"How Compost Can Build Neighborhood Resilience" - Interview with Eli and Tom @ Sharewaste.com (Sydney). Regenerative Design Series #1 by Willi Paul & willipaul.studio

What's the ShareWaste.com story?

If you're like us, you produce awful lots of organic scraps, e.g. when cooking. Heaps of it, really. Peels, used coffee grounds... Wouldn't it be great if you could turn all that stuff into new soil rather than adding yet another pile to landfill? We think it would. And that's the idea behind ShareWaste.com It helps you find someone in your neighborhood who's willing to accept extra scraps and compost it or feed it to their worms or animals.

Also, see this article (Wired).

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Interview with ShareWaste.com by Willi -

I love the edu-synergy between the compost and the food scraps. Are you teaching permaculture here?!

We don't teach permaculture but some principles of permaculture certainly apply to the philosophy of ShareWaste.com - such as the one teaching about not wasting anything. We encourage people to see their (organic) waste as a treasure, inspire them to avoid food waste and recycle their kitchen scraps and other organic material.

In many Silicon Valley cities, compost is a separate can. You could say we have an "industrial scale food scrap process. Your thoughts?

We chose to favor a more grass-roots approach where we encourage people to take responsibility for the waste they create, which we think is something the traditional "top-down" government waste management doesn't address. With ShareWaste.com the waste doesn't just magically disappear; our members know exactly where it goes and what happens to it. They can see the garden, the chickens or the compost their scraps go to and they often get some finished compost from their host or herbs from the garden. Sustainability is only one half of what we do. The other part - which is maybe even more important - is working with community. We're enabling people to connect with their neighbors, exchange skills and resources.

The new sharing economy is a hot topic these days. How is sharewaste.com working with other sectors (NGOs, prisons, schools) in the current scheme?

We agree and we'd love to explore that - and as we scale, we're very open to meaningful collaboration with any sector. But right now, we're focusing on growth (and our current team of three volunteers is doing their best).

Who, or what, is standing in your way? Stories please.

The biggest constraint for us right now is money and time. Local partnerships, such as the one we have with Auckland Council in New Zealand help us reach out to more people and grow the impact of our network so we're always looking for new opportunities to partner up.

Are all ages of people participating in your program?

Yes, from young adults to retired people. Our main demographics is people aged 25-55. Which makes sense considering people need to have basic computer skills and an email address to use the app.

Are there any restrictions on the scraps? Anything that cannot be composted?

There are general guidelines on what to compost and what not. Anyone can find them online or in a book. There is a little bit of difference for the people who have worms: worms don't like citruses, garlic, onion and spicy things in general. However, because our scraps donors make a direct contact with their hosts, we tell them they need to discuss what their host can accept first. And that's where specific "composting rules" come into play. There are people who are happy to accept processed food scraps, even bread and meat. On the other hand, some of our hosts accept only brown or only green materials. It's very individual as everyone is trying to keep balance in their own compost or worm farm. Many people on ShareWaste.com have also animals, such as chickens, and can process almost anything.

Are you "coming to America?" Details!

ShareWaste.com is an online app and we also have free iOS and Android apps. Which means that already are in the US. Anybody can look at the model and see how many hosts there are in their area. We have both hosts and donors registered all over the US and every day more people sign up. It takes a while to create a new local community - we need a good number of hosts and donors in the same area so that the donating, sharing and returning nutrients back to Earth can start. We've found that a well-working local community or even a single active enthusiast can jump start a new green community in a few weeks. There was no one on our map when we started in 2016 and now it's over 2,000 of hosts - which is not bad considering we have a limited promotional budget so we're growing mostly organically (by word of mouth).

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Bios -

Tom
All things tech
Info at sharewaste.com

Tom firmly believes people should leave every place in better shape than it was when they found it. Even if the place is a planet. He deals with all the technical aspects of the ShareWaste.com platform and he currently works as a software engineer at canva.com. When he's not flipping bits around, Tom likes to play guitar, read books and web-comics and make funny faces at his daughter Rachel and his wife Eli.

Eli
All things people
Info at sharewaste.com

Eliska spent a lot of time thinking what's important to her in life and now she's just trying reach the ideal state where these things co-exist in harmony. ShareWaste.com ticks all the boxes. Eli will probably be the one who will reply to your email if you send us one. She also comes up with innovative and crazy ideas and tries to convince Tom that they need to be implemented. Eli loves exploring the wonders of nature and the paths less taken, making things from scratch and helping other people succeed.

Willi Paul, Principal, Planetshifter.com | Executive Producer, willipaul.studio | the chaos era
willipaul1 at gmail.com

Willi worked for several City Planning Departments including the City of Minneapolis, the City of St. Paul and the City of St. Louis Park, MN. As a Graduate Student as the Urban and Regional Studies Institute at University of MN - Mankato, he helped invent what we now know as online community with his Electronic Charrette process. He volunteered on multiple community design charrettes with Minnesota Design Team. He holds a M.A. from the Urban and Regional Studies Institute and several multiple planning projects as an employee and PhD student at Virginia Tech.

Currently, Willi draws deeply on the emerging values in the permaculture and transition towne movements. He is creating sound myths based now after an eight-year exploration of myth, alchemy, compost soil and sound archetypes for Planetshifter.com and his experimental sound project, the chaos era. Please discover him at Regenerative Mythology, a new Community of Practice, on LinkedIn. His first album and eBook are available at iTunes.

Willi is a p/t consultant with FacilitiesConsultant.com, a Bay Area office design and relocation firm. willipaul.studio, his new regenerative media solutions consultancy, is rarin' to go.