About Verdi

Food waste makes up over 1/5 of solid waste going to landfills. In the landfill, food waste is not exposed to air, and is therefore broken down in a way that produces methane, a harmful greenhouse gas contributing to climate change. 

Verdi is working to establish food waste collection hubs at local schools, churches, recreation centers and other community sites. Verdi will in turn provide finished compost and support to establish gardens at interested sites. 

After gardening organically for about 25 years, I moved to a location with dry, unproductive soil. Desperate to build better soil to grow food and flowers again, I stumbled upon bokashi. It handled all my food waste and fed my garden soil. The more I learned, the more I realized food waste shouldn't be a problem. It's a resource we're carelessly sending to the landfill. There are lots of strategies to use food waste's worth to green the earth. Let's explore them together!

Verdi's goal is to make food waste recycling standard practice in St. Louis County. We aim to connect people in their local community to the knowledge, materials and space needed to transform food waste into nutrient rich compost to improve local soils. In turn, the improved local soil can provide the community with quality produce and people the opportunity to connect around gardening and composting.

Verdi will also create a network of trained compost site managers.