What is "Community Composter Stewardship"?
For each Community Compost System in the City of Guelph (there are currently 3) there needs to be 2 Compost Stewards. Ideally, the Community Compost System is very near to where you live or study or work or play (that pretty much guarantees that, without additional effort, you’ll be able to regularly visit the site). Ideally you have a genuine interest in being a part of a good composting system (that pretty much guarantees that the composting will happen in a continuous way, and thus be amazing). Ideally your values roughly align with the values of the founders & allies of The Compost Queens of the Royal City: D.I.Y. (the fewer the “experts” the more peoples get involved), use selvage and recycled materials to build (that models affordability in areas of the City, and with people, who are not affluent); collective, holistic and ecological (the “catchment area” for a Community Composter System will have in it, everyone and anything needed to go into a great project: it is up to the Steward to take the lead in sourcing those “inputs” and building up a great network of “contributions” that go beyond any individuals’ input. This is how things get rolling. And keep rolling. (credit due to The Treemobile for having this position among the asks on their grant applications. Applause!)
What your basic responsibilities will be:
-Go look at it about once a week. (More is fine. Less if fine. Once a week is best. I go once a day because I walk my dog, Shepody, every day. Why not combine these efforts? Easy-peasy.)
-Make sure there is good, accessible, clear signage about what goes where. If there isn't any: make it. Or ask for it. Put it up. When it gets ripped down or defaced, put up new signage (rinse, repeat).
-Remove “inputs” that don’t go into a Community Compost System (large sticks, dog poo bags, take-out containers with half an old burrito in it, plastic, etc). Put those in the waste-garbage which should be right there, beside the Composting System. When THAT gets full, put it into the Cityh Grey Bin nearby.
-If you can, make more signage that encourages whoever put the wrong stuff in there, to stop doing so.
-Check if it is dry or wet. If it’s dry, add water or set it up so that water gets into it regularly. Sometimes all it takes is to ask a gardener to please put a few watering cans of water onto the Compost System when they are watering their plot...
-Talk to the gardeners & the neighbours (businesses and residential, including apartment buildings), anyone who is around there (daycare centres, schools, construction sites, curious cyclists and pedestrians)… to make sure they know what that “thing” is, and how they can be a part of it. Ask then to find out what ‘waste’ they currently put into the green bin or (worse) into a dumpster… and encourage-support them to divert that green gold into the Community Compost System. That might take some workshops, a demonstration or two, some conversations, & some supportive materials to connect the action-dots (compost bins they can purchase from The Queens. I've even done a walk-through from source to system).