City of Charleston SC Resilience and Sustainability Advisory Committee, 25 Jan 2022

Previous Meeting Next Meeting

⏯

youtube image

►

From YouTube: Composting Workshop 1/25/22

Description

Composting Workshop 1/25/22

A

Welcome everyone to our home food scrap composting workshop. My name is katie mccain and I'm the director of sustainability for the city of charleston. I'm really excited to be here tonight and present some information to you about how you can compost at home using a variety of different ways before we jump right in.

A

I did just want to mention that we will meet today for an hour and of course, the purpose of our meeting is to share ways that residents can compost at home either by using our new food scrap drop-off program or by accomplishing your backyard.

A

So before we jump right in I'd like to introduce a couple of our panelists.

A

If we could just go in order so ariel if you'd like to go first sure thanks katie, so my name is ariel gristin, I'm the new sustainability coordinator for the county and I'm very excited to be helping out. With this workshop.

A

And patrick.

B

Hi, I'm patrick downey. I am the southeast intake sales rep from mcgill environmental. We basically run the compost facility at beesberry glad to be here.

A

Great courtney.

C

Hi, I'm courtney olsen, I'm the community garden manager for the charleston parks conservancy, and we manage gardens at midway park, magnolia garden and also at corinne jones community garden.

A

Excellent thanks courtney and stuart.

D

Hi I'm stuart weinberg, I'm the.

B

Community member to the resilience and sustainability advisory committee- and that's the committee that really oversaw the creation of the charleston climate action plan and composting was part of that plan, and I am so thrilled that we are actually doing this and that you can get your hands your hands involved in something to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. So it's really exciting to be here. Thank you. Katie.

A

Great thanks, stuart and christina.

C

Hi everyone christina moscas, with charleston county environmental management. We manage the compass facility out at beast ferry with a partnership with mcgill, so we are very excited to have some food waste from local residents come to our facility.

A

Great, thank you. Everyone and megan is with us with from smart recycling and uh amanda from dhec, and they will introduce themselves when they present. I'm gonna go ahead and share my screen. Let's get started here so hopefully you all can see my slide here. It says composting home food scraps workshop at the top.

A

So it's really important that you all are here. Thank you all so much for spending your time with us tonight. I wanted to share that. There are some webinar tools that will make this easier for us, so we are recording this as you notice, so it will be posted on the city's youtube page and on our compost website.

A

If you need to go back and look at it again or want to share it with anyone, there is a q, a feature that is the best place to put your questions, and if someone else has the question that you want to ask to, you can actually promote it, and so it's not being duplicated use that chat box. If you put questions in there, that's okay, I just hope they won't get lost.

A

We're gonna, we're gonna, keep trying to keep track of them, but try to use the chat box more for comments or if you have ideas, to share things that work well, that you found please feel free to use the chat box. For that. We'll also have some question time where you can raise your hand and if you would like to speak and ask your question, you can do that too. So, that's the raise your hand, feature and I'll go over these again when we get into the questions section.

A

So here's a quick look at our agenda so we'll start by just going over the importance of composting and how the new program works and then we're going to learn about the bees fairy compost facility and what items are accepted at that facility for composting and then we'll take some questions about the new program. Then we'll talk about backyard composting and take any other questions that you have and then I'll share information on how you can pick up your free swag.

A

So I wanted to thank our partners. Smart recycling is our contracted hauler, so they'll be transporting all the food waste that we collect in to the beast ferry compost facility. Dhak is actually funded the program uh through a grant that we received from them. So, thank you so much d huck for your support and the coastal conservation league has been really helpful in supporting this program. Charleston county, of course, uh christina and arielle- are here from there mcgill and uh the charleston parks. Conservancy has been really helpful too.

A

So thank you to all of our partners and there's many more not listed on here too.

A

So really quick. Composting 101 cobblestone is a natural process. It's basically recycling organic matter, such as your food scraps and your yard waste into a valuable soil amendment, and we call that amendment compost.

A

So basically, this compost is rich in nutrients and it can be used as a natural fertilizer in your gardens and there's all kinds of benefits for that.

A

So did you know that when you are composting, you are actually taking climate action? This is composting is something little that we all can do to mitigate climate change and reduce our waste.

A

So we actually adopted a climate action plan earlier in this in the year at the city, and it is a five-year plan to reduce carbon pollution, and one of the actions in the plan is to create a residential compost program. So we are implementing that plan and we're excited to announce that this program will help us achieve three goals in that plan and our main goal here will be to decrease 20 tons of food waste going to the landfill.

A

So just how does composting and climate change relate? Well when we send food scraps to the landfill they're actually creating methane? That's because when we bury food in a landfill and it's not receiving enough oxygen to decompose, naturally, it's instead rotting and it's producing methane and as many of us know, methane is a really potent heat trapping gas. It's actually over 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

A

So by composting we add oxygen into the process and that that eliminates that methane component, so it's really helpful to reduce emissions if you compost, so in addition to combating climate change, there's all kinds of other benefits of composting too. It reduces trash going to the landfill and, of course, expenses relating to trash collection and storage.

A

It also protects against flooding when we add compost to our soil, we're adding organic matter to our soil and then it can actually hold more water. So it increases the storm water, absorption capacity of our soils, which is why it's great to keep it in your yard. If you can and of course it's a natural fertilizer, so it eliminates the need to add chemical fertilizers that could harm our ecosystems.

A

So basically, the new program is a drop site program and it's it's going to be free for city residents and there'll, be three different drop sites that we will be testing ackermann park and west ashley corinne jones park on the peninsula and meadowway park on james island, and you can sign up for this program online. I know many of you have already done it. I think a key note here is this is a pilot project, so we are testing logistics of how this program will work for about six months now.

A

If the program is successful and we figure out the optimum way to operate it, then we can then seek additional funding to potentially expand the program beyond six months and also expand to additional drop sites, so keep in mind, there's only three pilot drop sites because we're testing them first.

