U.S.-based group touts city as a composting leader
When City Farmer dreamed up the idea of turning a vacant Kitsilano lot into a garden oasis of “urban agriculture,” executive director Michael Levenston said, “We were laughed at for using that term. We were told there was no such thing.”
Fast-forward 40 years, and City Farmer is an internationally renowned environmental education centre known for exactly that: urban agriculture.
Last week Vancouver was the only Canadian city featured in a new report by the U.S.-based Institute for Self-Reliance, which highlighted the city for the success of its home-composting program.
The report recognizes City Farmer as an important part of that success for its community outreach and education efforts in partnership with the city.
Brenda Platt, co-director for the institute in Washington, D.C., said they were impressed that the city of Vancouver has given out 47,000 home composting bins over the years.
Platt said it’s impressive that Vancouver maintained their home composting program after implementing green bin pick up in 2010. “Vancouver also subsidizes the bins, making it easy for citizens to home compost and sets households up for success by offering training in partnership with City Farmer, and funds a hotline.”
Vancouver’s Solid Waste Management has administered the city’s home-composting program since 1989, and the city continues to subsidize it as part of the municipal waste strategy. A 2010 study done in Metro Vancouver showed that an average household can keep 448 kilograms of waste off the curb annually when using a home-composting system.
The advent of green bins has made education about the benefits of home composting even more important.
“If you want to be green, composting is a greener way of doing it because the waste doesn’t have to be carted away. If you’re a gardener you want the best soil possible, and compost is the best thing for your soil,” said Levenston.
It’s all part of participating in the cycle: “Through composting you’re understanding our waste, buying stuff, eating the food, putting it in the compost and growing more food,” said Levenston.
The city’s growing obsession with community gardens, and the advent of a new gate that opens on to the Arbutus greenway, is bringing new visitors of all ages to City Farmer. Visitors may come to tour the demonstration garden, have a game on the new pop-up, pingpong table, or take a selfie in front of the wisteria — but chances are they’ll leave knowing a thing or two about composting.
And that makes Levenston very happy: “It’s a very exciting time in the garden.”