TVCR to Give Away 500 Free Backyard Compost Bins & Food Waste Education

SIGN UP FOR A FREE BIN OR WORKSHOP OR DOWNLOAD COMPOST INFO!

Are you ready to make a small shift towards a more sustainable lifestyle? Do you want to save a lot of money on your annual trash bill? Tired of having wet, stinky, heavy trash bags that leaks and makes your garbage can smell awful?  Well, then composting might be the solution for you! And TVCR has a free backyard compost bin with your name on it, if you’d like to give it a try.

 

Through a grant award from the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Teton Valley Community Recycling (TVCR) is now able to offer valley residents free backyard compost bins. We will be making and distributing a total of 500 wire compost bins along with basic composting education. We shall continue to support and advise you through the seasons. While it takes more than a year to turn your yard waste and food scraps into nutrient rich soil, you will experience some of the benefits of composting immediately – including a less smelly garbage can and the ability to reduce your trash service to a smaller can or less frequent service, saving you money right away.

 

In addition, our Food Waste Reduction campaign has an educational component where we will be offering tips and tricks to reduce household food waste – everything from menu planning, smarter shopping, food storage tips, creative recipes to use every last bit, and much more – through our monthly e-newsletter and workshops.

 

Not interested in composting, but want to tap into our food waste education? Just sign up for our newsletter at tetonrecycling.org. We promise not to spam you, but just deliver useful information.

 

Is food waste really that much of a problem? Did you know the average American throws away more than 300 pounds of food each year? In Teton Valley this food waste gets trucked more than 90 miles to the Circular Butte Landfill where it decomposes through an anaerobic process, ultimately releasing the greenhouse gas, methane, which is thirty times more potent than carbon dioxide!

 

TVCR prioritizes usable food going to folks in need. We have two excellent programs in Teton Valley that do that – the Community Resource Center’s Food Rescue Program (visit crctv.org to find out more or to volunteer) and the Teton Valley Food Pantry.  Food that is inedible for humans should make its way to local livestock as animal feed – pigs, goats, and backyard chickens are all good at eating food scraps. Inedible food waste and yard waste are both prime materials for a backyard compost bin.

 

Backyard composting, through the action of beneficial microbes, naturally breaks down food waste into a nourishing, natural “fertilizer” (aka “black gold”) to feed our local soils – so much better than buying soil amendments in big plastic bags. A well-managed compost pile has minimal odor and produces usable compost in six months to a year.

 

There are dozens of composting methods and styles to choose from to fit almost every lifestyle and living situation from our free wire bins to indoor bokashi buckets to a new “bear-proof” compost tumbler scheduled to be released in Jackson this June.

 

Don’t have much time?  Try passive composting. It literally requires no work beyond setting up the bin and putting food scraps and yard waste in there roughly balancing carbon (e.g. dry leaves, paper) and nitrogen (e.g. food waste, weeds) sources to keep it from smelling bad.

 

Don’t have a yard or have restrictive HOA rules?  Try an indoor worm bin or bokashi compost buckets.

 

Want someone to compost for you?  Stay connected with TVCR as we will be offering community food waste drop-off options in partnerships with our friends at Sweet Hollow Farm in Victor or use the ShareWaste app to find a local composter.

 

Worried about bears or critters? We’ve got advice on how to minimize odors and attractants. You can also do a trench compost where you bury your food waste right into your yard or garden. It works great.

 

Already have a compost, but want an additional bin? Sign up and we’ll give you one.

 

Already have a compost, but wish you had more organic material to make your pile “hotter”? Sign up on the ShareWaste app, so neighbors can find you.

 

Please contact Andrea at TVCRprograms@gmail.com or (208) 254-1901 for more information or visit our website TetonRecycling.org to sign up for your free compost bin.

 

We’ll be offering a variety of options to pick up your bin and/or to take short compost workshops to get you started. We look forward to working with you!