Centralized composting

Everyone in the U.S. should have access to municipal composting. 

Why composting matters

When organic matter (food, plant waste, etc) is thrown away in regular trash, it produces the potent gas methane in landfill. Methane is one of the biggest contributors to our warming atmosphere – and methane from landfill contributes to a large portion of our national emissions. So, avoiding organic matter from getting to landfill and composting it instead can help cut down our total GHG contribution.

Task: Improve composting rates in multifamily housing in Oakland, CA.

Oakland set an aggressive Zero Waste Goal in 2006 to improve composting rates, but rates actually haven’t increased in the past 5 years. Multifamily housing has the lowest rate, and lowest rate of increase, of composting than any other sector. With 37% of Oakland residents in multi-family housing, we see an opportunity here to fill the gaps and engage with a key part of the community.

PHASE 1

Define the problem

Food waste is one of the top bananas in global emissions.

PHASE 2

Research and interviews

In the second project phase, we’re getting the dirt on people’s attitudes and behaviors around disposing of their food scraps and composting.

PHASES 3 - 4

Ideate and Prototype

After brainstorming over 40 ideas, we narrowed to 2. Ideas to improve composting rates in Oakland:

• A kit for apartments dwellers to help them compost easily and understand the impact of their actions

• A kit for landlords and property managers to help ensure engagement

Broader ideas to expand composting

• A national website to track our nation’s progress on municipal composting and build demand for composting 

• An app to help people connect to compost near them

• A kit to help composting advocates get municipal composting in their city