Composting Food Scraps
The mission of the Composting Action Team is to enable a community-wide food composting solution for the city of Ashland that supports local farms.
Our team:
- Candace Turtle, Ashland Climate Collaborative Co-Founder
- Flavia Franco, Southern Oregon Food Solutions
- Magdalena Winter, Ashland Community Composting
- Adam Holtey, Rogue Produce Community Compost
- Bob Altaras, Lend Me a Plate
Why Compost Food Scraps?
When food waste is dumped in landfills and sealed off from oxygen, methane, aka “natural gas” is created.
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas. Over a 20-year period, it is 80 times more potent at warming than carbon dioxide. Methane has accounted for roughly 30% of global warming since pre-industrial times and is proliferating faster than at any other time since record-keeping began in the 1980s. (Source)
Because methane is both a powerful greenhouse gas and short-lived compared to carbon dioxide, achieving significant reductions would have a rapid and significant effect on atmospheric warming potential. (Source)
The Community Composting action team is focused on creating a city-wide system for composting food scraps, which will support local farms and meet our goal of reducing methane.
Benefits of Composting
Supports Local Farms
When farms use compost, we enrich our soils and food and support farmers, who can avoid buying fertilizers.
Creates Healthy Soil
Composting enriches soils — and healthy soils sequester water, carbon, and nutrients.
Reduces Climate Footprint
Removing food scraps from landfills reduces methane emissions which are up to 80 times worse than carbon in the short run.
Composting Options in Ashland
FREE! Compost at home – Southern Oregon Food Solutions shares ideas on how to compost at home.
$ – Neighborhood community compost drop-off sites accepts meat and bones:
Ashland Community Composting has a drop site in South Ashland that can be used 7 days a week. This firm can also do Ashland curbside pick-up. Have an event? They can also pick up compost for weddings, reunions, and conferences. This material is composted using the bokashi method at a farm near Callahan’s Restaurant. Sign up for one of the meat and bones sites or email Magdelena Winter at ashlandcoco@gmail.com for more information.
$ – Neighborhood community compost drop-off sites/pickup options does NOT accept meat or bones:
Rogue Produce / Community Compost collects vegetarian food scraps from these sites and delivers them to three local farms for use in composting or feeding livestock.
Ashland Scienceworks – Now that the Grower’s Market is closed, you can still drop your scraps at the Science Works parking lot on Tuesdays between 9:00 am and 12:30 pm. This service costs $30 between December 2024 through February 2025.
Ashland Bellview Grange – 1050 Tolman Creek Rd. Scrap drop-off hours are between 9 am and 1 pm every Thursday!
Sign up for one of the no meat/no bones sites or call Adam Holtey at 541-301-3426 for other neighborhood drop sites.
$$ – Front door compost pickup service each week
- Service provided by Rogue Produce
- Service provided by Ashland Compost Solutions
New sites are added and you can get free service if you start a site in your neighborhood.
If none of these options work, check out the FREE community food scraps drop-off at the Tuesday Market from March through November!
The Ashland Climate Collaborative manages free bins at the Ashland Tuesday Market from March 5 through November 26, 2024. 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. Thanks to the Ashland Food Co-op for sponsoring!
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
Thanks to our funding partner Ashland Food Co-op, and pick up by Community Compost.
Food Waste
While the Ashland Climate Collaborative Community Compost action team is focused on composting, the problem of food waste is also a huge consideration.
Project Drawdown states:
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. The food we waste is responsible for roughly 8 percent of global emissions.
– Drawdown
To learn more about minimizing food waste, visit Southern Oregon Food Solutions.
We need to reduce food waste and divert scraps from our landfills:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a report in 2021 on the environmental impacts of food waste (PDF, 12 MB). Each year, U.S. food loss and waste embodies 170 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (million MTCO2e) GHG emissions (excluding landfill emissions) – equal to the annual CO2 emissions of 42 coal-fired power plants. This estimate does not include the significant methane emissions from food waste rotting in landfills. EPA data show that food waste is the single most common material landfilled and incinerated in the U.S., comprising 24 and 22 percent of landfilled and combusted municipal solid waste, respectively.
Food Waste and Its Links to Greenhouse Gases, by Jean Buzby, USDA Food Loss and Waste Liaison, Jan. 24, 2022
Win Win Win!
Reduce climate pollution, increase nutrition, and support local farms. Here’s how to help!
- Reduce food waste by buying only what you need.
- Compost food scraps at home or through drop-off and pick-up programs.
- Spread the word! Composting reduces fertilizer dependence, restores soil health, sequesters more carbon in the soil, adds biodiversity, and helps soil retain water.
Meet Our Community Compost Team
Adam Holtey
Volunteer, Owner of
Rogue Produce Community Compost
Adam Holtey has lived in the Rogue Valley since he was two years old. In 2011, Adam launched Community Compost, a residential food scrap pickup service. Community Compost prevents this valuable resource from going into our local landfill, instead donating it to local farmers, who recycle the nutrient-rich material back into the soil to grow the local produce we all love.
Adam’s interest in agriculture was sparked by generations of his family farming in Iowa. This legacy, combined with the fact that no one else was providing this needed service in the Rogue Valley, propelled him to get involved.
Bob Altaras
Volunteer, Founder of SOMRA and Lend Me a Plate
Bob has lived for over 25 years as a resident of Ashland. He’s a retired business owner, tutor, and mentor. An active volunteer, Bob works on issues related to homelessness and waste reduction. He is one of the founding members of Southern Oregon Master Recyclers in Action (SOMRA) and its Lend Me A Plate project – and is a strong advocate for the concept and practice of Zero Waste.
Bob is an avid gardener and composter and enjoys world travel, hiking, biking, fishing, woodworking, and singing.
Candace Turtle
Co-Founder and Board Member Emeritus, Ashland Climate Collaborative
Candace Turtle was the first compost captain for a Community Compost neighborhood drop-off point. She also helped establish the free food scraps drop-off bins at the Tuesday farmers market. She has a background in communications and development, working as a reporter or editor for The Miami Herald and San Jose Mercury News, as well as in management positions. She later headed up communications and marketing for Trend Micro, Inc. in its start-up phase. Locally, Candace was the executive director of Ballet Folklorico Ritmo Alegre and managed communications and development for the Ashland Independent Film Festival. She founded Rotary of Ashland’s Environment & Sustainability Committee and sits on the board of the J.F. Kapnek Trust.
Flavia Franco
Volunteer, Founder of
Southern Oregon Food Solutions
Flavia Franco has been building her climate change knowledge base and outreach experience since 2006, focusing on food waste issues since 2019 when she joined as a volunteer with Southern Oregon Food Solutions.
She completed the Master Climate Protector class sponsored by Southern Oregon Climate Action Now and the Community Composting 101 class sponsored by the Institute of Local Self Reliance and she is an active member of Ashland’s Bellview Grange. She is also a founding member of the Ashland Climate Collaborative’s Neighborhood Climate Action Network.
You may know Flavia from seeing her working at the Tuesday Growers Market compost bins through rain, snow, sleet, and 100° heat.
Magdalena Winter
Volunteer, Founder of
Ashland Community Composting
Magdalena is the Executive Director/Manager of the nonprofit Ashland Community Composting. She studied permaculture design, biodynamic agriculture, and soil regeneration. She most recently completed a Community-Scale Composting Systems course.
Her nonprofit offers food scraps pick up and collection sites in Ashland. They use the bokashi method of breaking down food scraps, which allows meat and bones to be processed into compost through fermentation.
When Magdalena’s not thinking about all things compost, she can be found hiking with her dog.