Starting out, October 2023

On our two year anniversary it is fun to think back to how little we knew when we first started out.  All we had was some theory (thanks to ILSR Composting 101!), enthusiasm and a few households who were willing to give it a go. We started off using compost tumblers which, while great for small household back yard composting, are totally inappropriate for our project.  We also had no equipment - no protective gloves, no composting thermometer and no aerator.  Not surprisingly our goal of hot composting was not quickly achieved.  What followed was months of learning by trial and error, often the best way to learn!  Hours were spent researching, watching YouTube videos and on experimenting.  Luckily for GCP, there is a very supportive composting community across America and we have benefited from the huge wealth of information available to us from the Community Compost Coalition.  We have also been supported throughout by Waste Free Greenwich who have composted along side us, given us advice and really encouraged us every step of the way.

Two years on

In two short years we have expanded from 6 households to around 20.  We are really well equipped with gloves (!), a compost thermometer, large composting containers, and a wonderful aerator.  Much of this equipment came from generous donations. We are now experts on hot composting and have sufficient knowledge to present at schools and fairs. We have diverted almost 15,000lbs of kitchen scraps from landfill and have made hundreds of pounds of beautiful finished compost.  We are very proud of what we have achieved and very thankful to live in such a supportive and encouraging neighborhood.  It is our hope that the next year will see the growth of GCP and hopefully some innovations to streamline our process.  Witness what our third year brings by following our blog.  Happy composting!

3 Years On.....

New Year, New Team!

Happy New Year and Happy New Team:

Sebastien Fahimi, Aiden Towle, Ryan Chass, and Nayan Shah have now taken over from GCP’s original co-founders and are continuing the project’s work to divert kitchen waste from landfill.

The mission remains the same: to improve our local environment, make responsible waste disposal easy for the people around us, and have some fun along the way.

Some facts and figures as GCP enters its fourth year:

  • 22,636 lbs of kitchen scraps diverted from landfill

  • Converted into nutrient-rich compost for reuse in the community

  • Approximately 19 cubic yards of landfill space saved

  • More than 900,000 lbs of estimated CO2e emissions avoided

*Our estimated CO2e reduction reflects the greenhouse-gas emissions avoided by diverting kitchen scraps away from landfill and into composting. When food waste decomposes in landfill, it can produce methane, a particularly potent greenhouse gas. Our calculation uses the total weight of food scraps diverted and an emissions conversion factor that estimates the potential methane impact over a 20-year period.

In simple terms: every bucket of scraps we compost instead of sending to landfill helps reduce waste, create useful compost, and lower greenhouse-gas emissions.

Sebastien Fahimi

CEC

Chief Executive Composter

Aiden Towle

CTO

Chief Transport Officer

Ryan Chass

CCO

Chief Carbon Officer

Nayan Shah

CCC

Chief Compost Correspondent