THE SOUTHWEST OHIO COMMUNITY COMPOSTING PROJECT

To address waste stream Hamilton County ReSource has focused heavily on the first two tiers of the U.S. EPA Food Recovery Hierarchy: food waste reduction and food rescue to feed hungry people. ReSource has become a national leader in this work and is committed to continue working to first reduce food waste and then rescue food to feed hungry people.The overarching goal of this project is to divert food scraps going to landfill while creating a valuable soil amendment for urban agriculture to grow food locally. The financial ask of this application focuses on the support needed for three small scale composting operations to scale up their operations. All three partners are agriculturally based which lends a natural outlet for using the finished compost.Limited Composting Infrastructure: Southwest Ohio hosts 22 registered composting facilities, but none of those facilities accept food scraps from offsite sources. The majority are yard trimmings composting facilities operated by communities for their own material.This lack of infrastructure has led ReSource to work with local organizations to foster local small-scale composting. Small-scale operations have provided a needed service for start-up businesses collecting food scraps as well as beneficial soil amendment for gardens and farms.Despite the growth in small-scale operations and the focus on food recovery, ReSource still sees a gap in processing capacity for food scraps. More composting facilities of various scales are needed in Southwest Ohio before significant diversion of food scraps is possible.