Composting at Home Pilot Phases 1 & 2 (March June 2014) Final Report (Condensed) November 7, 2014

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1 Composting at Home Pilot Phases 1 & 2 (March June 2014) Final Report (Condensed) November 7, 2014 This is a great program and I'm very happy and proud to live in a city that supports green programs and infrastructure. S.M. Executive Summary Giving Red Deerians the knowledge and tools they need to compost at home is a top priority action in the Waste focus area of The City of Red Deer s 2011 Environmental Master Plan. Using Community Based Social Marketing techniques, this program addressed the benefits and barriers to composting at home by providing to eligible residents of Red Deer at no cost: 1. Training on how to compost at home 2. Tools needed to compost at home 3. Reference material 4. Ongoing support Phase 1 of the program was launched on March 16, 2012 at Red Deer s Home Show with 300 spaces available. A total of 253 households were signed up and received all the tools and training they needed to start composting. At the Home Show in 2013 we launched Phase 2 of the pilot program, incorporating our learning from Phase 1. We did not yet have the results from Phase 1, but did not want to lose the momentum the program built in its first year so decided to expand the pilot. 200 spaces were available, and 198 households received the tools and training. Participants completed a survey about their composting attitudes and behaviours, and ended their commitment a year later by completing a second survey about their experience. They were The City of Red Deer Page 1

2 also asked to provide photos of their compost and composter, and to submit a record of how much waste (garbage, recycling, yard waste, compostables) their household generated over that time. Total cost for the two year pilot program was $46, Shell s FuellingChange program donated $10,000 the first year, so the cost to The City of Red Deer to start 451 households composting was $36, or $103 per household. Results for the Composting at Home program Phases 1 and 2 were: Goal Status people receive training in composting - Achieved: 549 people attended training workshops in 2012 and households in Red Deer started composting who didn t do it before - 26% of people in Red Deer report composting at home, up from 23% in the 2011 Environmental Services Customer Satisfaction Survey - 80% of new composting households are still composting in one year - There are community leaders/advocates in residential composting - Fulfill EMP goal and targets to decrease the amount of waste going to landfill by 10% and increase waste diverted to 20% by Achieved: 451 households started composting - Not yet achieved: 18.5% of people report composting on 2013 survey, and 22.3% on 2012 survey, down from 23% in Not yet achieved: 72% of participants were actively composting one year later which doesn t quite meet the stretch goal of 80% - Achieved: 55 lawn signs posted in the community declaring they compost, plus 13 demonstration sites in the community - In progress: 38 tonnes of waste diverted through this program, which contributes to our efforts the achievement of these goals. With only 451 households participating in the program it is unrealistic to think these goals can be achieved on the shoulders of this program alone. But it is an important step in the right direction. With at least 72% of participants still actively composting, thirty-eight tonnes of waste diverted from the landfill and overwhelmingly positive feedback, overall this program has achieved what it set out to. Furthermore, the Waste Management Master Plan recommends continuing the program at an intense level through 2017 and at a reduced level in subsequent years after residential organics collection is implemented (p. 73). Therefore we recommend delivering the existing program to 200 households annually through 2017 and examining opportunities to include methods of composting such as vermicomposting and bokashi for those who don t have a back yard. Great program and we are very fortunate to have been a part of this. We will never not compost, we are so happy with the garbage reduction and are excited to use our compost on our flower beds and yard. Thank you so much, I hope more people in Red Deer get the opportunity to do this. P.J. The City of Red Deer Page 2

