Composting for Community

Composting for Community

By Composting for CommunitySociety & Culture
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Composting for Community episodes

  • The Transformative Power of Dirt: Green Reentry Through Composting with Victor Perez and Carla Doughty
    In this episode of the Composting for Community Podcast, ILSR’s Jordan Ashby is joined by recipients of ILSR’s 2024 Composting for Community Mini-Grant Program, Victor Perez, compost educator at Garden Time, and Carla Doughty, Executive Director of Zero Waste Providence.
    Garden Time, Inc. prepares incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals for the plant-based green industry workforce, equipping traditionally underserved populations with the skills, self-confidence, and support they need to successfully transition to long-term employment and productive life in the community. This grant funded their Green Reentry Job Training program, through which graduates, like Victor, work in their communities to spread the message that composting is for everyone. Partner organization Zero Waste Providence provides canvassing training and technical assistance as these outreach interns acquire new skills and workforce competence.
    In this episode, they discuss Victor’s transformative experience through composting in Garden Time’s Green Reentry Job Training program, and the value of this experience for performing outreach and education tailored to the specific needs of the community.
    In this episode, Jordan, Carla, and Victor discuss:
    - The powerful role composting played for Victor while incarcerated, and the transformative power of composting for mental health and personal growth
    - The importance of having compost educators who reflect the community they’re reaching
    - The impact of these initiatives on economic empowerment and environmental sustainability
    - The wide network of community organizations in Providence and the importance of collaboration rather than competition
    - The importance of funding for local composting and reentry programs, and the outsized impact of these programs
    The 2025 Composting for Community Mini-Grant Program is now accepting applications.
    The Program supports new or existing local community composters in New England coastal states and – for the first time – New York City. The Mini-Grant Program focuses in particular on historically underserved communities, including Native Nations and neighborhoods affected by discrimination and exclusion. We invite applications from projects originating in these communities, including BIPOC-led or BIPOC-serving organizations.
    To learn more about the BIPOC Mini-Grant Program, visit:
    https://ilsr.org/articles/2025-composting-grants/
    For the full transcript and info, visit ilsr.org.
    https://ilsr.org/articles/transformative-power-of-dirt
    41 min
  • “They Can’t Compete with Community”: How One Oklahoma Composter is Building Alternatives to Big Waste (ft. Terry Craghead)
    In this episode, Terry Craghead, founder and CEO of Fertile Ground Cooperative, joins ILSR’s host Jordan Ashby on the Composting for Community podcast to share how Fertile Ground went from competing on Big Waste’s terms to creating a new set of terms altogether.
    Since 2011, Fertile Ground Cooperative has been creating local jobs, educating their community, strengthening neighborhood ties, and building local resilience while competing in a highly concentrated waste management landscape. Operating as a worker-owned cooperative model that places decision-making power in the hands of workers, Fertile Ground stands in stark contrast to Oklahoma City monopoly waste companies.
    In this episode, Terry and Jordan discuss:
    - The democratic and economic value of worker-owned cooperative structure for Fertile Ground Cooperative, and how the puts decision making power in the hands of workers.
    - Big Waste’s chokehold on the waste stream and the challenges – such as contamination and lower-quality customer service – of subcontracting with Waste Management.
    - How Fertile Ground Cooperative broke free from Waste Management and is now winning contracts through partnering with other local businesses.
    - Meeting customers where they are and providing education and outreach to raise awareness of the benefits of composting.
    Fertile Ground is proving that small-scale, locally driven solutions can have a big impact. Their alternative worker-owned model not only diverts food waste but also challenges the status quo, and nurtures a more just, circular economy — one compost pile at a time.
    Related Resources:
    Transforming Your Community’s Waste to Wealth: Infographics
    https://ilsr.org/articles/transforming-communitys-waste-to-wealth/
    For the full transcript, visit ilsr.org.
    https://ilsr.org/articles/terry-craghead
    36 min
  • Lessons Learned from Vermont’s Universal Recycling Law (ft. Natasha Duarte)
    On May 16, 2012, Vermont passed Act 148, creating a first-of-its-kind Universal Recycling Law. This historic law requires three categories of material to be separated and recycled: “blue bin” recyclables (such as plastics, paper, and glass), leaf and yard debris, and food scraps. The food diversion requirement was phased in from 2014 to 2020, beginning with the largest generators with closest proximity to a facility and ending with all generators regardless of location in the state. 
    This law presented a huge win for the organics recycling movement and has since served as a model for legislators and advocates across the country. At the same time, implementation of depackager technology, the rise of monopoly waste company Casella Waste Systems, and contamination concerns have presented challenges and learning opportunities that are still being grappled with in Vermont. 
    In this episode, Natasha Duarte, Director of the Composting Association of Vermont (CAV) discusses these successes and challenges, and shares lessons for other policymakers and advocates to consider when writing and implementing similar legislation.  
    Tune in to learn about:
    The importance of a clear hierarchy of best and highest use for wasted food.
    The positive impact of Universal Recycling on the charitable food system. 
    The challenges depackager technology has presented in Vermont, including contamination and environmental justice concerns. 
    The importance of source separation and maintaining high quality waste streams. 
    Local composting’s role in raising social awareness and changing consumer behavior. 
    Monopoly power in the waste industry, and why scale matters.
    The importance of value-oriented legislation that anticipates future technology.
    For related resources and full transcript, visit: ilsr.org/articles/lessons-learned-from-vermonts-universal-recycling-law
    44 min
  • Building Waste Equity at NYC Public Housing (ft. Domingo Morales)
    How can we ensure composting is made accessible for all communities? How can composters implement the highest standards possible to prevent rodents in those communities? And what questions do the recent cuts to the NYC Compost Project raise that all composting advocates should be considering?
    In this episode of the Composting for Community Podcast, we are joined by Domingo Morales, founder of Compost Power, a New York City composting organization that builds sustainable community compost sites across NYC with an emphasis on underserved and marginalized communities. Out of nine total sites, eight are at public housing, providing all residents with access to waste equity, sustainable education, and job training.
    In this episode, you’ll hear Domingo discuss: 
    -How he brought community composting sites to public housing residents, and his personal experience that inspired him. 
    -Closing the loop as a community composter and the educational impact of composting in food apartheid communities. 
    -Eliminating rodents and his “diamond standard” composting management practices that have led to Compost Power being named integrated pest management solutions by the New York Public Housing Authority.
    -The rise and fall of the government-funded New York City Compost Project, and the future of composting in New York (which ILSR also wrote about).
    -How art and music can be used to promote composting and reach new audiences.
    Related Resources:
    Three NYC Composting Failures That Reflect Troubling National Trends
    https://ilsr.org/articles/nyc-failures-reflect-national-trends/
    New York Times Profile: The Unlikely Ascent of New York’s Compost Champion
    https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/13/climate/domingo-morales-composting-nyc.html
    For the full transcript, visit ilsr.org.
    https://ilsr.org/articles/building-waste-equity-at-public-housing-in-nyc
    53 min
  • Community Composting’s Untapped Potential for Local Zero Waste & Climate Resilience Efforts (feat. Kourtnii Brown)

