Listen to Charlie's latest episode interviewing The City of Winter Park’s Sustainability Director, Vanessa Balta Cook, and how local municipalities can team up with community composters.
We Need Your Support! Contact a Representative Today!
O-Town Compost has been on the Central Florida community composting scene for 7 months now, and has been steadily growing. Our goals are to grow food waste recycling infrastructure around the region, and support sustainable agriculture while doing so.
If you like what we do, please contact your local politician and let them know about your support for our mission. An individual’s voice goes a long way in letting our elected officials know that O-Town Compost is making a difference. You don’t have to be a subscriber to see that what we’re doing is moving the needle.
We appreciate you writing an individual heartfelt message, or you can use the template below:
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Subject: On Behalf of O-Town Compost, Orlando’s Community Composter
Dear [insert title and name of city representative],
I am writing to you as a concerned [name of municipality] resident, who strongly supports striking a balance between economic growth and environmental conservation. In [name of municipality], wasted materials are mounting daily while the infrastructure to recycle that waste is substantially inadequate. Single-stream recycling has proven to be an uphill battle, as Material Recovery Facilities (MRF) fight contamination and cannot find end-markets for their recyclables. According to multiple recent studies, 99 percent of truck loads carrying recyclables in the County were rejected at Waste Management’s MRF last year, and transported to the Orange County Landfill as a result. That means that nearly 100 percent of everything we put out to the curb as residents is ending up trashed.
This is a serious problem as the state is running out of landfill space. Fortunately, we have another option to reduce our waste footprint, and that is composting our organic waste, which makes up a sizable 40 percent of all that goes to the landfill. Moreover, adding organic waste to our landfills contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, including methane and CO2.
O-Town Compost is a small-scale community composter that is making a huge impact with its food scrap collection service, converting both pre- and post-consumer food waste (including meat and dairy wastes) into finished compost for local agriculture projects, such as Fleet Farming. Its mission is to grow into an organization that can handle the majority of Central Florida’s organic waste stream (including animal waste, such as horse manure), and transition the Orlando-area into a circular economy.
Small community composting businesses, similar to O-Town Compost, are active in cities and counties around the nation and are proving that they can move the needle in keeping food waste (as well as pet waste and other organic materials) out of our landfills. This frees up space for non-recyclable trash, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions produced by our landfills. O’Town Compost’s model (https://o-towncompost.com/ ) is similar to Bootstrap Compost in Boston, MA and Rust Belt Riders in Cleveland, OH.
I am writing to you today to voice my support for their efforts in our community, and I would like to see [name of municipality] find ways to incentivize residents and businesses to use their services. Ideally, food waste collection and composting should save cities money, while solving our landfill challenges and beautifying our green spaces with organic compost.
I greatly appreciate your attention to this issue.
Sincerely,
[Your name and address]
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Here is a list of some politicians you can email, depending on which area’s jurisdiction you fall under:
Winter Park, FL
Steve Leary - Mayor of Winter Park, FL - sleary@cityofwinterpark.org
Marty Sullivan - Commissioner Seat #1 - msullivan@cityofwinterpark.org
Shelia DiCiccio - Commissioner Seat #2 - sdeciccio@cityofwinterpark.org
Carolyn Cooper - Commissioner Seat #3 - ccooper@cityofwinterpark.org
Todd Weaver - Commissioner Seat #4 - tweaver@cityofwinterpark.org
City of Orlando, FL
Buddy Dyer - Mayor of Orlando, FL - buddy.dyer@orlando.gov
Jim Gray - District #1 - jim.gray@orlando.gov
Tony Ortiz - District #2 - tony.ortiz@orlando.gov
Robert Stuart - District #3 - robert.stuart@orlando.gov
Patty Sheehan - District #4 - patty.sheehan@orlando.gov
Regina Hill - District #5 - regina.hill@orlando.gov
Bakari Burns - District #6 - bakari.burns@orlando.gov
Orange County Unincorporated (To find your district & commissioner: https://www.orangecountyfl.net/BoardofCommissioners.aspx#.XrAW_6hKjD6)
Jerry Demings - Mayor of Orange County, FL - mayor@ocfl.net
Betsy VanderLey - District #1 - District1@ocfl.net
Christine Moore - District #2 - District2@ocfl.net
Mayra Uribe - District #3 - District3@ocfl.net
Maribel Gomez Cordero - District #4 - District4@ocfl.net
Emily Bonilla - District #5 - District5@ocfl.net
Victoria Siplin - District #6 - District6@ocfl.net