Bennett Initiatives
We believe that our impact isn't just measured in statistics. Its also the many different initiatives we work on that connect to our work with food waste composting.
Philadelphia Rec Centers
We love expanding composting in the city of Philadelphia! Since 2020, Bennett Compost has worked with Philadelphia Parks & Recreation (PPR) department to compost food scraps from recreation centers and playgrounds throughout Philadelphia. PPR provides over 2,000,000 meals every year to Philadelphians making it the second largest provider of meals in the city. Bennett Compost collects the material and brings it back to a city-owned composting facility that we designed, built and operate in the Lawncrest neighborhood of Philadelphia. A portion of the compost produced at this facility is then returned to urban farms in the PPR Farm Philly network.
Education on compost and composting is also provided through PPR after-school and summer camp programming. This work has helped PPR to reduce the amount of food sent to landfills through both composting and adjusting the amount and type of food that each rec center provides; saving PPR $1000s of dollars on trash hauling and tipping fees since the program began while reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. The partnership has been profiled in the Philly Inquirer and WHYY.
Philadelphia Public Schools
We love teaching kids about composting! Since 2013, Bennett Compost has worked with W.B. Saul High School (Saul) to assist in composting both manure from their livestock operations and their cafeteria saving the School District of Philadelphia $1000s of dollars in disposal fees since the partnership began while reducing their greenhouse gas emmissions. Bennett Compost staff provide in-class and hands on education to Saul students as part of the partnership.
Additionally, Bennett Compost coordinates and delivers finished compost from the site which helps to fund school activities and student scholarships. Bennett Compost has hosted interns from Saul as well as Lankenau and Lincoln HSs as part of its work with the Philadelphia School District. The composting program at Saul has been profiled in the Philadelphia Citizen.
Philadelphia Prison Programming
We love helping people get back on their feet! Bennett has hosted returning citizens in paid internships as part of early release programs and currently over 25% of our full-time workforce are formerly incarcerated people who had no prior experience in the compost industry. Since 2021, Bennett Compost has worked with the Philadelphia Deparment of Prisons (PDP) to compost food scraps from their internal operations saving them $1000s of dollars in waste disposal fees since the partnership began while reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. Bennett Compost collects the food scraps and compost them on-site at PDP's internal compost facility.
The finished compost is then donated to community groups, schools and PDP employees as well as used by PDP horticultural operations. Since 2022, Bennett Compost has also managed PDP's greenhouse and orchard program. The orchard at PDP is the largest urban orchard in Pennsylvania. These programs provided vocational training to incarcerated people and produce over 10,000 lbs of health fruits and vegetables which is donated to food pantry's, re-entry houses, community fridges and neighborhood groups. The partnership has been profiled by WHYY and the Northeast Times.
Composting Pilot Programs
We love teaching kids about composting! Since 2013, Bennett We love finding new ways to engage people in composting! Starting in 2024, Bennett Compost has been testing four composting pilot programs in Kensington in collaboration with the New Kensington CDC. The goal of this project is to build upon the existing success and infrastructure of Bennett Compost, the unique community partnerships of NKCDC and develop successful models for composting food waste in Kensington where the current fee-for-service compost model has not gained a foothold. Previous work that Bennett Compost has completed suggests that the lack of success in these areas has less to do with the desire of residents to compost food waste and more to do with barriers of a fee-for-service model including costs and lack of outreach and education.
This initiative would run four unique pilot programs to identify the best strategies to bridge these barriers and to make composting accessible to residents of Kensington and with lessons learned to apply to similar communities.
Urban Farming
We love helping Philadelphians grow healthy food and beautiful flowers! Since our beginning in 2009, Bennett Compost has worked closely with urban farms and gardens. Our compost is used by dozens of urban gardens throughout Philadelphia every year. Our potting mix is used for seed starting by urban farmers from Weavers Way Farms, PHS, Germantown Kitchen Garden to name a few. We are proud to be a part of the robust urban agriculture scene that is a point of pride for Philadelphians.
Urban Biking
We love to ride bikes at Bennett Compost! In addition to our bicycle collections, we are always looking for additional ways to interact with the Philadelphia Biking community. Whether riding in charity bike rides like the MS Bike to the Shore Race, exhibiting at the Philadelphia Bike Expo, spending $1000s of dollars at locally-owned bike shops, or just making sure the bike lanes in front of our compost site are a little safer for riders we believe in making Philadelphia as bike friendly as possible for all Philadelphians.
Weekly Trail Cleanups
We love being outdoors at Bennet Compost! Since moving into our new location adjacent to the Tacony Creek Park in 2020, Bennett Compost has hosted weekly clean-ups of the park. These clean-ups have removed tons of trash from the park and help to make it a cleaner, more enjoyable place for our neighbors to find refuge from the day to day grind of city life.
