In the trash can filled with food scraps from the week before, we layer in soil and bokashi until it’s full. For our compost rounds, we use wire fencing and recycled cardboard. We then empty the buckets into 20 gallon trash cans with holes in the bottom that allow for drainage, where the food will sit for another week.
Once our driver, Mel, has collected and weighed all the buckets, she heads back to the farm to process them. We have a small composting area nearby where it all takes place.Įvery Wednesday, we load up the truck with clean buckets and bokashi and make our route through Waialua, Haleiwa and Pupukea. It’s a beautiful 33 acre farm across the street from the beach, nestled in a mountain that grows ulu (breadfruit), fruit trees, veggies, greens, edible flowers and so much more. Tell us about the farm where the composting takes place and what a typical day looks like there?ĭanielle: We process all of our food scraps at Waihuena Farm on the North Shore of Oahu. It’s easy You fill your bucket up with food scraps, we pick up the bucket, and swap it out for a clean one every week -no smell, no cleaning, no hassle. We’ll deliver a compost bucket (or 2 with the “plus” plan) with a screw-top lid, some bokashi to kickstart the process, and a welcome packet with educational information and instructions on what to do. You divert your food waste, we pick it up and turn it into compost for our local farms. One of the biggest teachers is nature itself, so I spend as much time as possible in the garden or outside exploring.Ĭan you tell us more about what Community Compost Movement does?ĭanielle: The North Shore Community Compost Movement is a weekly collection service for residential composting. I love watching videos online, reading books, and watching documentaries all about gardening and farming. One big thing that I learned was how important soil health is in growing nutrient rich food (common sense, right?). I learned so much about gardening, permaculture, and community from them. Their mission was to transform backyards and lawns into edible food forests. When I moved to Hawaii over six years ago, I got involved with a program called Permablitz. We planted flowers and veggies and would compost our food scraps as well. Through this journey, we learned what a vital role returning our food waste back to the soil has.ĭanielle: When I lived in San Diego, my roommates and I had a small garden in our backyard. My quest to learn which foods made me feel good, and what foods did not, sparked a lifelong journey of learning about food, soil, and the compost cycle.
The decision of what we eat has an effect on our planet. What sparked your interest in composting, farming and gardening? How did you learn about it? Well, we turned dreams into action, and through a collective effort at the Changing Tides Foundation and numerous helping hands and helping brands, such as Patagonia and Juneshine, we’re now a fully operating business, serving the local community on the North Shore of Oahu. For five years, we thought, “There really needs to be a community compost program, for people like us who can’t compost at home.” S o I got a five-gallon bucket, and every couple of weeks I took the smelly bucket of food scraps to a friends compost pile. It became painful to put food scraps in the trash can when I knew there was a disposal alternative to the landfill. When I later moved into a new house, there was no compost pile available to us. Leah: I started composting for the first time in my early 20’s while living on a property on the North Shore which had space for an ongoing compost pile. Where did the inspiration for the Community Compost Movement come from? Day-to-day operations of the Community Compost Movement are run by a small team of dedicated and passionate humans, stoked to make a difference! We caught up with Leah Dawson and Danielle Marriott, who oversee these operations, to get the dirt on the project. – KH Started by the Changing Tides Foundation, Community Compost Movement is on a mission to make at-home composting a seamless part of the North Shore lifestyle while regenerating the island’s soil and reducing the community’s carbon footprint.