Cooperation Humboldt Celebrating Grand Opening of ‘Full Cycle Compost’ on May 21st

This is a press release from Cooperation Humboldt:

On Friday, May 21, 2021 Cooperation Humboldt is celebrating the Grand Opening of Full Cycle Compost, a worker-owned, bicycle-powered composting service. The celebration starts at 6:30 p.m. on the Arcata Plaza, and features a festive all-are-welcome bike party with music, lights, and a street-safe ride through town, ending at the Arcata Community Health and Wellness Garden on the corner of 11th and F Streets. Come dressed as farmers and vegetables.

According to the Humboldt Waste Management Authority, over ⅓ of all waste going to landfills is food or food-related. As it decomposes in landfills, food waste produces methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. And trucking thousands of tons of food waste to landfills each year consumes fossil fuels and drives up disposal costs for everyone. Landfills and the industrial waste disposal industry also disproportionately threaten the health, social and economic wellbeing of nearby low income and BIPOC communities. Meanwhile, County residents have very limited options for diverting their food waste. It can be especially hard for condo or apartment residents without access to a backyard composting set-up.

Full Cycle Compost was initiated by Morgan King, a Climate Action Analyst at Humboldt State University, and by Tobin McKee, a Cooperative Business Advisor at Cooperation Humboldt and North Coast Small Business Development Center. King advises the student-run Waste Reduction and Resource Awareness Program (WRRAP) and the Compost Squad, providing e-bike-powered compost collection and processing services on the HSU campus. King recognized that the successful Compost Squad program that he developed is scalable to the municipal level. McKee recognized the opportunity for equitable and environmentally regenerative job creation.

“What we call ‘food waste’ is actually a resource,” says Morgan King, one of the worker-owners of Full Cycle Compost. “Society tacitly supports an industrial system that earns millions of dollars hauling away and then burying this resource in landfills. Instead, we should be using this resource to build our soils, store carbon, and grow healthy food.”

Full Cycle Compost is a new business on a mission to provide residents with a convenient and affordable way to remove their food scraps from the waste industrial complex and to put that resource to use building soil and growing food. Starting May 28, the bicycle-powered collection service will haul food scraps from residential and small business subscribers to composting sites at the Arcata Community Health and Wellness Garden and Jacoby Creek Land Trust.

“We are focused on sustainability,” says worker-owner Isaac West. “One of our goals is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; it would be hard to do that if we’re relying on fossil fuels for our business. It also helps that we all are avid cyclists, so we appreciate the health benefits and the pure joy of riding bikes.”

According to worker-owner Rory Baker, Full Cycle Compost will start out by serving residents of Arcata. “We’re looking forward to serving single family and multifamily households, as well as small businesses,” says Baker. “Our climate here can make it hard for backyard composters to keep up with their piles, so our service may also be attractive to those who just don’t want the hassle of DIY composting.”

“We provide the customer one or more buckets, or they can use their own bucket if it meets our guidelines,” says worker owner Julian Palmisano. “For a monthly subscription, one of our riders will come each week to collect the compostables and leave the buckets empty, ready to be filled up with the next week’s food scraps. Our riders will drop off the food scraps at one of our composting sites. We are currently working with the Jacoby Creek Land Trust farm, and with the Arcata Community Health and Wellness Garden, to help build their soil to grow healthy food. It’s the full cycle, realized!” According to Palmisano, the Full Cycle Compost crew will add compost sites in the future as they bring in more subscribers.

Full Cycle Compost is a project of Cooperation Humboldt’s Worker Owned Humboldt Program, in collaboration with the North Coast Small Business Development Center. Worker Owned Humboldt provides training and business advising for folks who want to start a worker owned cooperative, and for existing businesses that want to convert to worker ownership. Worker owned businesses are for-profit businesses that put the power and the profits in the hands of the workers, and have proven worldwide to be a more stable and equitable business model.

According to McKee, “Democratic self-governance and community building were big reasons for us becoming a cooperative,” says McKee. “We see Full Cycle Compost as a strong community partner. We want to eventually provide educational and workforce opportunities for HSU students, youth, and the community at large, and we want to help our local governments achieve their zero waste goals.”

For more information contact:

https://www.fullcyclecompost.com/

Morgan King – Climate Action Analyst at HSU

(707) 497-9482

[email protected]

Tobin McKee – Cooperation Humboldt Program Administrator

(707) 407-7300

[email protected]

Facebooktwitterpinterestmail

Join the discussion! For rules visit: https://kymkemp.com/commenting-rules

Comments system how-to: https://wpdiscuz.com/community/postid/10599/

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

6 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Bushytails
Guest
Bushytails
2 years ago

“an industrial system that earns millions of dollars” … “For a monthly subscription”

While composting is certainly a good thing, framing landfilling as being solely done for profit, and then charging people to not landfill it, is somewhat ironic. If it was indeed such a resource, you wouldn’t be needing to charge people quite a bit more than garbage service (for the volume) costs!

Auntie Ovine
Guest
Auntie Ovine
2 years ago
Reply to  Bushytails

Besides our “climate”, which varies from mile to mile around here, does not “make it hard for backyard composters” unless they demand fast results. Cold composting is easy for anyone and even urban homeowners need only a vermin resistant bin set at the back of the yard and a path to it to succeed. The socialism hocus pocus words not withstanding, it will be interesting to see if this group can get enough bikers to haul decomposing vegetable matter to a compost site to make this viable. I wish them luck.

Steve Koch
Guest
Steve Koch
2 years ago
Reply to  Auntie Ovine

“vermin resistant bin” is important, don’t want to feed the rats.

S
Guest
S
2 years ago

There needs to be a community compost area in Eureka.

Bushytails
Guest
Bushytails
2 years ago

I decided to see just how much more expensive this composting service is, but I can’t find recology’s arcata rates online. In Del Norte, which I can find, and thus will use, they apparently charge $29.71/month for both a 32 gallon garbage can and a recycling can with weekly pickup. This is pretty much exactly the same amount this composting service charges for a 5 gallon weekly pickup. So… It costs a sixth as much to send your food to the landfill than to pay this service which supposedly considers it a resource.

Somehow I’m not impressed. If they expect anyone to use this service, it needs to be comparable to landfill rates. For that matter, if it really is a valuable resource, maybe they should be paying you for it…

Blue Springs CBD
Guest
2 years ago

Can’t wait to attend this coming event!!