Pittsburgh launches citywide composting pilot
Pittsburgh on Friday announced the city will launch a five-month, citywide composting pilot across the city.
The initiative, headed by the Department of City Planning’s Sustainability and Resilience division, aims to address Pittsburgh’s goal of becoming a zero-waste city, officials said.
“We want to empower residents to create positive change in their neighborhoods,” Mayor Ed Gainey said. “We are excited to see how our communities can grow with ready access to composting resources.”
The city in 2021 was awarded a $90,000 grant through the USDA’s Community Compost and Federal Waste Production Project.
The funding helped the city launch SoilMill PGH, a two-year pilot program to develop and test strategies for implementing a citywide food and waste reduction plan, beginning with the city’s own facilities and events.
In its first year, the pilot focused on research to allow officials to better understand the city’s current food systems and to design a pilot program that matched local needs.
To launch the second year, the Sustainability and Resilience division is looking for up to 300 residents to test a variety of residential composting solutions, like at-home composting or composting at pick-up and drop-off locations.
The city also will be testing composting at the Homewood Healthy Active Living Center, Carrick Community Center, city-sponsored farmers’ markets, park shelters and other sites.
The city is hiring a part-time community coordinator to assist in composting projects.
“Pittsburgh is still experiencing some of the lasting ecological effects of the steel industry, such as reduced air and soil quality,” said Aftyn Giles, the city’s principal resilience planner. “Composting is a great way to strengthen local soils with vital nutrients. By scaling our composting efforts citywide, we can begin to improve the air we breathe, the water we drink and the local crops we eat.”
The city is partnering with Ecotone Renewables, a system designed to help rehabilitate soil and cut down on food waste by adding nutrients from repurposed food waste.
The partnership is part of the city’s PGH Lab, a six-month partnership program that connects local startups with city government.
Julia Felton is a TribLive reporter covering Pittsburgh City Hall and other news in and around Pittsburgh. A La Roche University graduate, she joined the Trib in 2020. She can be reached at jfelton@triblive.com.
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