New Orleans receives funding to increase composting capacity

The city of New Orleans was awarded $398,500 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Compost and Food Waste Reduction Program (CFWR) to increase the capacity and accessibility of local composting organizations.

Local organizations working on food waste reduction and composting programs partnered on the proposal with the city, including Sprout NOLA, Schmelly’s Dirt Farm, Realcycle, Compost Now and Taproot Earth. 

“Organic material makes up roughly half of what is sent to landfills from our residential waste pickup program,” New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell says. “The composting grant from the USDA will help New Orleans greatly increase our rate of waste diversion.

“This grant will also support our local community groups who have been boots on the ground, leading the efforts to promote composting and urban agriculture."

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The city says it has an economic and cultural focus on food, with a 12-month growing season and a robust gardening and farming community. However, New Orleans currently lacks the infrastructure to support large-scale composting. By increasing community participation in composting and decreasing the amount of waste headed to landfills, the city says this funding will improve sustainability and create greater awareness of organic waste diversion practices.

Working with local partners, the city says it plans to utilize this funding to:

• Increase the number of community compost drop-off sites, especially in underserved areas. 
• Provide low-income residents with home composting supplies. 
• Install a compost demonstration site on the Lafitte Greenway to provide education about sustainable practices and give visibility to the program. 
• Increase awareness of food waste reduction strategies and composting.  
• Grow capacity of local composting businesses. 

“The urban agriculture community in New Orleans is an amazing group of growers and advocates who have been working for decades to help their communities,” says Mina Seck, community food director at Sprout NOLA. “Being able to expand composting in the city and offer it to even more families and homes, along with education about it, is monumental. We're lucky to be a part of this incredible moment.” 

The CFWR program is run by USDA to assist local governments with projects that develop and test strategies for planning and implementing municipal compost plans and food waste reduction plans. The award for the city of New Orleans was one of the 38 awards made across the U.S. For more information on these awards, click here.