Compost

Compost Your Food Scraps

Did you know that composting food scraps is a powerful way to eliminate climate pollution? When food scraps are diverted to local farms, it enriches soil and feeds animals — it’s a win for everyone.

Why compost food scraps?

Why compost food scraps?

When food waste is dumped in landfills and sealed off from oxygen, methane, (natural gas) is created.

Methane is a powerful and polluting greenhouse gas. Over 20 years, it is 80 times more potent at warming than carbon dioxide. (Source)

“Cutting methane is the strongest lever we have to slow climate change over the next 25 years…,” – Inger Andersen, UN Environmental Programme executive director (Source)

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Benefits of Composting

SUPPORTS LOCAL FARMS

When farms use compost, we support farmers, who can avoid buying expensive fertilizers.

CREATES HEALTHY SOILS

Composting enriches soils, boosts crop yields, and improves the nutritional value of our food. Healthy soils sequester water, carbon, and nutrients.

REDUCES CLIMATE POLLUTION

Removing food scraps from landfills reduces emissions. Landfills create about 14% of methane worldwide.

Ready to take the next step?

Compost Team

We’re Here to Help!

Our Community Compost Action Team is on a mission to reduce food waste and make it easy for all residents of Ashland to compost their food scraps. This will help us support local farms and meet our goal of reducing climate pollution.

Community Compost

Adam Hotley
ADAM HOLTEY
Bob Alteras
Bob Altaras
Candace Turtle
Candace Turtle
Flavia Franco
Flavia Franco
Magdalena Winter
Magdalena Winter
compost options

Composting options in Ashland

Option 1: FREE! Compost at home

Thanks to Southern Oregon Food Solutions for these great ideas about how to compost at home.

Backyard composting

Option 2: Compost services

Drop-off sites and pick-up options

Ashland Community Composting

Ashland Community Composting

Accepts meat and bones

Ashland Community Composting has a drop site in South Ashland that can be used 7 days a week. This organization also offers curbside pick-up in Ashland.

Have an event? They can pick up compost for weddings, reunions, and conferences. Material is composted using the bokashi method. 

Sign up for Ashland Community Composting or email Magdalena Winter at ashlandcoco@gmail.com for more information.

Community Compost

Community Compost

Does NOT accept meat or bones

Rogue Produce’s Community Compost collects vegetarian food scraps from sites around town and delivers them to local farms for use in composting or feeding livestock. They also offer curb-side pickup in Ashland. You can start a compost group in your neighborhood!

Sign up for Community Compost or call Adam Holtey at 541-301-3426.

 

Option 3: Free drop-off at the Tuesday Growers Market

The Ashland Climate Collaborative manages free bins at the Ashland Tuesday Market from March through November. Swing by between 8:30 am and 1:30 pm and bring your compost to fill our bins. At the end of the day, we haul this “black gold” to our local farms so they can use it to enrich their soil.

You can freeze scraps until they’re ready for drop-off.

Thanks to our funding partner Ashland Food Co-op, and pick-up partner, Community Compost.

Compost bins at the Tuesday Growers Market in Ashland

ACCEPTED ITEMS

  • All non-meat/non-seafood scraps and leftovers
  • All fruit and vegetable peelings, pits, and shells
  • Pumpkins
  • Rice, pasta, bread, cereal, and oats
  • Egg and nut shells
  • Dairy products
  • Coffee grounds and filters, teabags

NOT ACCEPTED

  • Meat of any kind — beef, port, chicken, or seafood
  • Yard debris — leaves, flowers, wreaths, weeds, plants, or soil
  • Paper products
  • Coal or charcoal
  • Prescription drugs and medications
  • “Compostable” plates, cutlery, and bags
  • Coconut shells

Did You Know?

Spoiled food costs each home in Oregon $1,600+ a year on average.

Source: Don’t Let Good Food Go Bad

What about food waste?

Food waste is a huge consideration.

“When food is wasted, all the energy, resources, and money that went into producing, processing, packaging, and transporting it are wasted, too.  Producing uneaten food squanders a whole host of resources—seeds, water, energy, land, fertilizer, hours of labor, financial capital—and generates greenhouse gasses at every stage.” – Source: Project Drawdown: Reduced Food Waste

Solutions

  • Buy what you eat
  • Eat what you buy
  • Freeze food before it spoils

Donate food

Ashland Emergency Food Bank receives non-perishable food and garden surplus.

Ashland Neighborhood Food Project collects a green bag filled with non-perishable food food twice a month and delivers it to the Food Bank.

Ashland Food Angels collects food daily from markets, bakers, etc., donating 250,000+ pounds of food annually, primarily to the Food Bank and community free meal programs.

Uncle Food’s Diner a feeding program for Ashland’s poor and homeless residents at the Ashland First Methodist Church.

Ashland Compost Articles

Check out compost articles and actionable strategies that highlight our community’s efforts toward a sustainable future.

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