A

So here's how you participate, you collect the food scraps at home. You can do it in any container with a lid. Ideally, it's also really helpful to store these in your freezer. I do that a lot then just take a your food scraps to the nearby drop-off site and dump them into a cart and then rinse your container and repeat so for a container. We, we are giving away some free bins, I'll talk about that uh towards the end, but you don't, but any bin will really work. You can upcycle a used container.

A

You could use an empty ice cream tub and there's many available in local retail stores or online to purchase if you'd rather do that our food scrap carts in the parks will be serviced at least twice a week.

A

So when the west ashley farmers market starts, you'll you'll also be able to drop off your scraps at that market. That will be in the spring, though so. Here's an example of what a drop site looks like right. Now we will be having more permanent signage installed once we test these locations and they are set and here's a closer up map of the drop sites, so you can see ackerman park is going to be located right off the parking lot in front of the pond corrine jones park.

A

The site will be on hester street right in front of the community garden and at meadowway park. If you enter the park, the parking lot on medway road you'll see that the compost carts right next to the community garden. There, too, these parks are open uh from dawn until dusk, 365 days a year. So that's that's when you can drop off the food scraps and if you'd like a more detailed map, you can zoom in on this on our website and also keep in mind it's a pilot program.

A

So some of this could change and all the updates will be on our website. So how do you put the food scraps into the carts? Well, you can do it one of two ways: you can either pour the loose food scraps into the cart from your bin or you can drop in a bag that is a compostable bag, and it's really important that the bat, the compostable bag is bpi certified compostable. There is a really big difference between just biodegradable and compostable, and megan will talk more about that.

A

Our food waste carts have a maximum fill level, so you can see it's not all the way to the top. These parts get heavy and contamination is a really big challenge in any compost program, because there's nobody going in there to sort through the material, it's very unsafe to do that.

A

So that means that to keep the material the end product safe for everyone we want to make sure what's going in is is accurate, which is why we've had the rigorous training program when you sign up and we will be locking these bins so right now they have, they have a minor lock on them that helps prevent any animals from getting in, but they will be upgraded soon, with some different lids that will have padlocks on them and to get that lock combination.

A

If you haven't already, you have to sign up, and then you will get that lock code that way.

A

So if you haven't already signed up here's the website where you can go and I'll put all this in the chat here shortly, I did want to mention our free swag. So, while supplies last, we have some a sample of compostable liner bags for you all to give a test. We have uh some kitchen compost caddies for folks, uh the first 200 people who signed up for the workshops we'll get an email later tonight and then, if you don't get a caddy, we do have some magnets and stickers.

A

So if you want to put a sticker on a caddy, you already have or put a magnet on your fridge to help. You remember which items are accepted. That's a good way to do it also.

A

So I will talk more about that swag towards the end, and now I'm gonna turn it over to megan who's gonna talk about how the beesberry compost facility works and what items are accepted there for composting. So megan.

E

I'm I'm here sorry guys. Okay, everybody can see that. Okay, yes, so thanks for having me katie, as katie mentioned, I'm megan mcgill with smart recycling and we will be the hauler for the city's pilot compost program. So let's jump right in and talk about the compost life cycle.

E

Once you collect your scraps at home, you will take it to a city designated drop-off site twice a week, smart recycling or more as needed, we'll be emptying the smart carts into our trucks and taking it to the mcgill bees ferry compost facility from there. They will process it and turn it into nutrient-rich compost that can be purchased and used to grow new food, and so the cycle continues.

E

So how does this composting magic work? The short answer is science. Here's a quick overview of the science behind composting and the process that mcgill uses at our charleston county facility.

E

First yard, waste and food waste are brought into the facility and accepted material is separated based on whether it is yard waste or food waste and the yard waste has to be ground up, so it will break down in the compost piles once enough material is received, a mix is made from 10 parts of yard waste to one part food waste, and then that mixture is placed into piles called windrows.

E

As you can see those here in this slide.

E

After materials complete 15 today, 15 days at 131 degrees fahrenheit, it is moved to aerated static piles to cure for 30 days. Once all regulatory requirements have been met, the cured material is removed from the asp batches and is screened for sale.

E

If you are interested in purchasing some of the compost that was created from your efforts, they do offer two options. The first is to take a five gallon bucket to the landfill and fill it with premium compost for just a dollar a bucket.

E

I do recommend you checking their website to see if it's available before driving over there. The second would be to go to their bees best website to find a retailer near you that carries their compost in bulk.

E

If you still have questions after this presentation, we have patrick downey on the call with us and he can answer those at the end. Also, a copy of this presentation will be available at the city's website so that you can review these slides in more detail.

E

Now, let's talk about what is okay to put in the benz acceptable, compostable compostable items include fruits and vegetables. Anything that came from your garden can be composted or came out of a garden. This rule still applies, even if you actually bought it at the grocery store.

E

All the parts you didn't eat or cut off during meal, prep can go in the compost. Bin dairy products, including milk, cheeses and yogurt, can go in your compost, bin small amounts of compostable liquids. These might include soups or fruit juices, for example, if you just cut up your watermelon and there's juice and rhine left over those can both go in your compost, bin or if you made chicken noodle soup and the leftovers went bad before you could eat it. That can go in your compost bin, too processed foods.

E

This includes everything that is edible, that is made in a factory, for example, pizza, cereal chips, crackers, cookies and cakes are all processed foods that can be composted plate. Scrapings also can go in everything. Edible that didn't get eaten can be scraped into your compost bin, as I mentioned earlier. This also includes any food scraps created while preparing your meal.

E

Bread, dough, pasta and baked goods can also go in your compost bin. This includes fresh homemade and store-bought items. This could be the ends of the loaf of bread, your kids refuse to eat or the leftover spaghetti. That was forgotten in the fridge or any other bread, pasta or baked good item that you can. Think of that can go in your compost.

