Haines Compost community drop-off point (via Haines Compost Facebook)

Haines is in danger of losing its composting resource later this month. Haines Composting, has been an all-volunteer-driven effort. And the woman spearheading the project, is hanging up her shovel and gloves but says she’s hoping others will take the reins to keep the composting effort alive. KHNS’ Corinne Smith reports.

 

Haines Compost is the brainchild of volunteer Genny Reitze. She collected community and business food waste for free and composted it at her home, as a community service. It fed her chickens and she distributed the soil in her garden and some back to the community.

But she’ll be ending her three-year run composting in a few weeks.

“If you’re pushing against something all the time, that’s not an invitation to struggle more,” Reitze said. “Right, it’s life saying you need to make a change.”

That’s a loss, says Melissa Aronson, chair of Haines Friends of Recycling. She says Reitze’s contribution was invaluable.

“I’ll join with a whole lot of other people and say, I’m very sad to see it go,” Aronson said. “Compost is a really important resource for the community. And throwing things just you know, in the landfill, or even getting them composted at the landfill. And using them as cover there is kind of like wallpaper in your house with dollar bills. It works, but it’s a waste of good resources.”

The struggle in this case was single-handedly processing up to 2,000 pounds of compost a week –  also as a mother of young children – but it was by choice. 

“So many people reached out and wanted to offer their help or to volunteer,” she said. “And I wasn’t in a place where I was ready to coordinate volunteers. It’s not in my wheelhouse. I don’t know if it ever will be.”

Courtesy of Genny Reitze

Haines Compost began three years ago, on Earth Day. Reitze attended a presentation by Lisa Daugherty who runs a small business called Juneau Composts which picks up food and garden waste around Alaska’s capital city and sells compost back to people for spring planting.

Reitze says she had a compost and chickens already, and was inspired to go big. 

“If you’re not composting at home, then we’re taking everything to the landfill, which is expensive, and it’s bad. It doesn’t make sense,” she said. “We already had a home bin, and I was like, this is easy. I could do this 10 times, or 100 times. No problem.”

She put the call out for food waste, and the project grew from there. She built covered bays for winter, and erected an electric fence against bears, which she says was very effective. It took a lot of shoveling, but she didn’t mind.

“You do not have to go to the gym, when you compost full time,” she said with a laugh.

But there was one major departure from the Juneau Compost model: Reitze did not charge anything for her services , which she admits now may have been a mistake.

Another factor was last winter’s heavy storms. Her space flooded last winter, and she says the project needs to move out of a flood zone. 

She estimates she composted for at least 50 families and eight businesses, including Ravyn’s Cafe, Mountain Market, and Olerud’s grocery store. 

“Sometimes it didn’t feel meaningful, but I kept track the whole time, and it was 220,000 pounds of food scraps diverted. So 110 tons, which was cool.”

Courtesy of Genny Reitze

Now she’s looking for an individual or committed group of individuals to pick up where she left off. She says she’s offering to train and support whoever would like to take over Haines Composting before she calls it quits.

“If anyone is listening and fills a call on their heart to coordinate community composting, I have three years of experience to throw that direction and a whole bunch of buckets,” she said. “I would love to help someone else get started. Because it’s not right for me, but it is the right thing to do and it needs to happen.”

The landfill is one option, others are starting a home compost or worm bin. But a larger community compost is needed, says Melissa Aronson of Haines Friends of Recycling.

“I think Jenny’s just suffered from too much success. She’s created something that people in the community absolutely needed and wanted. It just needs to be modified now, so that it can be done on a sustainable level,” Aronson said.

In the meantime, the sole remaining option for food waste is the Haines dump, operated by Community Waste Solutions. There’s no longer any charge. But it’s not composed; it just gets mixed into the general landfill. 

Haines Composting has already closed its community drop-off point. Pickups from Haines businesses will end September 1.

Genny Reitze says if anyone is interested in getting involved to keep the project running, can email her at hainescompost@gmail.com.