Newfoundland & Labrador
Composting Co-operative
Building healthier soils and communities together
The Newfoundland & Labrador Composting Co-operative aims to provide a comprehensive platform enabling members to shape the composting movement in Newfoundland and Labrador by sharing resources and services such as compost literacy and educational materials, data and research, and site development.
Mission
The NL Composting Co-operative is a resource platform for communities to come together and explore grassroots solutions to organics management.
Vision
Small-Scale Composting empowers collective action and becomes an organic part of every community.
What we do
The NL Composting Co-operative is a resource station that supports individuals and organizations interested in developing their own grassroots, small-scale composting sites and programs within their communities.
Site Development
Mapping our needs from start to finish.
- Consulting services to assist with accessing funding, business plans, and logistics or operation of composting sites, including:
- Grant applications and logistical operations of organics collection (i.e. site development and community curbside pickup services)
- Reporting (including social, economic, and environmental benefits)
- Understanding Labour Market Information
- Partnership brokering (establishing, maintaining, and leveraging ‘Waste Reduction Partnerships’)
- Workshops and training
Compost Literacy & Education
Educating our family, friends, neighbours, and politicians.
- Educational resources
- Promotional materials
- Workshops
- Programming and program design (including after-school programs/summer camps)
- Customized small-scale composting toolkits (e.g. infographics, social media content, etc.)
What is small-scale composting and why should we use it?
SSC is a decentralized composting model that recovers and processes organic material locally (in neighbourhoods, schools, businesses, farms, etc.), creates jobs, engages and educates the community, uses the compost for soil enhancement and food production, closing the food loop.
This small scale approach to composting can be tailored to your neighbourhood or community.
It’s happening successfully in communities around the world, largely because it’s a low-cost, low-tech, low-risk effort, creates compost to produce food, and empowers people. It reduces transportation costs and tipping fees for municipalities.
These local, small-scale programs run a lower risk of contamination compared to large-scale programs, so that the compost produced can be sold or used by the community to produce food.
Community members have a low-investment way to help contribute to a healthier climate without worrying about having the time, space, knowledge or physical capacity to compost in their own backyards. And they get rich compost for their own gardens if they want!
Community composting also diverts food “waste” from landfills, creates green jobs and employs people who might face significant barriers to employment, contributes to food production, and ultimately creates rich, thriving communities.
Municipalities save money in the long-term by reducing “waste” that goes to landfills.
Small-scale production allows neighbourhoods and communities to use the compost produced towards food production.
Transparent, engaged process where all parties know what’s happening every step of the way.
Land Acknowledgement
We respectfully acknowledge the land on which we gather as the ancestral homelands of the Beothuk, whose culture has now been erased forever. We also acknowledge the island of Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland) as the unceded, traditional territory of the Beothuk and the Mi’kmaq. And we acknowledge Labrador as the traditional and ancestral homelands of the Innu of Nitassinan, the Inuit of Nunatsiavut, and the Inuit of NunatuKavut.
We recognize all First Peoples who were here before us, those who live with us now, and the seven generations to come. As First Peoples have done since time immemorial, we strive to be responsible stewards of the land and to respect the cultures, ceremonies, and traditions of all who call it home. As we open our hearts and minds to the past, we commit ourselves to working in a spirit of truth and reconciliation to make a better future for all.
(Borrowed with gratitude from First Light)
