Welcome to BioBag’s Community Heroes series! Each month, we will highlight community heroes that are making a difference in their communities and working to make their local environments cleaner and healthier.

This month, we are taking a look at Go Green OC!

Go Green OC, Inc is a grassroots organization dedicated to promoting the goals of zero waste by education, program implementation, and cross-community collaboration. Focused on the eastern shore of Maryland, they strive to make Ocean City become the first zero-waste resort town in the United States. We spoke to founder Josh Chamberlain about his organization, which you can learn more about in the interview below.

What led you to start your composting operation?

Chamberlain: Go Green OC was started to find alternative ways to waste incineration by creating a sustainable circular economy.

Who do you serve, and how can people get in touch with you if they want to start composting?

Chamberlain: We serve the Worcester County, Maryland area, specifically Ocean City, Maryland.  People can reach out to us via Instagram or our website. We reach 30k people monthly on Instagram and 99% of our volunteers come from social media.

How much organic material do you typically take in on a weekly basis?

Chamberlain: At the peak of our season, we are ingesting around 10,000 pounds of food waste. The program runs from April to November (seasonal town).

2018 – 1900 pounds

2019 – did fundraising

2020 – 12,190 pounds

2021 – 80,000+ pounds

2022 – on track for around 200,000 pounds

We could see a total accumulation of around 300k pounds.

 

Please give us one fun fact about you or your business.

Chamberlain: This compost program is run by a restaurant owner and film producer with hardly any waste experience. This program is driven by 99% volunteers.

Feel free to add any additional information about your operation as you see fit.

Chamberlain: We have 12 locations participating with us today, with over 30 on a waitlist.  We are up from 1 volunteer to nearly 8.  We started the first pizza box collection receptacle for composting in Ocean City.  We also converted the largest motorcycle rally on the east coast to zero waste (OC Bikefest) by introducing recycling – and this year…COMPOSTING!

Anything special going on that you would like for us to share?

Chamberlain: We are doing a HUGE zero waste event in Ocean City, MD. It’s called Bikefest. Our volunteers assist with recycling and composting efforts. It’s the largest Motorcycle Rally on the east coast.  This year, we are introducing composting to the event. For more information about the event, click here.

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If you would like to be featured in a future edition of Community Heroes, please email us at marketing@biobagusa.com.