Meet Ashland Community Composting

Looking for an accessible, affordable compost option? Ashland Community Composting has you covered.

At the heart of the organization is Magdalena Winter, a longtime Ashland resident and member of our Compost action team. Three years ago, alongside her friend Ximena, Magdalena started composting for other community members from her own backyard. At the time, she was looking to give back to the community: “I thought, how can I make something that’s a contribution to Ashland and to the environment that I love doing?” Magdalena said. “The obvious answer was composting.”

Magdalena estimates that the Ashland community throws more than 500 tons of food scraps in the landfill each year. (That’s based on the fact that Americans throw out 2.1 tons of food scraps each week.) She couldn’t believe the city didn’t already have a municipal composting option, so she called the DEQ and inquired as to regulations and permits needed to begin her own composting operation on the 12 acres where she lives.

Magdalena was no newbie when she founded Ashland Community Composting. She grew up on a farm in Uruguay, then went on to take permaculture design and biodynamic agriculture courses. But the past three years have been an ongoing learning experience — last year, she took a course on scaling up composting systems for the community.

Until recently, Magdalena has used an unusual composting approach: bokashi. This Japanese method uses fermentation to pickle food scraps before composting. The pickling process kills harmful pathogens, which allows her to compost meat, bones, and dairy — scraps that other composting methods are often unable to handle. “If you can eat it, we can compost it!” Magdalena said. However, as Magdalena scales up her operation, she is relying less on this method — the larger her compost piles get, the more heat they produce as food breaks down. That heat, on its own, is enough to kill pathogens.

In addition to providing community compost, Magdalena is bringing compost to schools: At Trails Outdoor School, she is leading a food-waste audit, which will provide information on what foods kids are eating versus what they’re throwing out, and mentoring an eighth-grader whose capstone project focuses on food waste. Magdalena also composts food scraps for Ashland High School’s culinary class through the school’s Truth to Power Club initiative, which then uses the compost to fertilize their garden. She’s been composting the Siskiyou School’s food scraps for several years, bringing finished compost back to their school garden. “It’s a closed-loop situation,” Magdalena said. Recently, she received a grant from Jackson County Soil and Water to continue this work in schools.

Interested in signing up for Ashland Community Composting? For $25 per month, they offer curbside food-scrap pickup. For $15 per month, they’ll take your compost at a drop-off site in South Ashland (location details available upon signup). For more information, email Magdalena at Ashlandcoco@gmail.com.