Composting basic kitchen organics such as apple cores, eggshells and coffee grinds can divert up to 40% of our waste stream from ending up in the landfill.
After some delay over the summer—due to several life events such as births, weddings and vacations—the fully built Topanga Community Compost Hub is ready to launch on Saturday, September 28, from 10 a.m. to noon on site at the Topanga Community Club.
This collaboration between Messenger Mountain News, Topanga Community Club, and LA Compost will facilitate the diversion of compostable kitchen waste that makes up to 40 percent of the material we send to the landfill.
Kitchen organics is a community resource that is frequently sent to landfills. Many individuals have tried with varying degrees of success to build and maintain their own composting bins. Not everyone can afford the time or the space at home to try out composting. A Composting Hub is an effective way to help the community reduce waste and retain the resulting compost to green community gardens.
On hand will be Kenny Derieg, Westside Regional Hub Manager for LA Compost. He will be giving a comprehensive composting workshop to all who attend. Those who attend the workshop will receive credentials for participation in the Composting Hub. Approximately twice a month Derieg will be offering additional workshops to certify new participants.
The Compost Hub will be open to certified participants most days of the week with a specific time frame to be arranged with the Community Club.
The launch will include acceptance of the first kitchen scrap collections from those community participants whose freezers are packed with coffee grounds and banana peels and containers are brimming with onion and citrus peels.
suffiecient aeration to help the kitchen scraps cook and break down.
To reiterate, the Compost Hub will accept: Fruits and Vegetables (make sure to remove stickers first)—Coffee Grounds and Filters, Eggshells, Shredded Newspapers, Old Flowers.
The Hub will not accept: Meat and Dairy Scraps, Cat Litter, Pet Feces, Fats or Greasy Foods, Bioplastics*
* We know, it says compostable, but compost piles break down food scraps faster than the time it takes for bioplastics to decompose.
Within a matter of weeks, the Compost Hub will be producing rich, earthy topsoil that we are dubbing “Topanga Gold.” This community resource that is frequently sent to landfills will, with proper composting, remain and be recycled into community and home gardens to enrich the soil and produce healthy plants and produce.
Excellent news… I’m in! Even if I can’t make the first session I hope to be able to attend very soon
It would be great if we could have made available some free or very inexpensive compost bins for home use.