Trash Talk- A Conversation Worth Having
Trash talk is almost everyone’s secret pleasure. While sipping hot pink Tops n’ Tails Compost Cocktails, a group in Healdsburg recently got together to do lots of trash talking. But this was not your juicy gossip. Instead, it was a much-needed discussion about garbage: food scraps, piles of leftovers, household paper products and garden trimmings.
Our collective garbage was the talk of trash at the inaugural “Conversations Worth Having” series at the enchanting Barndiva Studio B in Healdsburg. Barndiva’s proprietor, Jil Hales, brings together dynamic thought leaders, local politicians, biodynamic farmers, acclaimed scientists and culinary gardeners to tackle the topic of trash—covering everything from composting to sustainable materials innovation. The public is invited to future conversations; details at barndiva.com.
On garbage solutions and composting, guest speaker Brock Dolman, program director of Occidental Arts & Ecology, points out, “Change is demanded, but people don’t want to be inconvenienced by solutions.” The Barndiva conversations center on actionable steps toward waste solutions and explore the importance of composting. There’s a movement of smaller communities shifting how they deal with their waste. The composting movement really began a decade ago with the statewide implementation of laws to address environmental concerns and reduce landfill waste.
Two years ago, a game-changing law was enacted requiring California residents and businesses to separate their compostable organic waste from other garbage. Eggshells left from your morning scramble, broccoli the kids’ side-eyed and even stale potato chips become something good in the compost bin. The law established compulsory composting on a county-by-countywide scale. Seen as a climate “win,” composting boosts carbon sequestration, reduces landfill methane emissions and provides beneficial and planet-nourishing organic soil. Local garbage companies haul away compostable waste each week to turn it into soil at large composting sites. But paradoxically, diesel trucks transport the compostable material, and fossil-fuel-driven bulldozers move the soil onsite. These eco-contradictions raise the question, is mandated composting green, or just “greenwashing”?
Barndiva’s conversation participants have discussed solutions to the perplexing composting dilemmas. Tech entrepreneur Josh Whiton founded the nonprofit MakeSoil.org, which establishes neighborhood compost sites; Healdsburg Mayor Ariel Kelley spearheads the city’s Climate Mobilization Strategies; winegrower Eric Sussman of Radio Coteau and Tucker Taylor, the director of culinary gardens at Jackson Family Farms, have implemented biodynamic and organic farming practices; and restoration ecologist and educator Brock Dolman specializes in the earth’s cycles of decomposition and regeneration. Each recognizes that one man’s trash can become a community’s treasure and with continued discussion we can all be better stewards of our environment and our communities.