E

Bin food soiled paper includes paper bags with food waste on them dirty paper, towels and napkins, waxed cardboard, like the boxes that produce comes in at the grocery store, but do note that if you have clean non-waxy cardboard that needs to be recycled and not composted also bpi compostable food containers are also accepted. They must be bpi.

E

Certified by biodegradable does not mean compostable, so make sure you see the bpi certified label we'll go over that in more detail in just a minute, coffee grounds filters and tea bags can go in your compost bin, but double check your tea bags. A lot of them have those staples in them. So you'd want to remove the staple before putting that in and remember we're talking about paper filters and paper tea bags we're not talking about single use, plastic pods.

E

Those would not be compostable, eggs and shells can go in your compost bin, as well as cooked meat, fish bones and shells except for oyster shells. Scdnr does have a separate recycling program for those.

E

You may be wondering why you can compost meat, fish, dairy and even bpi certified compostable materials in this pilot program, but not in your backyard compost. The main reason is that commercial composting is a scientific process with strict guidelines. They monitor the temperatures and aerate the piles to ensure a much faster decomposition process.

E

In short, they use a specific scientific recipe and they make sure that their compost cooks at higher temperatures.

E

If you were composting at home, things like bones and bpi, certified material would not break down as quickly these items also attract pests and rodents and can be quite smelly if they don't compost quickly.

E

As I mentioned, the program does accept bpi certified composting materials. So you need to look for this logo. You can use bpi certified compostable bags to collect your waste if you prefer to use a bag for storage or transport, make sure you look for the bpi certified logo if it is not bpi certified, it won't break down in the composting process.

E

As I mentioned, the word biodegradable is not the same as compostable for a product to claim they are biodegradable. They must break down in the earth eventually, but that could take a long time even years, but bpi certified compostable products have been tested to ensure they will break down in the commercial composting process.

E

So please look for this logo before purchasing compostable bags and anytime you're, trying to compost a soiled food container.

E

Now that we know what can go into the compost bins, let's talk about what should not go in raw meat, plastic items, plastic items includes bags, utensils cups and any kind of single use, plastic, disposable, wear, styrofoam, fats, oils and grease. These items interfere with the composting process, non-food items so food, oh sorry, not food, non-food items include wood, metal, glass and ceramics and shouldn't go in your compost bin also pet droppings do not belong in the compost bed. Please dispose of these in your regular trash can yard degrees um yard debris.

E

You may have heard me talk about yard debris in the composting process. This is an important ingredient, but the facility needs to handle it separately. This is why the city offers curbside pickup of your yard debris.

E

The compost facility needs to grind this up before adding it to the compost to ensure proper breakdown make sure if you're participating in the community garden, you continue to put your garden waste in the proper place there garden waste does not go in the smart carts.

E

Finally, no chemicals. This includes cleaning agents. So, if you're looking for ways to improve the smell of your compost bin, you can use natural deodorizers such as baking, soda or cinnamon. Other options include purchasing bpi, certified compostable liners or simply storing your compost in the freezer.

E

If you are feeling overwhelmed with all this information, here's a few simple rules to help. You remember the basics: is it edible? If you could eat it, it can be composted. Did it come from the earth? If it came from the earth it can go back to the earth by composting and, most importantly, when in doubt throw it out.

E

Now that we have gone over the broad list of things that do not go in your compost bin, let's talk about a few sneaky items that are commonly found in the kitchen or on or near your food, and these items are not compostable plastic bags. I know we've we've covered that several times, but it's really important to keep plastic out of the compost bin, bread ties and tags. Those are made of plastic or metal and shouldn't go in your compost.

E

Bin produce stickers make sure that you peel those off your banana or other produce before putting it in the compost. Bin rubber bands you'll sometimes see those on broccoli or asparagus, but they also are not compostable.

E

These are all examples of things that should not belong in your compost. Bin always avoid putting plastic glass cans or anything in organic in your compost bin. If it can be recycled, it does not belong in the compost bin. A great rule of thumb is, if you can eat it, it can be composted.

E

This holds true, even if the food's gone bad and is technically no longer edible. It's important to only put compostable material in the bins, because, if contamination is found in one of the smart carts, all of its contents must be sent to the landfill.

E

That's why the smart carts will have locks on them, because contamination is so detrimental to the program that we're locking the carts to keep people from throwing regular trash in them. Most importantly, just remember when in doubt throw it out.

E

Smart recycling is excited to be partnering with the city for this pilot compost program. If you'd like to learn more about our services, please visit our website or give us a call. We provide service to commercial customers in the tri-county area as well as columbia and myrtle beach. I'll also share my contact info in the chat.

A

Great thanks so much megan, absolutely so megan. Could you stop sharing your screen.

A

Okay, so at this point we're going to take some questions, so I see there are a lot in the chat. I think one of the big take-home messages, hopefully that from um when megan- and I were speaking was contamination- is just such a huge challenge in any composting program, so we're doing everything we can with the lock bins and education to help folks get properly trained on this. But ultimately, what happens? If we see contamination in these carts is the carts are going to be landfilled so because we can't pick through them.

A

If it's evident, then we will need to take the full carts to the landfill. So obviously, if we keep experiencing problems where we have to landfill carts, that would mean the program is not being very successful, so we really need everyone's help from the very beginning to reduce contamination on the front.

A

So so, during this question period I see there's a lot in the q and a box. That's great uh feel free to use the chat box or, if you um prefer, to chat um you can raise your hand, so I'm gonna stop the sharing and we'll just take questions for a few minutes.

A

So it looks like I'll just start from the top. I know coffee grounds are okay, but what about coffee filters? Coffee filters are fine. Thank you christina dropping off at beast ferry. No there's not currently a drop site at beast ferry. I don't know patrick, do you have anything to add to that.

B

No, no there's not one. Now uh there might be an option in the near future as we kind of move forward. 2022 have a big year for us build developing there, um but as of right now, there is not one there.

