It’s Monday afternoon and the line at the CX is 12 people deep. Chicken strips and tater tots and salads make their way into the average student’s diet. Half of the salad soaked in ranch
is thrown away.

According to a post from Carnegie Mellon’s Student Affairs’ blog, about 30 to 40 percent of the food produced in the United States gets thrown away. It was stated in an article by NPR that The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the typical American family throws out about $1,600 worth of food each year.

The amount of food going to landfills is extreme, but the reality check hits hard after realizing the difference that composting could make. It takes 25 years for a head of lettuce to decompose in a landfill; all the while it is a part of how methane is being released into the environment, furthering the damage of climate change. Whereas, in a compost, a head of lettuce takes only a few weeks to decompose and begin creating new soil.

Springfield Compost Collective

About a year and a half ago, Justine Campbell wanted to start a nonprofit farm as one of the first regenerative agriculture farms in the Ozarks. Now, she is raising awareness and providing alternative trash options to the community with Springfield Compost Collective.

Springfield Compost Collective’s mission is to create awareness about food waste and educate others on diverting food waste from landfills.

“The whole mission is teaching people to stop throwing away their food. We call it mindful waste management, where you’re being conscious of what you’re doing when you get to the
trash can,” Campbell explained.

Four elements of composting

One of the best alternatives to sending food waste to the landfill is composting. How compost works is by having four elements working together to decompose the food waste and begin creating new soil.

“There are four elements that have to exist in the compost world. It is really easy to make them exist because they are already all around you. You need air. You have to have water, nitrogen (green material, like plants or food scraps) and carbon (brown material, like paper or sawdust),” she said. “You need water because every living thing needs water. You need air because of the
type of bacteria you want in compost is aerobic and needs oxygen.”

Aerobic bacteria is the backbone of composting. It depends on oxygen to help break down the nitrogen and carbon materials in compost. There is also anaerobic bacteria that thrives in landfills where oxygen is deprived. Anaerobic bacteria creates methane and ammonia which is released into the atmosphere and lethally contributes to the amount of greenhouse gases forcing Earth’s temperatures to rise and causing climate change.

Composting at home

Composting at home works best with a minimum size space of 4x4x4, so the compost pile can protect itself from outside factors like snow or freezing rain. It should also be done using a layering system. Every time food scraps are tossed in, a handful of the carbon material, like shredded paper, should be tossed in as well with a small amount of water.

Once the compost reaches 160 degrees, it will need to be turned to allow oxygen to flow through it. Each element is vital to the success of the compost. Carbon and nitrogen materials are needed to allow for the expansion and reproduction of microorganisms, such as aerobic bacteria, in the compost. The microorganisms are what break down the compost and create new soil. Oxygen is needed in the compost because of the aerobic bacteria’s survival dependency on it. The microorganisms are coated in a layer of water and require the layer to survive, hence the need for water within compost. By the time the compost gets to around three feet, it will noticeably begin shrinking.

“I always tell people that this could be something fun to do with your family. I can’t wait to have a kid and open up the compost when it’s kinda cold outside and see the heat and steam
being released,” Campbell said.

Cities that compost

During her journey of starting the Springfield Compost Collective, Campbell spent two weeks traveling along the west coast to research composting on a larger scale within cities.

“This is when sometimes I feel like we live in a different country. It was normal there. You would walk into restaurants, especially in Colorado, and the system was so simple, but it was there. It was a bucket that said compost, and it was a different color with guidelines of what not to put in there. Then there was a recycling bin. And then next to that there was a tiny little trash can. This is where you put the trash, but by the time you go through the these two stages, you should only have a small amount of trash,” she said.

Composting and recycling is everywhere there. It is in malls, restaurants and homes. It is taken seriously.

“Here, in the Midwest, we are so disconnect with our trash even though its a huge issue. This movement of composting and recycling is really big on the west and east coasts. It’s so big that
when you go to San Francisco, they’re the number one composting city in our country. You have to do this in cities, like Portland and Seattle and San Francisco. There is no way around it. And here we’re still disconnected. We haven’t gotten our mind wrapped around that,” Campbell said.