3 Background Giving Red Deerians the knowledge and tools they need to compost at home is a top priority action in the Waste focus area of The City of Red Deer s 2011 Environmental Master Plan. In % of The City of Red Deer's waste stream was organics, not including yard waste. Organic waste takes up space in the landfill unnecessarily, and creates methane (GHG) emissions and leachate. Furthermore, when composted correctly organic material can be used to create healthier soil. This can reduce the need to purchase synthetic fertilizers, and demonstrates a functioning cycle where waste is used to promote growth. This program intends to get households to install, use and maintain backyard composters to successfully create useful compost. The goals of the program are to: a. Increase ongoing participation home composting in single-family residences b. Create a new normal in Red Deer: most people compost c. Maximize diversion of compostable organics d. Increase awareness of why we want to keep organics out of the landfill: GHG and leachate creation, organics contain valuable nutrients that should be returned to the soil, better if City doesn t have to handle them (i.e. transportation & collection infrastructure), e. Increase awareness of composting household organics at home as a viable option throughout the city f. Increased recognition of the value of compost g. Increase awareness of other choices in a Healthy Yard that may lead to behaviour change We are totally satisfied with your program. Hoping to hear more about further advancement in curb side compost pickup. L.B. Program Description Community Based Social Marketing (CBSM) is based on the premise that just because we know we should do something doesn t mean we actually do it. Giving blood is a good example: the vast majority of us think it s a good idea, but very few of us actually do it. CBSM aims to change behaviour by identifying barriers and benefits to a specific behaviour, designing a strategy to address them, and running a pilot program to analyse results before mounting a full-scale program. 1 This program addressed the benefits and barriers to composting at home by providing at no cost to residents of Red Deer: 1. Training on how to compost in a 2.5 hour interactive workshop, with a limited number of participants in each workshop to ensure individual attention 2. Tools needed to compost including a composter, a kitchen catcher to store organic waste in the house, and an aerating tool to mix the compost 1 Doug McKenzie-Mohr, Fostering Sustainable Behaviour: An Introduction to Community Based Social Marketing (Canada: New Society Publishers, 2011), p. 8. The City of Red Deer Page 3

4 3. Reference material, including a prompt sticker for the front of the kitchen catcher, a howto-compost brochure, slides of the workshop presentation, a composting-at-a glance page, training videos and website links to more information 4. Ongoing support in the form of an address and phone number where they could get help at any time; efforts were also made to check in with each participant by phone, and/or in person The program was originally launched on March 16, 2012 at Red Deer s Home Show with 300 spaces available. Not knowing how Red Deerians would respond to the program, we had extensive promotions planned. However, after the Home Show it became clear that many residents of Red Deer were eager to participate. Eventually, 253 households committed to composting for one year. Participants completed a survey about their composting attitudes and behaviours. This information helped confirm that we had correctly identified barriers and benefits, which would shape the program going forward. Though there was no cost to the program, participants signed a contract confirming and committing to the following: Live in the city of Red Deer and will receive only one set of tools per household Not currently composting but want to learn Attend a 2.5 hour composting workshop Commit to composting for one year Measure and report on results and experience, specifically tracking how much waste their household created weekly and doing the exit survey a year later Allow The City to check on them and their composter occasionally Advise The City of any problems they are having that might deter them from composting Abide by all City bylaws After the workshops, participants were kept engaged via electronic newsletters, phone calls to check in on them, mailing them a copy of their signed contract about half-way through the program, and an invitation to a voluntary review workshop in the spring. In June 2013 participants were sent an exit survey to determine if they were still composting and to learn about their experience. They were also asked to provide photos of their compost and composter, and to submit a record of how much waste (garbage, recycling, yard waste, compostables) their household generated over that time. In spring 2013 we did not yet have the results from the exit surveys for the 2012 participants, so due to the popularity of the first year we ran a second year of the pilot program. In March 2013 Phase 2 of the pilot program was launched, again at the Home Show. 200 spaces were available, and were filled by the time the Home Show ended on Sunday. 198 residents were trained and committed to composting. Minor changes were made to Phase 2, based on what we learned in Phase 1: What we learned 1. People don t ask for help: very few people called or ed with questions. Responses in the exit survey indicating that people wanted the How we addressed it 1. Started checking in with participants in August 2013 using . Then we used a SCiP student to do follow up visits in the spring with those that The City of Red Deer Page 4