A

Great thank you.

A

We will provide our contact information. It's obviously on these slides that we'll post on the website and we'll try to put them in the chat towards the end here feel free to reach out to us.

A

Let's see, is this program permanent or is it subject to be potentially discontinued in six months? So this is a pilot program.

A

So if it's successful after six months- and we still have funding- we could continue it- I could potentially see it uh possibly being extended uh till the end of the year if it's going well, if we find that we are constantly landfilling carts because they're contaminated, that obviously means their program isn't being very successful, so we'll have to rework that somehow uh and that could cause it to stop. So that's why we keep saying contamination is: is one of our biggest challenges to get ahead of eggshells can go in eggshells?

A

I think, can go in your backyard and your um our our program.

A

Thank you. Marlo tea bags have staples, um so the tea bags can go in the paper, uh but please remove the staples so think of think of. If you were to go pick up this compost at and purchase it somewhere, you wouldn't want to find a staple in it right when you were planting your vegetables, so so think of it. That way, don't want any any pieces that don't belong in the final material to go into the batch at all paper with wax on. It is okay to compost.

A

Okay, so this this this gets tricky. There are, I think, christina and patrick should probably take this one, because there are some compostable to go containers that have a little wax coating and those are okay. But then there are cups that have a much stronger coating and those are not okay, so I'm gonna, let you all take.

B

That um you know I kind of erred on no, because uh we've got certain things that that waxy material on them that just don't break down very well out of there. um They will break down, but it takes a lot longer to do so. So I mean, if you get something like that. Like I answered one question I put like a starburst cup, everybody thinks that's recyclable, but it's really not um so we try to avoid the waxy material it will break down.

B

But you know we don't want to sit there for five years breaking down. That's the best answer. I can get.

C

And I can add just briefly to that um a lot of times what looks like a waxy lining might actually be multiple different materials layered together, so possibly even a plastic lining a paper lining so just like patrick said, air on the side of caution and leave anything that looks like it's got that waxy surface out of compost.

A

I did see a question in here. um Thank you for that clarification. There's another one in here about grocery bags, uh the I I think it might be referring to paper grocery bags, because everyone knows the plastic are not and they should not be in our city anyway right. um But what about the paper grocery bags? Could people drop off compost in one of those bags.

B

uh Yes, absolutely that paper paper bags are absolutely fine.

A

A

Generally, though, we prefer a whole handful of paper bags to be recycled, though versus being composted correct. Yes, so only only drop off the paper bag. If your compost, your food scraps, are actually in that bag, otherwise recycling is the best for paper.

A

If some food has oil on it, veggies or bread, or I even heard someone say yesterday's meat, should it not be composted if it has a little oil, it looks like that's: okay, patrick we just don't want to hold a bunch of oil.

B

Sure yeah, we don't want them to dump in cups, or you know, bottles of some type of oil or liquid, like that. You know most of us cook our foods in some kind of olive oil or butter, or something like that. That's absolutely fine.

A

Perfect, okay and let's see I'm just sorting through the chat here, will other cities like isle of palms or mount pleasant offer drop-off locations? I don't often go downtown so so this program is being managed by the city of charleston, so it will our drop sites, our city of charleston parks. I highly encourage you to reach out to other jurisdictions. Let them know you're interested. This is typically how programs start in cities right when we hear from our residents that people are interested in doing composting.

A

So I highly encourage you to reach out to folks, um but but currently we we are using our three drop sites and if we expand it would be in the city of charleston, because it's the city program, if veggies have been cooked in oil, we got that one.

A

Thank yous. I appreciate that. How are you going to check the results of the six month program, so uh smart recycling will actually be tracking the pounds of food waste we collect in each part from each tip, so we'll be able to see where we're getting it from what site and if there's any contamination and if there's contamination, then we will have to address that separately.

A

But, yes, data is very important. We like to use data to make more informed decisions. Our pizza box is okay.

A

Christina or patrick, do you want to take that one.

C

So I can speak to is the pizza box, okay for recycling um and generally, what we say is the lid is always going to be recyclable if you need to rip the lid off, especially if there's a whole bunch of fats and grease in the bottom or even food residue.

C

If the bottom is completely clean, then you can recycle the bottom as well. If it's just got some crumbs knock the crumbs out the whole box can go in recycling as far as um the fats and oils, patrick I'll, defer to you on that. One with composting.

B

Yeah, that's kind of uh an ongoing thing. I mean I've seen them in there before. I would prefer them not go in there um I mean, if you've ever been out to the at the landfill we've got tons of seagulls and birds out there, any type of something like that they're going to grab it and carry it away, it's in somebody's neighborhood, or something like that. So you know we want to keep the uh anything like that that that has oils or something on that kind of out of there, if possible,.

A

Great okay, thank you both.

A

If, um if you arrived to a cart being full, you would contact me, uh you can call me or email me and I'll share my contact information here in the chat soon, and then I would uh figure out how we can pick it up faster and get an empty bin out there with megan's help.

A

Let's see, there's some other open questions. What about compostable silverware.

A

So if if this compostable silverware is bpi certified compostable, it is allowed right, patrick, but it's hard to tell that so. Do you have any comments on that.

B

No, that's an ongoing challenge. I mean a couple: pieces of silverware are not going to kill us in our process, but uh it's just a matter of people really don't know which silverware is compostable and they just think of it's plastic, throw it away in there. I go back to the error if you're not sure it doesn't go in there.

A

Thank you when in doubt throw it out that works for recycling too.

A

um Can you put old soup in the compost? Yes, you can go in the compost.

A

Are we expected to cut up large items like watermelons and pumpkins good question, patrick.

B

No, absolutely not we don't care what size it is. We've got large loaders out there mixing and blending stuff. um You know during the holiday season, especially um halloween thanksgiving. We get a lot of gourds and pumpkins, and things like that and it's whole shake. So you know no need to cut it up. You know, of course, if you're dealing with smaller bins, we don't want you to take up a whole bin by putting a whole watermelon in there.

