Philadelphia Company Partners with City on Community Composting Site

Philadelphia Park Officials held a ceremonial ribbon cutting earlier this week for the first facility to compost food waste from recreational centers on city park land.

“This facility used to be a Parks & Recreation operations and maintenance team building, and today it’s a composting hub for Philadelphia, where food waste from our rec centers becomes high-quality compost, adding valuable nutrients back into city soils,” said Natalie Walker, sustainability director for Parks and Recreation.

The city’s Department of Parks & Recreation is partnering with Bennett Compost on the site. Bennett Compost is a company that offers paid curbside composting services in Philadelphia. The project is also garnering support from the U.S. EPA, the state Department of Environmental Protection, and the USDA.

Through a long-term lease, Bennett Compost will use a vacant Parks & Rec facility in the city for a commercial composting site. Bennett’s part of the deal is it will pick up compost from the city rec centers, for free, and provide Parks & Rec with 75 cubic yards of finished compost each spring.

“Parks and Recreation is able to divert more waste from landfills, reduce our carbon emissions, and help build a sustainable model for commercial composting right here in a densely populated urban environment,” Walker said.

Currently, Bennett Compost picks up food scraps weekly from 50 rec centers with plans to expand the program to all rec centers that serve meals.

As of today, the facility has prevented 5,000 tons of food scraps from being dumped at landfills, according to Jennifer Mastalerz, co-owner of Bennett Compost.

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