SOUTH BOISE, Idaho — The City of Boise's Community Compost Give-Back program allows compost customers to get their hands on some of the finished product for free. Compost is available at two self-serve locations or a bulk amount can be delivered to a neighborhood free of charge.
- The two self-serve locations can be found at the Idaho Botanical Garden and Joplin Road Compost Site.
- A Community Compost Give-Back bulk delivery can also be scheduled, but has a few more requirements which can be found here.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
Many Boise residents Like Tammy Chavez turn to gardening as a seasonal stress reliever.
"It's my peace time," says Chavez.
And since she wants to give her spring soil some new nutrients, she turned to the City's compost program to schedule a delivery.
"So we didn't realize it was gonna be that big," says Chavez, while looking at her newly delivered pile of compost.
Chavez just got about a driveway's worth of compost delivered to her house, for free, as part of the city of Boise's Community Compost Giveback Program.
"It's great because we can help, you know, put nutrients back into the soil," says Chavez.
"We have a goal to give back as much of our compost as we can to our customers who support the program," says Lisa Knapp, the Compost Program Coordinator for the City of Boise.
She tells me they'll deliver about 20 yards of compost for neighbors to share.
"There just has to be at least five houses on your street or in your neighborhood that are interested in picking up material and will be sharing it," says Chavez.
There are also two self-serve compost facilities where you can shovel your own compost. One is at the Idaho Botanical Garden and the other is near the Boise Watershed off of Joplin Road.
The compost is processed at a city facility in South Ada County where the whole process takes about 4-6 months to complete.
Knapp tells me a big problem they run into while making the compost is dealing with contaminants.
"You know maybe your kid takes the trash out and puts it in the wrong cart... Well, nobody wants to get their compost and find plastic bits in it or bits of wire, so that could be a bit of a problem. But really it just takes a lot of time for our staff here at the facility. Time and more processes and so it ends up just costing a lot more money for us to finish through the material," says Knapp.
As for Chavez, she tells me that seeing the finished product of the program she contributes to is important.
"I'm putting that bin out every week. I don't know exactly where it goes. I know it's being composted somewhere, now I know," says Chavez.
"Everything is done here locally, and we know that all the material ended up being used locally. I think our community is very receptive to that," says Knapp.
