Here at YIMBY we are often asked what we do with all the compost we make.
Yes In My Back Yard is a community composting initiative that has been going, and growing, since 2021. We now have 28 community composters in Mount Alexander Shire and 10 more about to start. We collect food scraps from nearly 400 households and quite a few businesses.
Current capacity has us composting over a tonne (that’s 1000kgs) of food scraps each week and growing! When combined with our other compost ingredients like straw, leaves and garden cuttings, over the past four years we have transformed more than 90,000 kgs of food scraps into an estimated 63,000 kgs of compost.
So, what have we done with all that compost? In order to answer this question it is helpful to understand how our project works. While most community composting initiatives rely on volunteers coming together to compost at a specific location, like a community garden, YIMBY is a bit different.
Our composters set up composting hubs in their backyard (hence the name) and, where possible, connect with their immediate neighbours through door-knocking to find households willing to contribute their food scraps. We believe these points of difference are key to our success.
While both models rely on community members volunteering their time and energy, the traditional model often falls over as volunteer skills and availability fluctuate.
With YIMBY, each of our composters are trained to a high level of composting skill, and due to the location of their compost (their own backyard) and the commitment they have made to their community, composting becomes a lifestyle for our volunteers.
It is a huge commitment, every week, rain, hail or shine, YIMBY composters collect full buckets, layering up the food scraps in a carefully crafted ‘continuous hot composting system’ and then carefully wash all those buckets, ready for the next week. It is a big commitment and a lot of work.
The other point of difference with our model is our volunteers get to keep the compost they make. It is theirs to do with as they choose. Many of our composters are, not surprisingly, avid food gardeners whose motivation to join YIMBY was wanting to remediate some of our old, damaged soils with plentiful, high-quality compost.
Some of our composters choose to give compost away to family, friends or neighbours, and some don’t. It is theirs, and up to them what they do with it. One of our composters has even traded compost for tax advice.
As a collective YIMBY donate compost to our local community gardens at the HUB and Community House, and have recently donated compost to Me Mandook Galk for their bushfood project, the first of many donations to this Nalderun initiative, we hope.
So, when you next bump into YIMBY Composter, by all means ask if they have any compost to spare, but please be understanding if the answer is “sorry, no”. And maybe thank them for all that bucket washing!
– Mikaela Beckley works with *Yes In My Back Yard, (YIMBY), a community-scale composting initiative in Castlemaine and surrounds. Send questions or comments to hello@yimbycompost.com, or to book in for a compost workshop.