5 promised follow-up visit, which may indicate that people were waiting until then to ask questions. 2. Three hundred participants was a very large pilot. In fact it was a full scale program, and the maximum capacity using resources from Parks, Kerry Wood Nature Centre, Waste Management and Environmental Initiatives. 3. This is a labour intensive program. Everything from data gathering and analysis, to workshop management, to follow up and reporting required significant time. Considering all the combined person power, it likely took up half an FTE throughout the course of the program. 4. The closer we got to summer, the more people didn t show up for their scheduled workshops. 5. We should provide more opportunities for people who are already composting but need help, so they don t end up in the program which is intended for people who are not currently composting. 6. Participants are interested in ongoing contact: many expressed appreciation for the electronic newsletters and were disappointed if they didn t receive the promised follow-up contact. One suggestion was to hold a voluntary follow-up workshop so people can ask questions when they have already started composting, and to do so at a working composter so people could see what should be happening. 7. The staff at the Kerry Wood Nature Centre was fantastic and accommodating. We received feedback that the room at Kerry Wood Nature Centre was not big enough. There were some technical issues over which we had no control, and no working composter easily accessible to the public to act as a demonstration site. We also had to move all the tools there just before every workshop, which was labour intensive. 8. We received feedback that we should consider starting the program in the autumn to help people prepare to compost by collecting browns. Trouble accessing browns was identified as one of the problems people encountered. needed help or that we hadn t heard from. 2. Phase 2 was scaled back to 200 participants to be more manageable. 3. We used event management software in Phase 2 to register and manage participants, which greatly decreased the amount of administrative work required. This should decrease in subsequent years when the processes are in place and running smoothly. CBSM programs tend to be labour intensive up front but are more likely to result in behaviour change. 4. To address this in Phase 2 we started running workshops during the first week of April- which was an advantage as it gave people the opportunity to collect browns when doing their spring yard clean up- and finished before May long weekend when people start their own summer activities in earnest. This did not improve the no-show rate however. In 2014 we started overbooking the workshops. 5. For Phase 2 we held two workshops specifically for people who were already composting but struggling. We also improved our online resources, posting how-to videos online. 6. We held a voluntary follow-up workshop in the spring. We also started composting at Civic Yards and holding the workshops there in order to allow people to see a composter in action. 7. Held Phase 2 workshops at Civic Yards, which worked well. 8. If we offered the program in the autumn there would be a disconnect between learning how to compost and actually doing it in the spring. In autumn 2013 we ran a campaign reminding people who want to participate in the program to save leaves, and the Waste section collected some leaves they found during their autumn waste audit. We also included notification in the The City of Red Deer Page 5

6 registration confirmation to save leaves. We encouraged participants to set up a Facebook group to exchange leaves/browns. It was a great action focused program - we had no excuse but to start composting. Now a year later, composting is part of our routine. M.W. Results We are confident that seventy-two percent of participants are still actively composting after one year. Adding? Stirring? Watering? Completed exit survey + 20% no response but assumed still composting Total participants % % Total % Percent 72% 70% 68% 79% Percent still composting (did all three activities in past month) When responding to the exit survey one year later, sixty-eight percent of participants reported still actively adding, stirring and watering their compost. Assuming that twenty percent of those who didn t complete the exit survey are still composting (applying the 80/20 rule, backed up by interactions with participants that indicate some of the people who didn t do the exit survey were still actively composting) we are confident that seventy-two percent of participants are actively composting one year later. 72% of participants were still composting one year later. Trash Tracker results It was important to try to quantify the amount of waste diverted from the landfill, so asked all participants to track how much garbage, recycling and yard waste they put out every week, as well as how many kitchen catchers they emptied in their composters. Response rate: Returned Response rate Phase % Phase % We did receive feedback in the exit surveys for both phases that people did not like tracking their household waste. The City of Red Deer Page 6

7 Below is the average units put to the curb each week for participants who submitted Trash Trackers: Average Values Garbage Recycling Yard Waste Composting Ph.1 Pre- Workshop Ph. 1 Post- Workshop Ph. 2 Pre- Workshop Ph. 2 Post- Workshop No values entered (-23%) (-13%) (-43%) No values entered (-17%) (-6%) (+60%) Average garbage to the curb was reduced by 23% in Phase 1 which is in line with how much we expect composting to reduce trash. However Phase 2 results were lower than expected at only 17%. Interestingly, recycling also decreased slightly in both years. One can hope that this is due to an increased awareness of consumption habits, but there is no evidence of that. It could also mean that some materials that had to date been recycled were now being diverted to the composter, i.e. egg cartons, paper towel and toilet paper rolls. Participants reported that 7930 kitchen catchers (16.7 tonnes) of organic waste were diverted from the landfill due to this program. Considering only about one third of participants submitted Trash Trackers and many of those were not complete for the entire one year period, this is likely a conservative estimate. If we assume that each household that was still composting one year later (326 households per page 6) diverted an average of 55.8 kitchen catchers over the year (7930 kitchen catchers/142 participants who submitted Trash Trackers) the program diverted 38 tonnes of organic waste over two years. That s about 26 of these cars, and a tiny portion of what could be diverted if everyone composted: An estimated 38 tonnes (equivalent to 26 of these cars) of organics were diverted from landfill The City of Red Deer Page 7

