Nonprofit creating more sustainable Sioux Falls through composting

Good News Notes:

For those interested in composting food in Sioux Falls, there hasn’t been an opportunity to do so outside of their home. That is, until SoDak Compost came along.

When Deirdre Appel moved to Sioux Falls last summer, she immediately began looking for ways to compost her food scraps while living in an apartment complex the way she had in Brooklyn, New York.

“We had ample ways to compost and collect our food scraps if we wanted to,” Appel said. “There were government programs, there were drop-offs at farmers markets, there were, you know, private collections you could sign up for and pay monthly.”

But despite interest from local community gardens and the city’s compost site for yard waste, Appel was unable to find any similar services for food scraps in Sioux Falls. So, she decided to start her own.

SoDak Compost partnered with IronFox Farm as the first drop-off location to collect food scraps and compost them right here in Sioux Falls. The farm, which is located just east of downtown on 14th Street and Blauvelt Avenue, is an urban agricultural space that partners with schools and community members to provide education on gardening and planting.

Right now, the nonprofit is in its pilot phase where interested residents can be among the first to make the weekly trip to the compost site for the next several months.

“By November, we’ll have finished compost to give back to community gardens or for households and individuals to buy for their own soil,” Appel said.

Why composting?

Appel has a passion for recycling and composting that stems from a desire to be more sustainable. Appel says that when food scraps are brought to a city landfill, they end up producing greenhouse gases. But in the composting process, food scraps are broken down into a nutrient-rich compost that can then be used for soil.

“It’s a really great opportunity to take something out of our landfills and create something beneficial with it,” Appel said….”

View the whole story here: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.keloland.com/keloland-com-original/nonprofit-creating-more-sustainable-sioux-falls-through-composting/amp/

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