Composting Now an Option for Everyone in Manchester

This Community Composting site is located next to the Community Garden across from the athletic complex behind Klager Elementary School.

Thanks to a joint effort on the part of the Community Resource Center, the Community Garden, the Manchester Wellness Coalition and Chelsea-Area Wellness Foundation, Manchester area residents who don’t have the option of composting in their backyards now have an alternative to throwing their compostables in the trash. Last year the Community Resource Center received a grant to purchase a composter to dispose of spoiled produce at the food pantry. This bloomed into two tumbling composters at the Community Garden for all of Manchester to use.

Why compost? Studies estimate that composting can keep more than 100 pounds of waste per person out of landfills every year. Composting turns it into a rich, natural fertilizer that far from being waste, is highly sought after by gardeners.

The two tumbling composters are located beside the Manchester Community Garden, across from the athletic complex on the bus access road behind Klager Elementary School off of Dutch Drive. You can pull up and park close to the composters.

To use, slide open the two composters to determine which is emptier. Put your compostables in the emptier of the two. Add an equal amount of brown material (straw, dried leaves, etc.–located nearby in piles). Slide the doors shut and turn to mix. If both composters are full, add you compostibles to the “green material” pile. Although there is no signage at the moment, it is on order and will be up soon.

Compostables include fruits, vegetables, grains, egg shells, coffee grounds, tea leaves, grass clippings from untreated lawns, and weeds. Things that shouldn’t be composted include meat, dairy, large sticks, pet waste, grass clippings from chemically treated lawns and diseased tomato vines. For a longer list, click HERE. Finished compost will be used to fertilize the Community Garden.

The Community Resource Center is already using the composters. Volunteers are bringing over compostables from the food pantry after work on the way home. The CRC has also offered to aggregate compostables from all of Ackerson, which houses the Manchester Early Childhood Center, First Steps, Manchester Community Schools Central Offices and Manchester Co-op Preschool. In addition, the Community Resource Center used some of its grant money to buy a composter for Klager Elementary School so Klager now has its own composter located in a fenced garden area behind the school. This school year, the opportunity will exist for our community’s youngest students to participate first hand in composting.

Questions? Contact the Community Resource Center at manchestercrc@sbcglobal.net or (734) 428-7722, or contact the Community Garden at dutchgardenpartner@gmail.com. 

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by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and founder of the Manchester Mirror.