Have you visited the Cornucopia Community Gardens lately? You may have noticed three new bins near the entrance. This is part of the new Ventura Compost Co-Op. The Ventura Compost Co-Op at Cornucopia Community Gardens is a collaboration between the City of Ventura, Ojai Center for Regenerative Agriculture, and L.A. Compost. Funded through CalRecycle’s Community Composting for Green Spaces Grant Program, the Ventura Compost Co-Op will divert material from the landfill by composting material locally and create a shared space to learn about composting and waste diversion.
Registered members will be able to drop-off their food scraps and other accepted materials into the locked drop-off containers. The collected materials will be added to the onsite composting piles by the site manager on a weekly basis. Members are required to attend one volunteer event per year to maintain the compost piles and the site. In return, members will be allotted some of the finished compost to take home.
While residents in single family homes are already participating in the Food Waste Recycling Program, the Ventura Compost Co-Op is a great opportunity for residents who do not have access to the food waste recycling program yet. Additionally, community composting is a great way to build sustainability awareness and provide quality soil amendments for local use.