Composting and recycling has changed cities. It has changed the infrastructure and offered more opportunities.

“Composting created jobs. Recycling created jobs. So now there are people monitoring these bins and making sure they’re staying clean and being taken out. It was an active process; it wasn’t something people forgot about,” she said. “We could do it here. We could be a little city that resembles good change for the Midwest.”

Community support

After she returned from her trip, she created a business plan from what she learned on the west coast and from her background in sustainable agriculture and plant science. They began picking up food scraps from different businesses to compost.

“By the end of the pilot program, we had diverted almost 30,000 pounds of food waste within just eight months from ten different businesses,” she said.

B2 Cafe, Vito’s Kitchen and the Mudhouse are some of the businesses that participated.

Campbell is very passionate about making sure businesses are recognized, credited and uplifted for being a part of the change and working with their team. Springfield Compost Collective was supported and encouraged by the community from the start, and now it has a diverse board of directors that meet once a month to discuss goals and progress made.

“It was really beautiful to be supported by people you would’ve never guessed. When we were creating the board we were trying to find professionals to be a part of the business, but we also
wanted to mix in community. We never wanted this hierarchy board where all these professionals were sitting at the top but didn’t know what it was like be down here collecting. We wanted a
nice diversity,” she said.

Anyone is welcome to come to the meetings and observe or offer ideas. Shoot an email to the board @sgfcompostivecollective@gmail.com if you’re interested and they’ll get back to you.

Photo via Campbell.

Goals

Springfield Compost Collective is working on many things. First their focus is licensing, building a website, creating subcommittees, planning for an educational facility and creating partnerships with the community.

They’re also hoping to launch more workshops and lectures. They have an annual fundraiser coming up in June as well, called ‘Talking Trash’ where they discuss mindful waste management.

Pyramid of Disposal

One of the biggest points of mindful waste management is going through the Pyramid of Disposal to reduce to amount of trash going to landfills.

First, feed people with the usable food. Leftover scraps from that can be fed to animals. The sludge that cannot be fed to animals should be composted and oils should be given to anaerobic digesters to create energy for the city. Then the very last resort is a landfill.

“The goal is going through this pyramid of processing waste and hoping that it never makes it to a landfill,” Campbell explained.

Other local efforts

Springfield Compost Collective is not the only group working bringing change to the Ozarks. Glendale High School composts food from their cafeteria on campus. They also offer a
gardening class where compost is maintained and vegetables are planted. Campbell wants our city council to reflect the same change that is happening in the community.

“I want our city council people to travel around and see what is happening elsewhere and come back and bring it to our town and say ‘hey we can do this’. Composting doesn’t have to be some
weird voodoo thing. Because it’s actually the opposite. There are some organizations out there that go as far to say that composting is one of the only things that is actually going to save us
from climate change,” she said.

Composting is so important in the fight against climate change because of it’s ability to filter out toxins as well as offer an alternative option to a landfills and applying synthetic fertilizers that actually kill all of the microorganisms in the soil.

Eating more of a plant-based diet is also really imperative to help reduce the individual effect on the planet. It helps with composting as well, because even though meat can be composted, it has to go to a trained facility to be carefully monitored.

“I love the fact that I’ve been able to tie the composting with the food. It’s a huge passion of mine. I went to school to grow food and then it turns out that I’m more into growing soil, like that’s my real passion. I want them to go hand in hand. The idea is that while people are composting and recycling, they’ll be eating better and more locally and being mindful of their trash,” Campbell said.

Springfield Compost Collective is starting a big change in the Ozarks. They are bringing awareness and changing how the Midwest perceives and connects with their trash.

They posted several tips and tricks on their Instagram page about how everyone can make a difference in reducing waste. Follow them on Instagram @springfieldcompostcollective for more information.

Look out for them this summer because exciting things are
coming to Queen City!

Written by Kelli Volonte.