SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP — Good stewards of the outdoors know that what you pack in — you need to pack out. This season, Winton Woods wants visitors to take that tenet to the next level, encouraging campers to compost.
"Campers, you know, you're cooking breakfast, you've got egg shells. I've seen pineapple," said Stephanie Bacher, sustainability coordinator for Great Parks of Hamilton County. "We're happy to be able to collect that stuff for compost now. One of our main goals and values here is to be a conservation leader in the area."
This season, Bacher brought-in a local food scrap collection service to keep organic material from ending up in the trash.
Julia Marchese is the co-founder of Queen City Commons.
"We've already got a dumpster over here and recycling over here. It only made sense to add the composting as an option," she said.
Marchese says just about everything she knows about composting is from the ground up.
"Everything I've learned about composting and environmental studies and food policy and food systems and agriculture has all just been learning by doing," she said.
Composting is a natural process, happening all around us.
"If you imagine leaves falling from the trees, and those are decomposing into the grass and adding nutrients into the ground. It's essentially leaving organic matter out of the landfill and feeding it back to the earth," she said.
The process at Winton Woods is simple and begins with a bucket.
"It's small. It's just a couple gallons. Folks can opt-in to get a compost bucket when they arrive at the campground," she said.
Once a week, Queen City Commons collects the contents from the campground, partnering with several farms around the city.
"We provide them with food scraps, they then have the material to create their own compost to amend their soils and grow high quality produce," she said.
A full circle process that’s both sustainable and satisfying.
"It's extremely satisfying. I think that people are wanting to make the world a better place," she said.
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