Eco-Cycle Proposal

Carbon Farming: Making the Connection between Organic Waste and Climate Change

Project Lead:

Dan Matsch, Compost Department Director

Executive Summary:
Eco-Cycle seeks an MENV team to help us inspire residents and other communities to make the connection between their curbside compost bin and actually using compost, broadscale - in agriculture and elsewhere - as one of our best tools for reversing climate change and restoring our soils. With the help of MENV students, we will refine projects we have developed over the last 3 years into a “circular economy” for organic waste (food waste, yard waste, wood waste and manure) centered around the concept of carbon farming.

Eco-Cycle’s philosophy is to work locally within a broad network of partners and committed volunteers to create meaningful and reproducible projects that we thoroughly vet and refine, learning by doing, and then work to export these proven models for adoption by other communities.

Eco-Cycle has an important role to play in translating “carbon farming” beyond the agricultural realm into all sectors of a community to give everyone an understanding of the concept and a role to play in this hopeful climate solution. This, in turn, leads to more adoption within agriculture due to consumer demand and other drivers.

Our circular economy approach is similar in concept to our efforts to expand recycling over the years. However, as a new focus for Eco-Cycle there is much opportunity for creativity. We hope that an MENV team can help us inspire both residents and farmers, near and far, and accelerate adoption to meet the growing challenge of climate change.

Key words:
Food waste, composting, soil restoration, circular economy, carbon farming

Links:
View full proposal
Watch partner video
Access networking event Zoom link