Each month, we will highlight community heroes that are making a difference in their communities and working to make their local environments cleaner and healthier.
This month, we are taking a look at KC Can Compost in KS!
KC Can Compost is a composting service based in Kansa City, KS that not only collect food scraps and divert it from the landfill for composting but also educate and train people struggling to overcome barriers to employment for work in green industry jobs. Biobag Associate spoke to Kristan Chamberlain, the Executive Director of KC Can Compost, about the organization. Their interview is transcribed below.
What led you to start your composting operation?
Our original vision for KC Can grew out of a desire to create meaningful, living-wage jobs for people struggling with barriers to employment and to provide the Kansas City community with a valuable and needed service. We saw an opportunity in the middle market and created a clean and easy composting infrastructure that could be implemented across industries. Our system is designed to make it easy for local businesses, schools, hospitals, restaurants, shopping centers, retirement facilities, museums and more to manage their organic waste responsibly and easily. We also operate centralized neighborhood drop off stations that enable all residents to collect their food waste at home and easily divert from landfill.
Who do you serve and how can people get in touch with you if they want to start composting?
We service the greater Kansas City area and collect waste from small to large scale businesses and residents alike. Businesses can register on our website for a free waste audit. The waste audit helps us determine the quantity and type of waste that needs to be collected and helps us to create a collection system that works best for that organization and their space. Residents can register online and drop their waste off at one of our convenient dropoff locations as frequently as they need to.
How much organic material do you typically take in on a weekly basis?
KC Can's monthly diversion totals are growing rapidly but we typically divert 5,000+ lbs a week.
Feel free to add any additional information about your operation as you see fit.
KC Can launched in May of 2019 and has grown rapidly throughout the region, despite COVID's challenging impacts. Our bright orange KC cans are now seen across state lines (KS and MO) in cafes, restaurants, schools, museums, shopping centers, stadiums, and apartment and condo plexes. The Kansas City community is responding to the call for responsible organics management, and we are proud to be part of the community's solution for decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and creating meaningful jobs for those in need.
