Report: Greater Chicagoland Compost Summit

APPENDIX 1: Comment Summary Charts Over the course of the day 1,061 sticky notes were written. Many comments were repetitive indicating a saturation of ideas. A few comments were illegible. These charts document the comments that best represent the identified themes around the barriers, opportunities, and action within Education, Infrastructure, and Policy. Comments have been very lightly edited to correct for misspellings, clarify abbreviations and acronyms, and for standard upper- and lower-case lettering. Most comments appear exactly as written and are thus not meant to be taken as fact, but rather as representations of what people were thinking and talking about at the Summit. Furthermore, comments may be specific to the conversation happening around that particular table at that moment in time. Rather than trying to guess at what someone may have meant, they’ve been left as written and categorized accordingly. T ABLE 1: S ELECTED C OMMENTS ON B ARRIERS TO E DUCATION Note: Comments are representative of the identified themes. Not all comments are displayed. B ASIC E DUCATION

What is compost?

"People don't know what compost is and is not." "Lack of generational knowledge around composting. long time city dwellers don't know how to compost and thus don't pass down to their kids.” "Difference between composting & food diversion" "We don't have enough community awareness and… interest in composting" "People need to know the value of food scraps!" "Mentally separating food scraps from waste in our communities" "What's in it for me? Why should I bother?" "Education around importance & values of recycling" "People don't always make the connection between food and soil quality."

The value of compost

Why compost?

A WARENESS OF /A CCESS TO P ROGRAMS

General Programs

"Lack of access to knowledge of composting education programs." "Lack of awareness/information around what is currently available." "Need pre-established interest to roll-out service.”

School Programs

"Under funded schools lack access to education materials and field trips to educational facilities leaving many people behind" “Compost and soil heath and climate in school curriculum" “Individual schools have no incentives to divert waste." "All school-aged children need curriculum and local food system impacts their body, family, community, and planet"

H OW TO MAKE AND U SE C OMPOST How To Compost

"People need to learn. Gardens need compost regularly!" "Disconnect between desire to compost and understanding of [how composting] work[s]"

Why Use Compost

"Inform growers/landscapers of the benefits of using compost.” "Lack of education about the benefits of using finished compost." "Finished compost isn't seen as a valuable product (farming, etc.)" "Marketing finished compost (IL)

M ISPERCEPTIONS , M ISTRUST AND C ONFUSION

Misperceptions "Fear that separate food scrap collection will be stinky and attract pests" "Perception that composting is expensive, smelly, and attracts pests"

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