Author: Dianarose Fraum Blivaiss, Education Committee
On August 2, 2023 Senator Dick Durbin spoke to a full house at the Food Tank and White House summit Empowering Eaters: Access, Affordability, and Healthy Choices, Chicago. Addressing food waste, he stated,
“the obvious question for us is, is there an alternative?…I live in a condo here [Chicago]…In the condo here there is a trash chute. What do you put in the trash chute? Whatever you have..food waste…something that isn’t quite recyclable…becoming part of landfills and creating problems in years to come. We have to be more thoughtful about it. I went to one community where they have a compost collection unit…we need more of it. We have to be thoughtful about this…”
Senator Dick Durbin’s words deeply resonate with me. In fact, it’s this realization that led me to start composting at my apartment complex in Atlanta in 2018. At the time, my apartment complex provided trash and recycling, which I saw on two separate occasions being dumped into the same truck. After the second occurence, I signed up for a composting service.
Fast forward a few years, I live in a new home in a skyscraper in Chicago, but I face the same problem: there’s no alternative to throwing food down the chute and hoping that your recycling gets recycled. I signed up for a composting service in Chicago, where I paid $20 for a service to collect my food scraps one time per month. I couldn’t help but think that there has to be a way to make it more accessible for people to compost. How do we reduce barriers–financial, educational, and logistical to empower more people to compost? With these questions in mind, I joined the Education Committee of the Illinois Foods Scrap & Composting Coalition (IFSCC).
People in IFSCC were driving real, positive change, educating both individuals and large institutions such as hospitals and schools on the numerous benefits of composting and, in many cases, actually implementing these food scrap diversion programs. I was inspired and eager to hear what was being done to educate residents of multi-unit buildings on how to start composting programs, but as it turns out, the Education Committee identified this area as a gap. As a volunteer organization, the projects being worked on and materials being developed in IFSCC tend to align with volunteers’ interests. I knew I was well-positioned to create educational content for those aiming to initiate composting programs in multi-unit buildings. In that context, I invite you to read about my Step-by-step Guide to Creating a Composting Program in a Multi-Unit Building in Chicago.
I was the first resident to register with Block Bins on March 30th, 2023, so as I write this blog, Skybridge’s Composting Program has been live for just over four months. To date, we have ten residents subscribed to Skybridge’s Composting Program and have diverted 455 gallons of food from landfill, resulting in a carbon offset of 47 gallons of gasoline. If you take the average car going 25 mpg, those 47 gallons would get you 1,175 miles, or over halfway from Chicago to Los Angeles! While we hoped to have more residents join, we’ve made great progress.
Before Skybridge’s Composting Program, four residential units (including myself) indicated that they were composting, so we’ve increased the number of units composting by six and lowered the cost. During the Summer, more people are away and eat out, so I’m not surprised that our usage is going down. That said, we are already thinking of ways to grow our Skybridge Composting Community, such as including information on the composting program in new residents’ welcome packets.
My sincere hope is that by sharing my experience in a step-by-step guide, you have the knowledge and resources to implement a composting program in your building.
Best of luck, and if you have any questions on any part of this process, please don’t hesitate to reach out. You can find me on LinkedIn: Dianarose Fraum Blivaiss.
Inquiries about the Step-by-step Guide to Creating a Composting Program in a Multi-Unit Building in Chicago can also be directed to the Illinois Food Scrap & Composting Coalition Education Committee by emailing illinoiscomposts@gmail.com. Interested parties are always welcome to join the education committee calls to learn more or discuss related efforts and partnerships.