Recipient Organization
THE CITY-COUNTY OF BUTTE SILVER BOW
155 W GRANITE ST
BUTTE,MT 59701
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Due to the legacy of hard rock, underground mining, the community of Butte-Silver Bow is part of one of the largest Superfund complexes in the United States. The landscape is characterized by widespread degraded soil quality, an arid mountain climate, and community-wide hesitancy about the feasibility of growing food locally given its mining history. In terms of demographics, 17.5% of the population of Silver Bow County lives below poverty level, and 2,074 households receive food stamps (2021 ACS 5-year estimates, Unites States Census, S2201). By creating a community composting and food waste reduction program, the soils of local gardens and farms will be enhanced to produce food; perishable foods will be preserved and re-distributed through the local food bank; and low-income households will have greater access to locally produced food and improved capacity to grow their own food.This project will provide a number of new avenues for food waste reduction and recovery: perishable food that is safe and edible will be recovered for use by the Butte Emergency Food Bank; compostable food waste will be collected from several local institutions and businesses; compost will be processed and tested at a local farm; final compost product will be redistributed throughout the community for soil improvement and small-scale food production efforts; education and outreach will inform institutions, students, and community members about how to use compost to facilitate growing healthy foods in Butte. Students and community members will be educated about preserving, storing, and preparing food that might otherwise go to waste. Additional food grown with locally produced compost will supply more fresh produce to the Butte Emergency Food Bank, who will also be a source of input food scraps.This program will be incorporated and implemented through the Resilient Butte project, a community climate solutions partnership led by the City and County of Butte-Silver Bow (BSB), Montana Technological University, and the National Center for Appropriate Technology. Through the Resilient Butte Steering Committee, BSB aims to implement strategies through a Sustainability, Health, and Resilience Plan (SHARP). The goals for this plan are to lessen overall demand for energy and reliance on fossil fuels; increase the use of local renewable resources; anticipate and prepare for pressures and shocks that climate change will introduce or worsen; and foster social cohesion, strengthening connections among individuals and advancing social inclusion. By implementing a composting and food waste reduction project, BSB will increase the availability of soil-enhancing compost, encourage food waste reduction, and divert residential and commercial food waste from the county landfill. This plan breaks the cycle of poverty by strengthening community networks and addressing the public health impacts of climate change for low-income and vulnerable communities in Butte. This project will bolster collaboration and education amongst community partners to create a brighter and more resilient future for Butte.With project administration and oversight by BSB, and organizational collaboration to educate and engage the community, this project will allow the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) to?substantially build?upon its current pilot composting project. By engaging schools, businesses, and other partners in the production and use of high-quality compost, this project will help build stronger local food systems and social cohesion.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The goals for Butte Silver-Bow Composting for a Richer Hill are to reduce food waste in the community, educate the community on composting benefits, organize a food waste collection program, and expand infrastructure to support a community wide composting operation that can become economically sustainable.Objectives:Reduce Food WasteNCAT staff and project partners will provide educational resources for low-income residents on food waste reduction, nutrition, and stretching food dollars by buying less processed foods.?NCAT staff and project partners will work with target areas for reducing food waste and increase the use of local foods.NCAT staff will glean excess food from larger institutional kitchens during food waste collection to bring to the Butte Emergency Food Bank.NCAT staff will train 10 Foodbank staff on using new food preservation equipment to help process larger amounts of perishable food and extend shelf life.By June 2026, teach 75 community members on the topics of composting basics and soil health through the SIFT farm workshops and classes available to the public.By September 2025 and June 2026, educate 20 through the SNAP Education program on food waste reduction, and food handling and preservation (each year).Organize a Collection ProgramOrganize a collection program targeting larger institutional kitchens that produce the most food waste.By the end of the project, divert the equivalent of 100,000 pounds of food waste in volume from the community and project collaborators to the SIFT farm for composting.SIFT Farm employees will provide participants of the collection program with 65-gallon compost bins or 5-gallon buckets depending on the scale of the kitchen.SIFT Farm employees will collect and record food waste amounts and deliver it to the farm for composting. The amounts will be measured by the volume of waste collected.NCAT staff and will develop signs and educational material for teaching project collaborators, students, and staff of schools on composting basics and proper sorting of food waste.During the summer of each year of the project, educate 150 YMCA Sumer Camp youth and staff on sorting compost and the importance of nutrition.By October 2025, educate 5 staff of commercial restaurants on coordinating compost collection, sorting and compost basics. Evaluate the potential to expand more.By February 2025. educate ten staff of local businesses and commercial kitchens on proper sorting of food waste.Expand Community CompostingSIFT farm will build ten additional 8-ft by 4-ft compost bays on the NCAT SIFT farm site to manage the increased volume of food waste.SIFT farm will purchase equipment to mix and process the 100,000 lbs of food waste collected monitoring temperatures and carbon to nitrogen ratios to ensure a quality organic compost for agricultural use as to GAP standards.By July 2025, SIFT farm will produce 20 cubic yards of agricultural grade compost that will be available for community and school gardens, county led edible food forest which does not include compost retained at the SIFT farm for research and soil enhancement purposes.SIFT farm will provide an agricultural grade finished compost to community gardens schools and educational farms free of charge for the first two years as it becomes available.SIFT farm will sell excess compost to residential gardeners and local farms to help determine an estimated market value price and demand.NCAT staff will develop and publish a case study by the end of the project that will feasibility, potential market price, and demand for the final composted product, as well as opportunities to expand food waste collection to include residential pick up.SIFT will trial a biochar compost mix over the two project years that could be used as a value-added soil enhancement that can address climate issues by sequestering carbon and increasing organic matter and publish the findings in SIFT's annual publication.SIFT will hold a workshop each year open to the community on composting basics, food waste reduction, and environmental benefits of community composting.
Project Methods
MethodsCollection of compost amounts will be recorded weekly in volume of food waste collected from participants and delivered to the SIFT farm.Compost bays will be numbered and monitored weekly for temperature once the compost cooking process has begun. Final amounts of compost will be measured in volume when complete.Report on the total amount of compost produced during the project year in June 2025 and June 2026.Prepare a case study and feasibility report by June 2026 with consolidated data.Semi-annual educational reports will be provided that will include how many people were educated, audience, collaborators involved, and topics of education.Complete an NCAT publication by June 2026 for publication and distribution through ATTRA media portals on community compost feasibility for communities.Research and prepare a feasibility study by the project end on selling compost to local markets.Measure education success in June 2025 and December 2026. Our project team will measure the number of people educated through this compost initiative. This will include school staff, students and YMCA summer camp participants, workshops made available to the public, and compost collaborators.Project reporting will be made available to the public through a case study published by NCAT. The project report will describe the initiative, partners, and funding. This publication will include lessons learned from the project and a link to NCAT's ATTRA website where the case study will be published on the findings of the feasibility study. These resources will help others in the surrounding area replicate similar compost and food waste reduction initiatives.?