Composting isn’t just an effective way to turn food waste into plant food. When scaled across communities, this backyard pastime can be an economic and educational powerhouse. Just ask the members of the Community Composter Coalition, a network of more than 350 schools, urban farms, bike haulers and other local organizations that collect food scraps from their neighbors and turn them into compost.

Organized by the nonprofit Institute for Local Self-Reliance, the coalition includes big programs in cities like New York, San Diego and Uttar Pradesh, India, alongside rural programs across the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and Asia. Each provides food waste collection to neighbors who wouldn’t have it otherwise, while creating a valuable soil amendment and supporting local jobs.

“They're producing a great product that is used in local soil,” said Clarissa Libertelli, manager at the coalition. “It's contributing to a greener neighborhood, local food production, strengthening local food systems and climate resiliency in neighborhoods.”

Many member organizations use the compost they produce for social and environmental justice like helping grow fruits and vegetables in food deserts, restoring contaminated land, and employing people with criminal justice histories, she said. The community composters also often run outreach, education and youth engagement programs.

Though they may seem small-time compared to municipal programs that collect thousands of pounds of food scraps a day, the Institute’s research shows community composting can contribute just as much — if not more — to local economic growth.

“In terms of economic benefits, it creates local green jobs, it allows you to invest in a local green economy,”  Libertelli said. “We've shown that community composting employs more people for the amount of waste diverted than does industrial composting.”

The welcomes everything from community gardens run by volunteers to local composting businesses to government entities, as long as their composting programs are run locally and in a decentralized manner, Libertelli said.

Read the full article about community composting by Riya Anne Polcastro at TriplePundit.