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 Pinellas Community Compost in FL!
Pinellas Community Compost is a composting service based in Pinellas County FL. Biobag Associate spoke to Amanda Streets with Pinellas Community Compost about the organization. Their interview is transcribed below.
What led you to start your composting operation?
Pinellas Community Compost is a small company that offers composting education, consultations for home, gardens, and businesses, and assists with food systems projects including gardening and food recovery. Our goal is to provide a number of ways for our community to interact positively with composting so that it can become a normal way for everyone to handle our food scraps and yard waste. We were inspired to teach composting as a way to divert waste from the landfill and decrease greenhouse gases.
Who do you serve and how can people get in touch with you if they want to start composting?
We help individuals, community gardens, and school groups learn to compost, and assist institutions to implement campus-wide composting initiatives. Our website is PinellasCommunityCompost.com and we can be reached via email [email protected] or phone 727-488-9750.
How much organic material do you typically take in on a weekly basis?
Pinellas Community Compost facilitates an occasional low waste event, but we don't have a regular stream of organic materials at this time. Our clients and participants do make compost though. One of our projects, Creating a Regenerative Community Food System, with Tampa Bay Network to End Hunger, diverts about 200 pounds of food scraps from the landfill weekly. One of the institutions that we support composts about 1,000 pounds of food scraps weekly. We are working to promote composting in the community by teaching classes. Since we opened in 2018, we have taught over 80 composting classes!
Feel free to add any additional information about your operation as you see fit.
Amanda Streets, the Founder, is a former educator who believes that teaching young people about sustainability and using resources responsibly is very important. We prioritize visiting schools and teaching family-friendly classes.
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