The short version: We've been diverting approx. 1 ton per year of food waste and coffee grounds from the landfill since 1997 with great success.

Facility: Our building here at the MO Dept. of Natural Resources has about 250 people give or take plus large meeting rooms which often have dozens more for meetings and conferences. We have a large lunchroom with sink, refrigerators, vending machines etc. downstairs and a smaller station upstairs. A lot of people eat lunch here in the building. Both areas have large commercial 3-carafe coffee machines. A waste sort in 1997 shortly after moving into the building found that as a result of aggressive recycling of plastic, glass, metal and office paper, food waste was the next largest component of the building’s waste stream.

Collection: A 5-gal bucket with lid is used for collection in each area. Signs on the bucket indicate what to put in and what to avoid. Most of the volume/weight is coffee grounds, filter and all. Fruit and vegetable peelings, etc. are welcome. Refrigerators area cleaned out monthly by staff, and we encourage them to throw any spoiled or outdated food in the bucket, as well as flat soda which contains a lot of phosphorus.

Staff volunteer for a week of ‘The Duty." This involves carrying the buckets out to the compost bins, emptying into the bin, covering with ‘daily cover’ material, rinsing the buckets at a janitor’s sink and returning them to their locations. Typically takes about 15 minutes twice a week.

Composting: Compost site was located at the edge of woods for approx. 10 years and was recently moved to a more prominent and visible location in an parking lot island. We use 2 black plastic bins along the lines of the Earth Machine or Home Composter. Daily cover is sawdust and wood shavings from my shop, shredded leaves, shredded yard waste or wood chip mulch, compressed pine shavings sold for horse bedding (bales discarded by a store), or in a pinch, shredded office paper. Daily cover is kept in a plastic garbage can with lid. A coffee can is used to measure a consistent amount.

We found the compost was pretty wet due to the coffee grounds and we got black soldier fly larvae the first year. The bins were then elevated onto forklift pallets for drainage with a chicken wire layer in between to keep critters out. No more BSF larvae but the compost can be a bit wet and anaerobic upon turning. It does heat up particularly in summer and can get dry.

In our Midwest climate the bins freeze in winter. Twice a year, spring and fall, the bins are emptied into a pallet ‘finishing bin’. The previous batch of compost (which is 6 to 12 months old) is removed from the finishing bin. It is usually wonderfully fine textured, but can have very dry clods because it is kept tarped to prevent it from being too wet (pile management is lazy at best, we have paid work to do - YMMV). Very little evidence of wood shavings is visible. The compost is used in plantings around the building or bagged and offered to the composting volunteers for their gardens.

Public Education: A sign about the project was placed next to the bins to educate visitors and educational brochures are placed in a brochure box on the sign post. A raised bed has been constructed for native plants to beautify the spot. The entire area was converted from grass by means of a free delivery of wood chips from the local utility crews. When budgets allow we plan a kiosk with glass covered bulletin boards. One side will be used for composting info and the other for native plant/xeriscape info.

Success rate: Approx. 12 tons of food waste diverted, very loose estimate based on a week of weighing buckets in 1998. No incidents with critters dragging food waste around the parking lot. No odor complaints even though the bins are 10 ft. from parking spaces. Occasional contributions of meat, bones, dairy etc. do not cause major problems due to the large volume. Compost volume and consistency might be increased by more frequent turning and quicker finishing; in our case the goal was waste diversion rather than maximizing compost yield.

I love that you moved your piles to a more visible area and have turned them into a bit of an Educational Area. Our local conservation district has a "demonstration area" in the city park that has a few stops with different types of composting; sort of like a walking tour. I haven't been there in a while, but I like your use of signage and brochures. I'll have to visit it again and see what their signage is like.

KUDOS TO YOU, YOUR STAFF, AND COMPOSTING VOLUNTEERS!!!

I need to shoot some more pics, but the only other time I've tried to post pics on a Gardenweb forum I had problems getting them to show up. If there's a picposting for dummies thread anywhere please point me to it.

Here is a thread with instructions including screenprints that was posted in the lawncare section a couple of years ago.

Bucket with other recycling bins:

Area showing the little raised bed at left (to be expanded) and bins to the right.

Other end showing recycled concrete block finishing bin, to be lined with chicken wire, surrounded by perennials.

Black bin area with recycled concrete block base (we switched from pallets which decompose in a year or so)

Inside the bin...

Sign (not yet moved from the old area)

It's pretty new and we've had dry weather so it doesn't look that good, but once the flowers grow in around the block bin and we get some signage it'll look better I think.

I think its good that you have brought them out in the open so people can see that they dont smell horrible and other bad stereotypes

Chuck

We really should put out a brochure about this but we're talking about a state where per capita spending on the environment varies from 48th to 50th in the nation. Just don't have the people and resources to do as much as we could.

I work at a library and we have discussed composting on-site. The consensus seems to be that the city would definitely not support it and we would have to disguise our pile. Then we discussed using worm bins, but nothing really came of that. Unfortunately, the only other really gung-ho person left for another job, and now it's just me and one other person who are really concerned about it, so it is a bit difficult to get others interested.

In the meantime, in addition to all recycling, I occasionally take home my co-workers' food scraps if I catch them. They're no longer surprised when I point to a banana peel and ask what they're planning on doing with it.

Kudos to you and your co-workers. And thanks for sharing the pictures.

Dee

Convincing most people that composting can and should be done in public places can be a real challenge. To me it's just like having a recycling bin for cans and bottles. Just another bin. Someone has to tend it a bit, but if done right, it's harmless, and a small public compost operation can be a great educational tool. I wish you success in the future with yours.

I too work at a library and started by "comandeering" banana and orange peels. Since I'm only in a couple of times a week, I asked if I could leave a 5-gal bucket in the breakroom. I pointed out that my bucket has a lid and our breakroom garbage does not, promised to switch it for an empty one atleast once a week, and would gladly accept plant materials from our houseplants and the floral arrangements a Friend of the Library freshens up regularly. I now have 2 co-workers who take buckets home with them and return when full plus the breakroom bucket. Slowly but surely!

We have an old 10-gal aquarium that was donated eons ago for a summer kids project and I'm currently trying to figure a way to use it as a worm bin. I've never vermicomposted (yet), but I think it would be neat to have one in glass so the kids could sort of "watch the process". We get a lot of field trips during the school year and I'd like to make the most of their time at the library. If it's successful it could perhaps lead to worm bins in the classroom too :)

Like Tox said: " As long as they get into a bin somewhere, consider it a success."

Compostskate, I actually used to have two co-workers bring their kitchen scraps into me - and even a few patrons, if you can believe that! Then they all went and started composting on their own, lol. Which is, after all, a really good thing, even if I lost the goods.

I already bring home all the recycling from the library because we don't even recycle, so I don't want to lug too much stuff home. And if they don't even recycle, it really will be a stretch to get them composting on-site. But you gave me an idea - I think I need to talk to the children's librarian and if I make a worm bin part of the children's room, it may just work....

Thanks for the idea, and thanks again to you, Tox, for your inspiration, lol!

Dee

Rock on!

The worms don't really like light I was thinkig you might have it covered with decorated blanket or something until someone wants a peek its not that the light will hurt them but they will go to the inside and you will never be able to see the worms
If you need some worms let me know I might be able to spare some for a good cause

Sometimes its amazing how hard it is to get some people on board with things like this glad some of you are getting good results

Thanks for the support Jonas, I will definitely keep you in mind when it comes time to get worms hehe.