SPOTLIGHT
Composting One Neighborhood at a Time
In Charlotte’s Plaza Midwood, NEST and CrownTown Compost turned a pilot into 10 tons of diverted food waste and a model for the city.
Jennifer Germaine
TRANSITION PATHWAY
Circular Materials & Industry
ORGANIZATION
Neighborhood Environmental Stewardship Team (NEST) is an environmental group in the Plaza Midwood neighborhood of Charlotte (approx. 2200 households). They formed in 2024 around an interest in becoming a model for the city of Charlotte of a quasi eco-district, and have grown to 100 members strong. Their mission pillars are waste reduction, earth-friendly gardening & landscaping, clean/efficient energy, waterway management, clean/efficient transportation and environmental justice/equity. They hold regular meetings, with guest speakers and idea sharing; do field trips; do outreach via neighborhood publications and information tables at neighborhood events.
CrownTown Compost is a company within companies designed to make sustainable choices easier. They run Crown Town Compost, Landscapes and Farm. Crown Town Compost is their food waste division that collects food scraps and turns them into soil.
COUNTIES
Mecklenburg County
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Imagine being able to stroll down your neighborhood and easily contribute to a better planet for all of us? That is exactly what is happening inside the Plaza Midwood Neighborhood in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is one of the first neighborhoods allowing residents to drop their food waste off at phone-app accessible food waste bin enclosures located within their own neighborhood.
The Neighborhood Environmental Stewardship Team (NEST) is an environmental group in the Plaza Midwood neighborhood of Charlotte. They formed in 2024 around an interest in becoming a model for the City of Charlotte of a quasi eco-district. They created a neighborhood composting program to divert food waste from the landfill and place it back in the hands of gardeners, landscapers, and farmers.
In the first week of the pilot, they had over 100 people sign up - showcasing the significant energy and desire to participate. Over the six months the program grew to over 160 households and more than 10 tons of food waste was diverted. The pilot began by placing plastic roll bins throughout the neighborhood for the composting.
NEST partnered with Crowntown Compost as the food waste hauler on the pilot. Crowntown Compost currently collects food waste from residential homes and commercial clients. They realized at home pickup is expensive for many and were looking for a cheaper way for residents to get involved in composting by placing waste receptacles around neighborhoods so people can walk their food waste to the bins every day.
"In the program's pilot phase, over 10 tons of food was collected from 160 participating households (~7% total households), keeping close to a ton (CO2e) of methane out of the atmosphere. Think what we can do with 15-20% of households participating and using a more efficient collection system?!?" - Christopher Lakin
After a successful pilot, NEST and Crowntown Compost applied for a grant from Resilient Future Co-Lab to improve the process by replacing the plastic roll bins with sturdy metal enclosures with phone app access and fill-level monitoring. The bins are air tight and are weight monitored by app which allows Crowntown Compost to pick-up only when necessary - allowing more people to get involved and saves emissions from hauling. NEST hopes these upgrades to enhance the user experience and decrease contamination will continue to expand the participation of the program throughout the neighborhood. For Crowntown Compost, these bins will allow them to market the program, create efficiencies with their own drivers, and encourage more widespread participation.
Both parties hope to see more people take on composting. Once they are able to show results from this pilot, they plan to go to the local government to get more support to create programs in more neighborhoods across the city. Already, the Mecklenburg County Solid Waste department has been supportive of their food diversion program, and has been following its progress through reports NEST makes to them. Mecklenburg County currently offers food waste diversion at its recycling centers. NEST’s goal is that the county and city will eventually progress to neighborhood and then curbside collection of food waste county-wide.