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 Pinellas Community Compost!

Pinellas Community Compost is a small company located in Pinellas County, Florida, that offers composting education, consultations for home, gardens, and businesses, and assists with food systems projects, including gardening and food recovery. BioBag Associate Michael Downss spoke to Amanda Streets, founder of Pinellas Community Compost. Their interview is transcribed below.

What led you to start your composting operation?

Amanda: Our goal is to provide a number of ways for our community to interact positively with composting so that it can become a normal way for everyone to handle our food scraps and yard waste. We were inspired to teach composting as a way to divert waste from the landfill and decrease greenhouse gases. 

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

Amanda: We help individuals, community gardens, and school groups learn to compost, and assist institutions to implement campus-wide composting initiatives. Our website is pinellascommunitycompost.com, and we can be reached via email amanda@pinellascommunitycompost.com or phone, 727-488-9750. 

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

Amanda: Pinellas Community Compost facilitates an occasional low Event waste but we don’t have a regular stream of organic materials at this time. Our clients and participants do make compost though.

One of our projects, Creating a Regenerative Community Food System, with Tampa Bay Network to End Hunger, diverts about 200 pounds of food scraps from the landfill weekly. One of the institutions that we support composts about 1,000 pounds of food scraps weekly. We are working to promote composting in the community by teaching classes. Since we opened in 2018, we have taught over 80 composting classes! 

Please give us one fun fact about your business.

Amanda: Our tagline is changing the habits of a generation. I’m a former educator who believes that teaching young people about sustainability and using resources responsibly is very important. We prioritize visiting schools and teaching family-friendly classes.

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