Changing the culture

Composting has always been seen as a rural endeavor, something for earthy hippies who don't mind the occasional scent of decomposition invading their backyard. And to some extent, that is true, but lately some of us have been wondering, "What if it weren't?" Make it Matter Movement (MiM) volunteers began to imagine a world wherein composting was the norm, rather than some esoteric endeavor. After all, MiM members grew up in the recycling world.

Emerging Recycling Culture

For those of us over 40, recycling is something we had to learn to do. When we were younger, we got letters from our municipalities telling us there would be special collections for garbage. Over the last decade, an increasing number of places consider recycling something of a social responsibility. Many places that don't offer  curbside pickup at least have a centrally-located recycling drop off point.

While the recycling efforts over the last two decades has begun to put the breaks on a garbage epidemic, it has not succeeded completely. The cost of trash continues to be a serious concern for local, county and state officials across the country. In New York City, there is a burgeoning movement to make food recycling, or composting, mandatory in the way material recycling is now mandatory. Increasing number of offices have different garbage cans for paper, plastic, glass and trash. Visitors in most homes ask "Where is the recycling bin?" rather than, "Where's the trashcan?" Recycling is pretty much the norm.

A Revolutionary Idea


MiM volunteers came up with the following proposition: What if the next generation sees food composting as normal? Their goal was to kick off the normalization of kitchen composting on the Eastern Shore with an event that promoted the practice as well as taught it to local families.

Partnering with the Delmarva Zoological Society, The Home Depot, the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore and the Foundation in Human Potential, MiM built a vermiculture display designed to be a permanent fixture at the Salisbury Zoo. As part of the display, the kids made a video, describing how to make "under-the-sink" vermiculture boxes at home.

If the first aspect of the MiM vermiculture project was permanence, the second was sustainability. To that end, MiM provided free vermiculture boxes to the first 100 children who attended the event. As the children arrived, MiM volunteers taught them (and their parents) how to put a box together and, most importantly, how to maintain it.

Critical Worm Facts


The boxes the children were given will double the worm population every 90 days. That means, eventually, the boxes will fill with worms and dirt. The children were encouraged to either spread the excess worms and dirt into their gardens, or to give a friend the excess worms so the friend could start their own composting box. Even if only a few children spread the word, entire families left the zoo that day with a better understanding of the ease as well as of the importance of food recycling.

It's just a start, but when recycling bins began showing up throughout the 1980s people joked about having to sort their garbage. By the 1990s people stopped joking and, by the turn of the century, recycling has become a given. Many participants joked about keeping worms in their kitchens as the program began.

Many more will continue joking about "under-the-sink" composting for some time. But as the children who participated in Saturday's event come of age, and as MiM volunteers take their places as community leaders, the idea of food recycling won't seem so weird. Moreover, the necessity for it will be clearer than ever.