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?
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)
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?
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 HOLTEY
Bob Altaras
Candace Turtle
Flavia Franco
Magdalena Winter
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.
Option 2: Compost services
Drop-off sites and pick-up options
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
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.
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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