
- Funding equipment for small sites,
- Funding staff at existing nonprofit organizations,
- Incorporating community composting into climate action strategies and other plans,
- Granting access to land, and
- Awarding major contracts for curbside and drop-off food scraps collection.
These webinars are among the resources the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) offers to support a distributed and diverse composting infrastructure that includes community-scale and on-farm composting.
To view and listen to our other past composting-related webinar recordings, click HERE.
WEBINAR SCHEDULE & REGISTRATION
The registration fee to view each webinar recording is $20. Participation in this series is free for local government, farmers, and members of our Community Composter Coalition. The webinar recordings are made available immediately upon registration.
Fee: $20 per webinar
Free for Community Composter Coalition members! (use code CCC)
Free for local government! (use code LOCGOV)
Free for farmers! (use code FARMER)
Thursday, June 22nd, 1 – 2:30 p.m. ET
Census of Community Composters: Key Findings, Challenges & Future Outlook
Are you interested in learning about the growing community composting movement, its benefits, potential for growth, and how you help spur community-scale composting? Or perhaps you are a funder looking to invest in food waste recycling solutions that benefit underserved communities and promote local circular economies. Register for this webinar to hear the highlights of ILSR’s recent report, A Growing Movement: 2022 Community Composter Census, the first census of community composters to track the nature and growth of this sector, identify its key challenges, and demonstrate its benefits. The report found that community composting is rapidly growing with remarkable job creation potential and other benefits to a broad community base, including traditionally marginalized populations. Yet, despite these benefits, challenges remain: scaling up operations, funding and financing, access to land, and lack of adequately sized equipment, to name a few.
This webinar will feature a presentation from lead author Clarissa Libertelli, followed by a moderated panel discussion addressing key challenges to growth and what’s needed to support future innovation and investment. The panel includes representatives from local government and community composting.
Presenter & Panelists:
- Clarissa Libertelli, Coordinator, Community Composter Coalition, Institute for Local Self-Reliance
- Kourtnii Brown, Co-Founder, California Alliance of Community Composting
- Sophia Hosain, Zero Waste Manager, Baltimore City Department of Public Works
- Sandy Briggs, Sustainability Program Manager, City of Boulder Climate Initiatives
- J. Olu Baiyewu, Urban Agriculture Director, City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Sustainability and Resilience
- Caroline Vance, Capital, Innovation, & Engagement Director, ReFED
MORE INFORMATION HERE
Wednesday, April 19th, 1 – 2:30 p.m. ET
Government Support for Community Composting Part 5: Food-Scrap Drop-Off Partnerships with Local Government
Are you a local government interested in reducing and recycling wasted food and curious to learn how you can help spur community-scale composting? Or perhaps you are a community-oriented composter, farmer, or micro hauler searching for public-private partnerships. In this webinar, Sashti Balasundaram, Founder of WeRadiate, will share case studies from Western New York – the City of Buffalo, Town of Amherst, and Erie County – in which local community composters and volunteers advocate and work alongside elected officials to bring forth change. He will be joined by representatives from three local governments.
Presenters:
- Sashti Balasundaram, Founder, WeRadiate, New York
- John Szalasny, Chair, Recycling and Waste Citizens Advisory Committee, Town of Amherst, New York
- Gary Carrel, Solid Waste Recycling Specialist, Environment & Planning, Erie County, New York
- Danielle Rovillo, Project Coordinator, Department of Health, Office of Health Equity, Erie County, New York
More information and how to access the recording HERE
Thursday, October 27th, 1 – 2:30 p.m. ET
Government Support for Community Composting Part 4: A Menu of Options – Zoning, Grants, and Contracts
Join this webinar to hear a menu of options on how urban, rural, and suburban governments are supporting on-farm and community composting. San Diego County has changed its zoning to facilitate decentralized composting sites. Many jurisdictions in the San Diego region have contracted with the Solana Center for Environmental Innovation, resulting in the spread of on-farm and other local composting. Across the country in rural Vermont, the Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District has seeded Neighborhood Compost Pods in collaboration with a local town and local farmer. And in an urban city, under contract with the City of Albany, an urban ecojustice and ecological literacy nonprofit is composting food scraps to regenerate urban soils.
Presenters:
- Tyler Farmer, Planning Manager, Sustainability Planning Division, San Diego County
- Jessica Toth, Executive Director, Solana Center for Environmental Innovation, San Diego
- Lisa Liotta, General Manager, Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District, Vermont
- Scott Kellogg, Educational Director, The Radix Ecological Sustainability Center, Albany, New York)
More information and how to access the recording HERE
Wednesday, May 4th, 1 – 2:30 p.m. ET
Government Support for Community Composting Part 1: Spotlight on New York City
The NYC Compost Project, created by the NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY) in 1993, works to rebuild NYC’s soils by providing New Yorkers with the knowledge, skills, and opportunities they need to produce and use compost locally. NYC Compost Project programs are carried out by teams of DSNY-funded staff at several partner organizations including Big Reuse, Earth Matter NY, LES Ecology Center. DSNY also supports a NYC Compost Project Master Composter Certificate Course, and many program graduates have gone on to cultivate community composting in the city.
Presenters:
- Debra Sheintoch, Director of Compost Programs and Partnerships, NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY)
- Renee Crowley, Deputy Director, Lower East Side Ecology Center
- Devin Reitsma, Project Manager, The New York City Compost Project Hosted by Big Reuse
More information and how to access the recording HERE
Wednesday, June 8th, 1 – 2:30 p.m. ET
Government Support for Community Composting Part 2: Food Scrap Collectors & Composters with Municipal Contracts
Micro haulers and community-scale composters need government support to sustain their business models. How can I position my company to win a municipal contract? How can I get access to public land for my activities? How can I convince my local government to support my business over large-sized operations? If you relate to these questions, join this webinar to hear directly from food scrap collectors and composters who have secured some type of private-public partnership. If you represent local government, attend this event to learn how you can directly support local food scrap recovery businesses.
Presenters:
- Jeremy Brosowsky, Compost Cab
- Ben Parry, Compost Crew
- Justen Garrity, Veteran Compost
- Eileen Banyra, Community Compost Co.
- Andrew Brousseau, Black Earth Compost
More information and how to access the recording HERE
Thursday, June 23rd, 1 – 2:30 p.m. ET
Government Support for Community Composting Part 3: Cities and Counties with Public-Private Partnerships
Join this webinar to hear from select jurisdictions which are providing a wide range of support for community-scale composting activities, from building concrete pads under 3-bin systems and granting right of entries to urban parks to awarding RFPs for new compost sites.
Presenters:
- Krista Kuehnhackl, Sustainability Coordinator, County of San Mateo Office of Sustainability, California
- Ash Richards, Director of Urban Agriculture, Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, Pennsylvania
- Luisa Robles, Recycling Coordinator, Public Works, Greenbelt, Maryland
- Sonny Von Tiedemann, Recycling Specialist, Department of General Services, City of Albany, New York
- Adam Michaelides, Cornell Cooperative Extension Tompkins County, New York
More Information and how to access the recording HERE
