To: US Composting Council
From: Leanne Spaulding, Project Coordinator – Western Queens Compost Initiative
Subject: Abstract for USCC Conference
IN THE CONCRETE JUNGLE OF NEW YORK CITY, COMPOSTING BRINGS
URBAN YOUTH BACK TO NATURE. Leanne Spaulding, Western Queens Compost
Initiative, New York 11104
The Western Queens Compost Initiative (WQCI), a program of Build It Green!NYC,
works to increase the capacity of local communities to create and manage composting efforts in
western Queens. Our overall goal is to 1) provide sustainable local composting infrastructure;
2) educate New York City residents on the composting process and encourage them to compost
organic materials; and 3) reduce the amount of waste sent to distant landfills. Our compost is
used to grow food, feed trees, and beautify public spaces.
The purpose of the WQCI Junior Composter program is to encourage a connection to
nature and the urban environment for inner-city secondary school students, develop hands-on
stewardship projects for students to help them understand natural processes, and inventory
community environmental harms and risks. Youth may feel that environmental issues are not a
part of their world when actually urban environmental issues involving soil, water, and air are all
around them. Western Queens Compost Initiative uses composting as a means to engage and
connect youth to the environment, cultivate understanding of local environmental harms and
risks and provide them tools to contribute to a cleaner, healthier environment and empower their
family and community to contribute to a greener New York City.
This presentation will provide a basic overview of the WQCI Junior Composter
Course, covering youth recruitment strategies, curriculum design, empowering youth as leaders,
environmental justice issues, and compost as an educational tool.
WQCI Junior Composter Course runs for eight weeks, in indoor and outdoor classrooms.
Recruitment of youth is through outreach to public schools and community organizations, with
particular emphasis on low-income and immigrant neighborhoods. Program participants are
provided with a work schedule --accepting and making compost-- a reading curriculum, and a
hands-on project. The youth receive a stipend of both money and other currency to use at
Greenmarkets (farmer’s markets) in western Queens where composting is taking place. Working
with various local gardening and greening groups the youth meet at a market once a week to
discuss the readings with an environmental educator. Each of the youth also assists with compost
drop-off at Greenmarkets in western Queens, and creating compost at one of four community
gardens, and an urban farm, and using the compost in local greening project.
In addition to addressing environmental concerns, one of the greater challenges that
youth face is despair associated with being powerless to make a meaningful contribution to
improving the environment. As such, this program also aims to provide Junior Composters with
opportunities to exercise the knowledge and leadership skills gained through participation. This
year’s participants tabled at the New York City Climate Justice Youth Summit and will do so
again in 2012. Following the Summit, the Junior Composters participated in a workshop at the
World Maker’s Faire at the New York Hall of Science in Queens, where they built vermiculture
compost bins for use in their homes and/or their classrooms for educational purposes.
Success of the initial pilot course implemented during summer of 2011 has encouraged
expansion of the program to two summer session in 2012 and intent for three of last year’s
participants to be hired as peer educators for the new Junior Composter groups.