Community Composting
In Hood River County

Why Compost?

Before we began our discussions on how we could achieve our goals, we found it important to discuss why we felt it was crucial to compost and what information we had to it's benefits. Our planet is a completely closed system with a limited supply of non-renewable resources and a growing population of people. Our society seems to be becoming increasingly concerned with the shortages of raw materials, clean air, fresh water, fossil fuels, and healthy, valuable soil in which to grow our food. So, the next step seems to be to actively promote and encourage our communities to move towards lifestyles that include conservation, recycling and conscious consumption.

Presently, each person in the United States throws away about 4.5 pounds of garbage each day. In Oregon, the average is much higher at almost 7 pounds of garbage a day. 20-25% of this garbage is organic food waste. The majority of this food waste has the potential of becoming deep rich soil to grow food in and, in the process, recycling nature's resources. If this organic waste is not recycled directly back into our soil, it is disposed of in landfills where it can take much longer to decompose and will then contribute to producing methane gases which are significant in several global environmental issues.

On a smaller scale, there are recent state waste reduction mandates in Oregon as well as a ban on burning garbage within the city limits of Hood River. These issues bring us to look to alternatives to our conventional disposal methods. As a community, we have access to an immense amount of organic waste from our grocery stores, restaurants, farms, orchards and households. We are developing a plan to fulfill our mission by collecting reusable waste, developing a composting site, and producing compost that will be available to county residents to use in home gardens. Compost improves soil texture, protects plants from pests and disease, builds soil fertility and provides essential plant nutrients.