Wake Up to Compost: an Introduction
By Lucy Dilworth
Hi everyone! I wanted to formally introduce myself as the newest addition to the Bootstrap community. My name is Lucy and I’m a fresh faced blogger from Maine who recently planted roots in the big city. I graduated last spring from Miami University in Ohio where I studied creative writing. Post-graduation, I indulged in my wanderlust and traveled to the opposite side of the world where I lived with an array of fascinating individuals, including a citrus farmer and a taxidermist. At one point, I found myself composting New Zealand soil with the locals! Despite my ever-changing scenery, I’m grateful to now be in a city where I have the opportunity to be educated on urban composting and pass my knowledge onto others.
Although it’s been awesome to see residential and commercial food scrap collections in an urban setting, I was even more astounded when I saw a composting bin at my 86-year-old grandmother’s house a few weeks ago in Manchester-By-The-Sea. In terms of my own awareness of composting, it’s been very limited until recently. During college, I lived with seven other girls. We certainly produced enough organic waste to compost. Sadly, our priorities lay within what we were going to wear out on the weekends rather than learning to recycle and reuse. When I saw my grandmother’s composting bin, I knew that I was way late to the game. Most people don’t compost because they don’t know how to or why it’s beneficial, which is a category I am guilty of falling into. However, with my new gig at Bootstrap and all the resources I have access to here and online, I can now start to learn about more sustainable practices at home and beyond. And composting? I guess it’s so easy my grandma can do it.
Speaking of revelations, last month I worked my first Bootstrap event at the Wake Up the Earth Festival while also entering Jamaica Plain territory for the first time (or JP as the cool kids say). The festival was a perfect exposure to one of the communities I’ll be working with and an alternative and educational way to spend my Saturday afternoon. It was also the perfect place for anyone trying to get over their agoraphobia. It was a humbling, yet successful experience considering I ran out of flyers within the first hour and one of my managers mistook me for an eager client with inappropriate personal space as I stood with him behind the Bootstrap table. On a positive note, (more…)
A Summer Job: Bootstrap Compost Gets Busy at an Array of Local Events
So much for summer being a time for rest and relaxation. It seemed that as soon as the temperatures really got cooking, Bootstrap did too — serving and/or presenting at several Boston-area events, festivals, marketplaces, and community forums. As a result, we made some new friends and reconnected with old ones, all the while spreading a message of sustainability, waste diversion, and easy tactics for leading a green lifestyle. Here’s a quick rundown of our wildly busy lazy season.
At the first annual Egleston Square Farmers’ Market Summer Kickoff in early June, hundreds of area residents gathered in this nook of Jamaica Plain to scoop up the choicest locally grown produce (including goodies from BSC partner Buckle Farm). It was there we set up several bins to collect compostable material as our neighbors hung out under the sun to enjoy the bounty and live music.
On June 6 we paid a visit to the Roslindale Farmers’ Market, where Andy set up and monitored a pair of BSC cans to capture compostables. With over 20 vendors offering potatoes, pottery and petunias, the (more…)
Reading, Writing and Compost: Bootstrap Goes Back To School
With the longer days and the warm weather having finally arrived, it's safe to say that the students of Boston are getting ready for summer. But before anyone has a…