Author: Asma Riaz
Composting has become an essential component of our gardening seasons here at 53 and 71 Thorncliffe Park Drives. Although we have been maintaining our traditional three bin composting systems in both gardens for years now, in partnership with local resident group Residents Engagement – Action for Climate (RE- AC), the pilot project funded by the Neighbourhood Climate Action Grant by the City of Toronto in 2024 increased both in interest and participation of local residents in contributing their household waste to our sustainability initiative. As part of our composting program, we hosted 6 workshops that provided participants with hands-on learning experience of converting their organic waste into nutrient-rich soil supplement that they could take home while the remaining was used in our garden beds. These resident volunteers witnessed their food scraps break down over the course of months within our wooden composting bins, knowing well that their effort in collecting their food waste, no matter how unpleasant and slightly inconvenient it had been for them, was undoubtedly making a positive impact to their neighbourhood and environment.
Most of the high-rise residential buildings present within Thorncliffe Park lack green bins on their properties that result in thousands of pounds worth of organic materials being wrongfully disposed of within garbage bins. Although an issue of neglect by property managers, our gardens developed a proactive solution on a small-scale to collect and decrease the amount of green waste from households by utilizing it for, quite literally, our earth. By the end of the summer, we successfully collected 900 pounds (408 kg) of organic waste from over 25 households. We gifted each family with a grocery gift card as a token of appreciation for their continued participation and belief in our eco-friendly initiative. Although an insignificant amount compared to the perhaps tonnes of green waste produced by these residential buildings, we are proud to have introduced an initiative that practically works to reduce and redirect this waste from being disposed of within landfills, further preventing methane emissions in our atmosphere.
Aside from targeting an environmental issue for local residents, our composting program functions to educate participants and volunteers of the importance of correctful waste disposal and its impact on our natural environment, in the form of benefitting our communal gardens. In 2024, we hired a composting consultant to lead our workshops series while training 2 youth coordinators and 5 volunteers selected for running the project over our 6 month gardening season. These youth from Thorncliffe Park diligently managed both our three bin composting systems in our gardens, being present at scheduled dates to collect, weigh, and transfer food scraps to these bins while periodically rotating the “green” and “brown” materials through each bin. While maintaining our gardens, we collect large amounts of brown materials, such as weeds and dead leaves that contribute to the breaking down of green waste collected. Volunteers sift piles of this finalized composted material that is then distributed as soil supplement produced thanks to the efforts of our very own community. At the end of the season, we gave these youth honoraria for their hard work in supporting our composting initiative, hoping that this opportunity not only benefits them in knowledge and skill but also provides them with a chance to earn some personal money to help slightly ease any financial strain they may have.
After a successful start to the composting program in 2024, TPUF continues to host informational workshops for engaging local residents in maintaining our three bin composting systems to collectively support a practical solution for our neighbourhood’s absence of green bins. Although we did not partner with the Residents Engagement – Action for Climate for the 2025 season, we still collected over 2200 pounds (998 kg) of organic waste collectively from over 10 households and our community’s vegetable vans.
