Finally got my neighbors on board with a community compost pile after 8 months of trying

I've been pushing for this since last spring. My street in Portland has 12 houses but nobody wanted to share a compost bin because they thought it would smell. So I just started my own little pile in my backyard and kept quietly adding to it. Last week after the heat wave, I had some extra veggie scraps and knocked on doors asking if anyone wanted me to take theirs. Three neighbors actually said yes. Then one of them texted the neighborhood group chat and now six households are dropping off food waste at my place. It's not huge but it keeps about 15 pounds of kitchen scraps out of the landfill every week now. I'm thinking of getting a second bin. Has anyone else managed to get a whole block involved in something like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

emma_garcia5d ago

My buddy in Seattle tried something similar and it actually blew up way bigger than he expected. He started with just two neighbors saving their coffee grounds and eggshells for him, but then someone in his building mentioned it at a block party and suddenly like 15 households were in on it. They ended up building three giant bins out of pallets in a shared alley space and now they have a little sign-up sheet for who brings the brown stuff each week.

dylan4635d ago

I hear you on that sign-up sheet thing, that's actually the part that makes or breaks it. A lot of people talk about starting a neighborhood compost pile but they skip the boring part of actually keeping track of who brings what and when. Without that sheet, you end up with ten bags of coffee grounds and no dried leaves, and the pile just turns into a slimy mess. My buddy in Portland did the same thing with a shared bin behind his apartment, and the sign-up sheet saved the whole project because it forced everyone to actually learn what "browns" are instead of just dumping kitchen scraps. He even had a little plastic bin with a lid where people dropped off shredded paper and cardboard, so the ratio stayed balanced. It's not the most exciting system but it keeps the rats away and the compost cooking.

fisher.thomas5d ago

Hold on, I see it a little differently. Fifteen households funneling food scraps into three big bins in a shared alley sounds like a recipe for rats and complaints, not good compost. I've seen small scale stuff like that go sideways fast when no one's really in charge of turning the pile or managing the ratio of greens to browns. One person goes on vacation for two weeks and the whole system falls apart because nobody else knows what to do. It works great in a tight knit group where everyone is committed, but most neighborhoods can't handle that level of trust and organization without it turning into a headache.