8 Considering that roughly 90,000 tonnes of residential, commercial and industrial waste were landfilled in 2012, 38 tonnes is a drop in the bucket. However, if we can reduce household waste by even 17%- as was demonstrated is possible by this program- widespread composting at home could translate into huge waste reduction. We can't get over how composting has cut down on the amount of garbage that we take to the curb every week. L.B. Resources Total cost for the two year pilot program was $46, Shell s FuellingChange program donated $10,000 the first year, so the cost to The City of Red Deer to start 451 households composting was $36, or $103 per household. The following resources were available to run this program: $10,000 Shell FuellingChange grant $24,000 Environmental Master Plan funding $12, advertising & promotion funds from Waste Management section 0.3 FTE from Environmental Initiatives for program development and administration, teaching and assisting with workshops Support and advice from Waste Management and Parks sections in the form of program review, teaching and assisting with workshops, transporting composters to KWNC Brochure from Alberta Environment & Sustainable Resource Development Piggyback on City of Calgary contract for composters Kerry Wood Nature Centre available as venue Facilities Management facilitated use of Civic Yards as venue in year 2 Environmental Services space in Building 700 to store composting tools and support to start composting in our office as a demonstration site for workshops Cvent event management software to manage program registration and communication with participants in year 2 It was great, the course was great, we got the whole set up for free. Fabulous and my thank you to the City is HUGE! It was an eye-opener and lots of fun. A.K. Conclusion Going into Phase 1 of Composting at Home we had no idea what the response from the community would be: how hard would it be to get people interested in composting? As it turns out, many residents are already interested in composting, and just need some help to get started. We were pleased to have 253 people signed up. The interest demonstrated in Phase 1 (2012) was not a fluke: Phase 2 in 2013 filled its 200- participant capacity in 55 hours. The City of Red Deer Page 8

9 With at least 72% of participants still actively composting, an estimated thirty-eight tonnes of waste diverted from the landfill and overwhelmingly positive feedback, overall this program has achieved what it set out to achieve. Furthermore, the Waste Management Master Plan recommends continuing the program at an intense level through 2017 and at a reduced level in subsequent years after residential organics collection is implemented (p. 73). Therefore we recommend delivering the existing program to 200 households annually through 2017 and examining opportunities to include methods of composting such as vermicomposting and bokashi for those who don t have a back yard. Backyard composting is also a stepping stone to curbside organics collection: it helps people realize that kitchen and yard organics don t need to go to the landfill, and in fact are a valuable resource. This program should be viewed as running in conjunction with a future curbside organics program, as recommended in the Waste Management Master Plan. Residents will continue to compost what they can on their own property, and send that which requires more intensive composting to a curbside organics processing program. That way they will reap the benefits of composting at home while still diverting as much organics as possible. Results for the Composting at Home program Phases 1 and 2 were: Goal Status people receive training in composting - Achieved: 549 people attended training workshops in 2012 and households in Red Deer started composting who didn t do it before - 26% of people in Red Deer report composting at home, up from 23% in the 2011 Environmental Services Customer Satisfaction Survey - 80% of new composting households are still composting in one year - There are community leaders/advocates in residential composting - Fulfill EMP goal and targets to decrease the amount of waste going to landfill by 10% and increase waste diverted to 20% by Achieved: 451 households started composting - Not yet achieved: 18.5% of people report composting on 2013 survey, and 22.3% on 2012 survey, down from 23% in Not yet achieved: 72% of participants were actively composting one year later, which doesn t quite meet the stretch goal of 80% - Achieved: 55 lawn signs posted in the community declaring they compost, plus 13 demonstration sites in the community - In progress: 38 tonnes of waste diverted through this program, which contributes to our efforts the achievement of these goals. With only 451 households participating in the program it is unrealistic to think these goals can be achieved on the shoulders of this program alone. But it is an important step in the right direction. This program needs to keep going until everyone in Red Deer is composting in some form or another. E.N. The City of Red Deer Page 9