    In this episode of the Composting for Community Podcast, we are joined by Kourtnii Brown, founder and director of Common Compost (Oakland, California) and CEO of the California Alliance for Community Composting. We discuss the immense potential of community composting to scale up and meet diversion goals based on the findings of the Community Composting for Green Spaces (CCGS) 2021/22 pilot program.… Read More

    32 min
  • Community Composter versus Incinerator in South Florida

    What do we lose when we no longer have control over what happens to the waste we produce? In this episode of the Composting for Community Podcast, we speak to Melissa Corichi of Let It Rot, a community composting business in Palm Beach County in South Florida about her battle against the incinerators in her community.

    34 min
  • Composting for Food Sovereignty in Atlanta

    What role does composting play in subverting barriers to local food sovereignty? In this episode of the Composting for Community Podcast, we are joined by Khari Diop, an environmental educator, food security activist, and fifth-generation food grower from Atlanta.

    23 min
  • Catalyzing Greater Equity Through Composting

    How can a community reeling from multiple economic shocks use composting as a tool to build a more resilient food system? ILSR’s Linda Bilsens Brolis talks to Renee V. Wallace of Detroit about composting as a tool for building equity and solving big challenges.

    45 min
  • Through Pedal-Power, Community Composters Cultivate Deeper Connections with their Community
    In this episode, host Sophia Hosain is joined by Composting for Community’s intern Alondra Sierra and Elinor Crescenzi, an activist, organizer, and a founding member of the Food Cycle Collective in Pomona, California. Elinor talks about Pomona’s collaborative community composting movement and the power that bike-hauling has to build meaningful connections in the community. 
    Listen to the full episode and explore more resources below — including a transcript and summary of the conversation. https://ilsr.org/articles/pedal-power-composting/
    37 min

About Composting for Community

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Stories from on the ground and in the soil. Across the country, the community composting movement is growing! Local composting provides immediate opportunities for reducing waste, improving soil…

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