The Community That Transforms Food Scraps Together, Stays Together

0:02 -We have a food waste problem in LA County.

0:05 We send over a million tons of food scraps to landfill each and every year,

0:11 and something's got to change because when food rots in landfills,

0:14 it creates a climate pollutant called methane.

0:17 Methane gas is warming the Earth way too quickly,

0:19 and so what we'd like to do is take a hard pivot.

0:22 Instead of sending that food to landfill, compost it instead.

0:32 Compost is the process of recycling organic material into a fertilizer.

0:37 Composting is a beautiful process.

0:39 It's basically just decomposition.

0:41 We set those food scraps aside, and compost is that process of layering food

0:45 scraps and yard trimmings and watching that decompose, stewarding that space,

0:50 and making sure we're creating a rich

0:51 soil amendment that can then be applied locally.

0:54 LA Compost recycles food scraps into healthy soils.

0:57 We do that to better the environment,

0:59 to better our neighborhoods, and to bolster the local food system.

1:03 This is one of our community compost hubs where folks are coming

1:06 together to take climate action and process food scraps into healthy soils.

1:11 -This is the very last and final stage

1:14 of the compost process that will turn this more heavy

1:18 and chunky stage into a much finer ground stage

1:22 that can be applied to plants, trees, and gardens.

1:25 We have some decomposers here, too, which is a great sign of a healthy compost,

1:31 eating and doing their thing and producing the final material.

1:36 -During the time of COVID,

1:37 a friend posted that they had seedlings available here at the garden.

1:40 I came by.

1:42 I live three streets down from here.

1:44 I was amazed at what was in my backyard.

1:48 I stepped in here, I told my dad about the space,

1:52 and we learned about composting.

1:54 I was amazed that we could do this ourselves.

1:56 Together, we've been collecting our scraps.

1:59 Then we also opened up a space in our home to plant some of the crops here.

2:04 It's been beautiful to have that symbiotic relationship between

2:08 our home and also our local community hub here.

2:12 -[Spanish language] -This is compost sap we already sifted.

2:37 This is the final stage of the compost.

2:42 That's going to be given to a community member.

2:45 It looks so good.

2:46 It's so rich, dark, and moist.

2:48 You can tell compost is good when it holds its shape like this.

2:53 It just adds so much more life to your soil.

3:00 -The most typical participant with LA Compost sets

3:03 aside their food scraps when they're preparing a meal,

3:05 and then they bring it to us at farmers' markets.

3:07 We're at 25 farmers' markets across LA County.

3:10 -When they set up the booth and told me what it was for, compost,

3:13 you bring your scraps here, I'm like, "Yes," because it would sadden me

3:17 when I see all this food going to waste.

3:19 I started gathering up the food from the school and also from my home,

3:24 and I bring it here.

3:25 Oh my gosh.

3:26 Nothing ever goes to waste.

3:30 -All of those food scraps collected there

3:32 travel a very short distance to this location,

3:34 where we're able to compost and decompose

3:36 all that good waste together in community.

3:40 -At this point, we are just turning a compost pile,

3:43 so making sure it gets aerated and also gets rehydrated all over again.

3:47 Because we don't want our pile to just dehydrate and then just left alone.

3:51 We do, at least once a week, a flip,

3:54 which includes adding the water and also aerating it.

3:57 As it gets flipped, also oxygen gets trapped in each of the layers,

4:01 so it's easier for the microbes to breathe in and out.

4:04 You don't get a dead compost pile; instead,

4:06 you get a live, active compost pile, like we have right now.

4:11 -Composting has been around for many years, dating way before the Stone Age.

4:15 People have been building piles and watching things decompose,

4:18 and managing that to be able to grow more food.

4:20 What's different today is we've grown very disconnected from this process.

4:25 Our neighbors are disconnected from each other,

4:27 and we are very disconnected from the soil.

4:29 What LA Compost seeks to do is to bring

4:31 people back together and build those bonds once again.

4:35 -I think what brings us together is just

4:39 that wanting to give back and longing for connection.

4:43 I think this city is so big,

4:45 and a lot of the times we're moving really quickly all over the place,

4:49 and this space just really allows you to stop.

4:52 You're admiring this beautiful process where you're seeing

4:56 transformation of life and death and renewal and growth,

5:00 so that was always really inspirational to me, too.

5:03 I'm so grateful for LA Compost because

5:06 it's really changed the trajectory of my life.

5:09 -It's very, very important that no one

5:11 feels left out of this climate-positive activity.

5:15 There were a lot of decades there where folks thought that environmentalism

5:18 was for the polar bears and not really worried about our neighborhoods.

5:22 The wonderful thing about community composting and the movement that's been

5:25 built around this work is that we're able to do something differently.

5:28 By involving people up close and personal

5:30 in their neighborhoods and keeping resources here,

5:33 we're able to see ourselves as part of that change.

5:35 Being connected to the process of soil and the cycle

5:38 of life is not a privilege; it's a right.

5:40 We all can see how much beauty is available to us when we get this right.

5:48 -Thanks for watching.

5:49 If this story helped you see things from a different angle,

5:52 tell us what you think in the comments.

5:54 Stick around for the next video, I think you're going to love it.