community composting school
Setting up a new community composting project in your neighbourhood can feel like a monster task;
what kit and space do you need, who needs to be involved, how will you make the compost and who will get to use it? Will there be rats?!
These questions and heaps more can create barriers we struggle to overcome.
And we've been there.
We get it.
It is hard.
So we gathered all our bio-ecological science know-how, people-care and data skills plus many lessons learnt the hard way and created a 2 day course to get folks starting out to get set up for success.
Thanks to funding from the lovely players of the National Lottery we were able to offer three free courses over the summer and autumn of 2024. In-person practical courses packed with tools and how-to's, everything you need to know to set up and run a loved and cared for not-for-profit composting outfit; where to site it, what waste products are most useful and which ones to avoid, how to deal with bio-aerosols, smells and pests, how to communicate with others, as well as what licences and legislation to adhere to, and crucially really explore together why you would bother.
Folks came from far and wide, many local to West Wales whilst others travelled from Birmingham, Carmarthen, and even Essex. During those three glorious late summer weekends in Machynlleth we used games, quizzes, site visits, art and design and storytelling to explore a huge amount of key information. Each student finished the weekend having completed a personal design project they could use to get started.
And it didn't end there. After completing the weekend folks were able to apply for additional 121 support to set up their project and we helped 4 new projects overcome their obstacles and launch. One of them even received a Green Social Enterprise Award six months later!
If you would like us to run our 2 day course for your incubating community composting project do get in touch. We'd love to help, and although we don't have funding just now to run more we might be able to apply together or demonstrate need for funding as a result of you and others requesting it.