B

If you can cut it up into pieces, it saves room for other people trying to use it as well, but uh coming to us it really doesn't matter.

A

Okay, great, thank you. Thank you, jillian signing up for the seminar the same as signing up to compost, or is there a separate procedure?

A

Yeah good question, so this the registering for the webinar only registered you for the webinar, so there's a separate sign up. If you go to that compost webpage, that's in the chat that you'll there'll actually be a google form that you fill out your where you're you know where you're located and what site you're going to use and there'll be a short training to go through there. So everyone will pass the exact same training who wants to participate in the program and that's how you'll get the lock code by going through this workshop.

A

It should be really easy for you. You should be able to cruise right through it in five minutes, so you do need to sign up separately.

A

Karen jones community garden has a compost pile now. Should we put our garden scraps in the bins now good question? um I'm gonna pitch this one over to courtney. um These two should be kept separate. So these are food, scrap carts, food scraps, not yard scraps, so the city already has a yard uh collection program. That's curbside, please use that, and the community gardens also have their own compost pile. So keep plant debris in the compost pile the food scrap carts are only for food courtney. Do you have anything to add to there.

C

No we'll continue to deal with the um debris piles at the gardens. The same way we have been so just the stuff. That's coming from your house can go to this program and the stuff, that's just within the garden fence, just keep putting it in the piles. You've been putting them in.

A

Okay, great you're, coming a little soft for me, so I'll I'll repeat what you said if folks didn't hear, but um the the debris piles at the gardens will stay there, so keep your plant debris in your garden. Debris piles! um If you have a rotten tomato you can, you can put it in either pile you can put it in the food, scrap cart, but generally no plants, no roots. No, no big stems coming in with food waste carts. Please.

A

All right are milk cartons, okay to compost, the waxy kind. No milk cartons are not compostable um christina. Are they recyclable.

C

Yes, they can be included in um in recycling. All cartons are accepted, great.

A

Thank you, commercially compostable takeout dishes like faraday, so so yes, this program will take compostable to go containers as long as they're, certified, bpi, compostable and veriday's containers are this program will take them. So that's a that's a really big benefit, since a lot of our restaurants are using them now too, and those will not break down in your backyard as easily because you won't get to the high temperatures that mcgill can get to.

A

Why is raw meat, unacceptable? Patrick? You want to take that one.

B

Yeah, that's just something that we don't want to put in there again. I've never been to the landfill there's a lot of birds out there. We just don't want to attract more birds and other animals out there coming to eat out of there.

B

Just it's not good any cooked meat. You got as good, but raw meat is not good.

A

Great thank you. The program started this weekend. uh The bins were out in the parks. Yes, um on sunday you mentioned a 20-ton gallon gold, that's just our goal for the first six months. So hopefully we surpassed that. I had a friend ask if he could use cardboard boxes from amazon to put his veggie in. He doesn't use paper bags.

A

um I wouldn't um I'll. Let patrick answer this, but I'm I'm thinking don't put the cardboard box in the cart just because it takes up so much room. I would dump the scraps loosely in if you're gonna store them temporarily in the box. Does that sound right? Okay, thank you! Yeah! It's it's expensive to dispose of these food waste cards. So let's, let's uh keep the bulky items out and just leave them for food scraps.

A

Can you compost fruit and veggie seeds? Of course, um can you compost unbleached parchment paper.

A

Christina or patrick parchment.

C

Paper would say: yes, that's 100, fiber, correct yep, yep, yep.

A

It'll break down fine great, thank you.

A

If one site has several contaminated bins, will there be feedback users on that site? Yes, I have all your emails. I will be in touch. I will let you know if there's problems, uh we'll also be posting updates on the website, any recommendations or tips for beginners. We have what we think is okay to set up in our yard. Yes, we're gonna talk about backyard um tips here in just a moment.

A

What, if you spray your counter with commercial, cleaner, like clorox and then wipe it down, can that paper towel go in? I would say: no, we don't want chemical cleaners in there a suggestion we had very large recycling center back in wisconsin we hired senior smithson's room monitoring, yeah, actually uh beth. We have uh volunteers at each site that are monitoring these sites, so they're also reporting if the bins are full.

A

So thanks for the suggestion and if anyone else wants to help volunteer and report back to me, uh please just email me and let me know: does the county currently accept compostable materials from big commercial producers um I'll? Let christina take down yeah.

C

Yeah, I can answer that so um absolutely that you would just need to reach out to a hauler that could deliver the material to the mcgill compass facility.

A

Yep, and that would be the same for businesses too,.

B

Yeah yeah piggyback on that we have several that are coming now. um You know any of your large grocery stores that leftover food, bad food, that's cool! It's like something like that. They all come out there to us now.

A

Great, thank you. My compostable veggies will be frozen. Do I need to defrost them? No, you do not just drop them off. If something says it is compostable in an industrial compost facility. Would it be accepted here it has to say bpi certified compostable, so any other jargon could just be jargon so make sure the certification is on there. Please.

A

Will there be more than one bin at the drop site? There's there's two bins at each site for now we're going to gauge how fast they fill um based on participation and we might need to add more bins or pick them up more frequently.

A

Have we considered introducing more oil recycling sites? The county actually manages recycling, so um we're I'm going to pass on that question. Where can the bpi bag liners be purchased? You can get them at assortment of retail stores. There's there's an faq on our website that lists some. I know they're available at whole foods. You can certainly buy them on amazon and other places, we're actually trying to get them into a local store nearby and we'll post all that information on the website. Once we have it is there anywhere we can drop off homemade compost.

A

I don't think so. I would keep it for yourself or share it with a friend. Can disposable birchwood cutlery be composted, christina.

C

My answer to that would be yes, just small amounts of wood. I don't think, are going to be a huge issue, but um patrick I'll I'll. Let you run with that. One.

