Richmond Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities (PRCF) has been selected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service to receive a $90,000 grant to launch the Richmond Compost Initiative this spring through early fall 2023.

The initiative seeks to foster a culture of composting, divert food waste from the landfill and cycle organic waste into high quality compost. This project has already begun to demonstrate citizens’ enthusiasm for a municipal composting option. Educating the community is another key goal of the pilot, and there will be an ample effort to engage people new to composting, as well as train members of the PRCF Workforce Development team and other community garden volunteers on the process and application of composting.

Community gardens play a key role in providing sites for food waste collection stations and will be the primary beneficiary of the compost produced. The composting team will service the collection bins weekly and bring the organic matter to a central site to transform into high-quality compost. This initiative will make important progress toward the city’s sustainability goals as outlined in the RVAGreen 2050 plan slated for adoption by city council later this year.

For more information, contact Kate Rivara at [email protected].