B

Yeah it'd be fine, you know we're not going to have anybody come in with big truck loads or something like that, so that would be okay.

A

Okay, great um success, metrics we are going to share the our basic measure, is tons of food waste that we divert so obviously any food waste that's going to the landfill because it's contaminated is not being diverted from the landfill. So that's that's our success metric and that's what we'll be reporting on the best way you can make it as a success is to make sure people know that these bins can't be contaminated, because that would that would um destroy the program.

A

Can you shred some of your smaller cardboard items into your compost bucket, like toilet paper, rolls those should be recycled, so a recycled paper products um use the compost. If you have like a paper napkin that has food on it? That's when you want to compost a paper product all right, and I see that there are two people that have raised hands.

A

So, let's go, um let's go to lee and then peter and then we're gonna keep moving with our backyard program and you can keep putting um questions in the q a we will answer them, even if we will stop the program at an hour, but a few of us can stay on if you have more questions uh but just to respect everyone's time so um less you are unmuted or asked unmute yourself, and you should be able to ask your question.

A

Bless we can't hear you.

A

Okay, I'm gonna try peter peter. Can you talk.

A

Peter or less can you mute yourself.

A

Okay, not hearing from either of you. So uh if you can just write your question in the chat or the q, a we'll try to come back to it. Okay,.

A

All right so next I want to introduce amanda edwards, who is with um scd-heck and she's, going to talk to us about backyard composting, so take it away. Amanda.

D

Thanks katie, I am going to share some slides um and we'll go through these pretty quick again. If you have questions, throw them in the q a or the chat um I'm trying to look at both while I talk, but we may have to come back to some. um So I work for dx office of solid waste reduction and recycling. It's a mouthful. We just call it the recycling office, um but it's at the state dhec office, and I also help out with one of our campaigns called don't waste food sc.

D

um Our campaign is really to get people to reduce their food waste, just like you're already on here trying to do. We know that sometimes a refrigerator that looks like this ends up food in the trash so lucky for you you're having different options in your city and county, and you have an option in your own backyard.

D

Unfortunately, food is the number one item found in landfills, not only here in south carolina but nationally. So that's a problem.

D

Don't waste food sc was designed by dhec with internal partners, state partners as well as public other public and private partners, basically just to get the word out about reducing food waste.

D

We took on the epa's hierarchy, food recovery hierarchy and basically picked three items that we thought we could focus on from a state level. The first of those is that top one source reduction, which we prevent food waste through prevention. So um with that, we have lots of tips that we can share through the don't waste food program, the other one that we also focus on is donation.

D

Again, you can check out our website I'll, throw that in the chat in just a minute. The big one we're going to focus on today, though, is composting specifically composting in your own backyard, so composting feeds our soil. While some people see the plate on the left as uh trash scraps, we can't consume it. We can't really do anything with it now. I could probably go back and forth with a few of you on.

D

Actually, you could do a lot of other things with especially those orange peels, but for for this purpose we want to talk about composting them and really putting all of those nutrients back into our soil. So I'm going to show you a really quick video. Don't try to read all the words we're going to talk about it.

D

Okay, so, like I said that was gonna be fast, um but that is actually from my my very own kitchen and a lot of times. We find ourselves in a position. Is we have these random scraps? What do we do with them? We hate to put them in the trash. um So why not compost them? A composting at home is fairly simple and it really starts with the basics of browns and greens.

D

Now, of course, there's a couple, more elements that are required to make compost work. But let's talk about the browns and greens, a lot of those you've already discussed with megan and the team online today, but for your backyard composting, it's going to be slightly different than what you can put in that drop off so for your backyard.

D

You are going to kind of need a recipe and we're going to talk about the ratios of what you'd need, but let's just talk about the definitions of: what's, okay and what's not so the same for greens, which are also your nitrogens, which is the food part of it, which is all that you can drop off in the new drop-off bins.

D

Unfortunately, in your backyard, though you're a little more limited, but that's simply because the temperature is not going to get hot enough in your backyard, pile or bin that it's not going to break down things like cooked meats, fruits and vegetables, raw or cooked are great and fine. If they're frozen, it might take a little longer to compost in your backyard. But that's it's not a problem. Coffee grounds filters tea bags.

D

The staples are really tiny in those tea bags, but we really do recommend that you take them out, as megan mentioned before, think about what you're putting in your compost is what's coming out, so when in doubt throw it out.

D

Eggshells are great, especially if you're a tomato, gardener and you're using it for this, because they're going to provide lots of calcium to your compost and then any kind of green grass trimmings, not the dried ones but plant clippings things like that. That's going to count as your greens, so things that you do not see on this list that you do not want to include are those things like meat, cooked or raw bones, oily foods and then, of course, things like plastic bags coated paper trash.

D

um None of that you want to put in your backyard compost from when it's not going to break down, but for two it's not going to give you a good end product.

D

So for your browns things like dried leaves shredded newspaper, we don't recommend shredded bleached paper like like notebook paper, you're, not going to really want to shred that those have different toxins from the bleach. That's in there, but things like sawdust wood shavings make sure that's not from painted or treated with, though that's very important, and then I think someone asked about cardboard or paper tubes.

D

Of course, recycling is your first option, but if you have food residue on those- and you want to cut them up and put them into your backyard compost and say you don't really have a supply of dried leaves or dried grass or anything like that, the cardboard shredded newspaper can serve as your browns.

D

We get this question a lot as well. What about pine straw, so pine straw in small amounts, is okay for your backyard compost, but if you've raked your whole yard and you live on a half acre quarter, liquor acre lot, you're, not going to want to put all that pine straw in your backyard compost, because it's going to make it way too acidic, which is just going to burn the plants that you're putting it on.

D

So, let's, let's talk about that recipe really quickly, so for us at dhec. um We find that there's no wrong answer. Unless um your compost is rotting, which it's decomposing, you want that you don't want it to rot. What we have found is three browns or three carbon sources to one green. So, just to give you an example, let's say you filled up a measuring cup of one cup of food waste.

D

You would need three cups of dried leaves shredded newspaper or something like that to balance out in your compost bin. Now some people like a four to one ratio. Some people can even go half and half. It really depends on your bin, um the size of your bin, how often you're turning it, uh how much sunlight and water it gets. So this is kind of something you have to play with, but once you get the recipe right, your compost will be great.

D

To add to your garden, I can tell you this a troubleshooting point when in doubt, throw it out is a great one, but for backyard composting when in doubt add more browns, that's usually the answer. So if your compost smells bad or it is not decomposing correctly, it's not making compost or you see a lot of extra insects or other animals. Coming to your compost, you probably need to add more browns.

D

You have too much food and another great tip is to make sure when you're, adding to your bin and filling up that you want to always end with browns on the top that's going to help keep smell down. It's also going to help keep that temperature in and in your compost.

D

You can measure it with get a probe thermometer and measure it yourself, but it's not necessary, but that temperature on average is going to be anywhere from 135 to 160 degrees. Your optimal temperature, though, is going to be in that 145 to 150 range. If you get above 160 you're really killing all the good organisms that are breaking everything down, you don't want to do that. If you don't get it hot enough, things are not going to decompose.

D

So talking about bins, here's a couple of examples and I think in the workshops coming up, I think there are some bins that are going to be given out and those are going to be very easy to use very easy to manage.

D

But here you can see, there's a lot of different options and the bottom right, that's just really chicken wire um kind of all put together and then someone in the middle built a really fancy one with wood and chicken wire on the bottom left. You can see it's just a pile, there's, no bin. um Of course you want to make sure in your neighborhood or your community that you meet any kind of requirements as far as you don't want to have a ginormous pile out there.

D

That is not managed well, so a bins are usually an easier, manageable option.

D

Now, uh what you're gonna see is little worms coming to your bin um you're also gonna see some other little creepy crawlies and don't be alarmed most of the time. Those are good. You want those uh that's what's helping break down all of that food, waste and carbon that you put in there.

D

Now a lot of people ask us about vermicomposting. That's composting with worms. uh The the worm castings do make a great addition to compost, but you're not going to want to try to add worms to your bin um if you dump those in the middle of that bin, it's going to get too hot and they're just going to die, so let them come naturally and they'll do their thing.

D

So composting is really reaping what you sow. What you put in it's what's going to come out and you put your compost to work in your own garden. That's the best use for it. So just think every time that you're composting, something um think about the nutrients that that's providing to your compost, which is going to come through your garden, and if you think that it's probably not good for your garden, then you probably don't want to put it in your compost.

D

We have some other guides available at um on our dhec websites and I will add those links into the chat so that you'll have them, and these guides will walk you through step-by-step how to build a bin if you're looking to build one or how to manage an already existing bin.

D

I did put on here our school guide. If you are composting with school-aged children at home, I recommend taking a look at this guide as well. It's essentially very similar information as our home guide. It's just geared more towards that age group, so that chart that I showed you before with the browns and greens. There's a kid version in this guide.

D

It's very helpful and then some other things that we do at dhec to help promote composting, we're going into classrooms and helping teach composting and mentoring programs, as well as encouraging businesses to get involved with composting contracts and commercial composting.

D

If you're looking for some easy tips or videos to watch on kind of how all of this works or other options for food waste reduction check out any of our don't waste food at sc, social media and in last but not least, if you want to be an ambassador for don't waste food sc, anyone individual all the way up to manufacturer and anything in between the ambassador program is really just to help promote food waste reduction within our state and also composting is one of the ways that you can participate.

D

So here's my information um and I'm going to try to jump on the chat and see and I'll add those links for you as well um last one I see is pallets, um are good for raised gardens too yeah. So when you're building your own raised, gardens or compost, bins, pallets are great. um You do want to really try to find those untreated wood pellets if you're going to go with that version, just know that you may have to change that wood out as the years go on.

D

I mean they're not going to decompose quickly, but you don't want to have that decomposition of the wood happening with the treated material in there.

A

D

A

Another question yeah would adding more browns help keep rats from invading the compost bin question.

D

We can hope so. um Rats are a whole different story. Of course they can bury into your compost a little different than other animals. Probably will, but keeping your carbon high in your compost will help reduce the smell which is what's going to attract them in the first place, so more than likely, adding more browns will help. I can't promise that it will completely deter them, but it will help great.

A

Thank you. Well, that was excellent. I know amanda could talk about backyard composting for a long time and we are actually going to host another workshop where we talk more about backyard composting, the end of february so stay tuned for that updates will be posted on our website. um We will keep taking questions. We are gonna. I'm gonna wrap up here, really quick with some finishing slides that way.

A

Anyone who needs to jump off can, but if you would like to stay and ask some questions, uh we are happy to hang out a little bit longer to help answer all your questions. So let me just uh share my screen here, so I- and maybe this is better for christina to share but uh christina I'll. Let you share this and I'll put your contact in the chat.

C

Yeah perfect, thank you because I am going to have to jet off here in a second, unfortunately, so um through funding also from dhec, we are in the process of purchasing a limited number of backyard composting, bins that we will provide at no charge to any trust in county residents, so regardless of whether you're in the city or in another area of charleston county that we plan to distribute um probably around earth day in april. So if anyone is interested, uh katie can share my contact information just shoot me an email.

C

um We will have a formal sign up because it will be first come first serve, but we are excited to get these out to folks. So um everyone can kind of put their new knowledge from amanda to use.

A

Great thanks so much so I put christina's email on the chat, so you can uh message her if you're interested in being on the list to know when the information comes out. So again, I just want to reiterate: this is a pilot program, we're testing options, so please bear with us appreciate your flexibility again. Our first initial period is six months. If things are going well, there is potential to expand it based on funding and how successful we are the program is, then we can request future funding in in the future too.

A

So there will actually be a page on the compost website, where I will be posting updates, so you'll see if any programs change.

A

And now I want to tell you how to get your free swag. So let me post this all in the chat and it's not letting me post it all at once, because it's too big okay, one piece at a time so you're pretty swag, so um the first uh 200 people that signed up for a workshop, one of the workshops are on the list. If they were we've had over 500 people sign up.

A

So, unfortunately, there's just not enough for everyone, I think, probably about 80 percent of the folks on this call are eligible for a bin. I will email you literally when we are done this webinar with instructions on how to pick it up. If you, if you didn't get a bin, it's really easy to purchase your own. You might find that you don't want a green bin anyway uh or you can upcycle something I uh so so.

A

If you do get a bin, it will have a little sticker on it with what items we accept, we're, also giving out a sample of liner bags um and we'll give you the flyer too. If you did not get a bin, we have some stuff for you too, so you can pick up a magnet for your fridge or a sticker to put on your own bin. That will tell you what items are acceptable and not.

A

You can also pick up some sample compostable liner bags, and these uh these are all available at two george, so I'll send out the information here shortly to the folks who want a bin. But if you didn't, you can show up to two george over by the permit center there's a security guard who sits over there.

A

His name is jason, he's excellent and he can help you access either your free compost bin or this the extra magnet or sticker and some of these liner bags. So everyone should be able to grab something if you need it. If I highly encourage you to start picking them up tomorrow, although the office will be open eight to five, I believe- and uh I would I recommend to pick them up as soon as you can, because they are downstairs into george right now, so uh try to do it by friday at the latest.

A

If you don't pick up your bin by friday, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, have to give them away to other people, because there's so many people on the wait list so make a make an another arrangement with me. If you have a problem with that, but try to pick them up and say they're shared friday, so we hope that will help prevent contamination. Again here is the sign up website. It's just the homepage, compost and again, if we're successful, we could um keep doing this in the future. So here is my contact information.

A

I have put it in the website. You can also follow us on facebook and instagram too put it in the chat. Let's see. I know there are more questions, so I wanted to thank our speakers and also just check in with our other panelists, to see if there are any other thoughts that panelists want to share and then uh feel free to jump off as if you need to and we'll just I'll remain here to answer any questions so learn any thoughts from other panelists.

B

A

B

A

One question that was.

B

Asked earlier was about that raw meat going in there. um We consider that a vector I mean it attracts insects and ticks and other things. So that's something we definitely keep out of there as well meat, and it actually would void our. I mean large amounts, but it would avoid our permit there. So that's the most important thing.

A

Great thank you and let me post in the chat where to pick these up, george is downtown charleston.

A

So again, there's two options: you either get the bin with all the extra bags and stuff, or you can pick up a magnet or sticker to put on your own bin.

A

All right, um I know there are some more questions, so I think I'll just keep going through them. If that sounds good depending on does anyone else have anything to add any other panelists.

B

No okay, I'm gonna have to jump off here, but I appreciate it. Thank everyone. So much. Okay,.

A

B

You so much yeah have them reach out to me absolutely. Thank you all.

A

Right appreciate your time.

C

And katie I've got a jet as well, but my email is in the chat. So if anyone has any county specific questions or how to compose questions, anything in general, please reach out to me directly.

A

C

Good. Thank you so much thanks. Everyone.

A

If you want to bend the email from me will come tonight, I work late. Okay, uh going back to my questions, we're going to pick up the binary.

A

D

While you're going through those, I did see one on there about worm, bins um and I'll jump on that real fast, while you're looking through some others, um so so vermicomposting or worm compost bins are going to be very different than your backyard bin. um Now, worms, like I mentioned, will go to your backyard bin or pile, um but if you're wanting to start a vermicomposting, that's really the start of that is really an indoor project. I know people always look at me and go amanda. Did you just say bring the worms inside my house?

D

Yes, I did um so really. You need to start those in their own little environment. I I have found that especially veterinarian offices will give you the styrofoam coolers, um that, like medicine and things come in, if they're not reusing them, um that's a great place to start them. Styrofoam can't be recycled. um We don't want to make it in. You know, fly everywhere when it gets picked up by the garbage truck, so use it for a worm bin. You can poke some holes in the top.

D

You can buy worms usually from a local nursery or they have a source that you can buy them. um People have ordered them on amazon. I don't know how well that works, but they they start off very small amount with very small amounts of food waste.

D

So if you have like a styrofoam container with say, 500 worms in it, um you're probably only going to go through a handful of food waste, maybe a week or every other week, they'll go through it pretty fast, but it's not um it's not a way to really get rid of all your food waste unless you're wanting to really start like a ginormous worm, compost bin- um I, if you I think rachel kenneth- is the one that asked that rachel. My information is on there.

D

If you'd like to have a sidebar conversation about burma, composting I'd be glad to walk you through getting that set up, but it's a different ratio completely than backyard composting.

A

Okay, I don't see any other questions in the q. A we haven't answered. I don't think.

A

Ariel, do you see anything else in the chat.

E

No, I think, you're good.

A

Okay, does anyone have their hand up.

A

I don't see any hands up and I don't see any other questions.

A

Okay, so to get the free bin, you had to sign up for the webinar and sign up for the program. Ideally, you had to sign up for the webinar, so the thought is people trained who are very well trained will be most successful.

A

What is amanda's contact info? Could you put that in the chat amanda.

D

Yep, I just replied rachel, sorry about that.

A

Awesome sounds great, so I think we're good. I don't see any other questions.

A

Last call open question.

A

Okay, well, let's wrap up well! Thank you, everyone for your time. I appreciate it thanks for um seeing a few minutes over to our panelists. It takes everyone being involved to make progress on addressing climate change, but every little bit counts and every little bit adds up. So thank you for doing your part and for participating in this program, and please let us know if you have any input along the way.

A

I hope everyone has a great night.