Mi’kmaw Nation of Paqtnkek Organic Compost Shed
- Location: Mi’kmaw Nation of Paqtnkek Health Centre
- Project Partners: The Mi’kmaw Nation of Paqtnkek., The Mi’kmawey Green Communities Program., Higgins Construction
- Website: http://paqtnkek.ca/ & https://lindsayconstruction.ca/
Project Description
Implement a Community Composting Program to explore methods of organic waste diversion while providing an educational tool for students, as well as creating nutrient-rich compost to be used within the Community. The Health Centre in Paqtnkek uses diverted organic material and turns it into usable compost. This compost can be used within the community garden on site, private gardening projects, as well as within restoration and beautification projects.
The compost tumbler that is housed inside the organic compost shed is an in vessel anaerobic composting unit. It requires tumbling (movement) every three days once the initial food waste (nitrogen source) and wood pellets (carbon source) have been added to the unit. The unit can compost upwards of 40kg of organic waste per week. Once both sources are added, monitoring of the moisture level, which could require the addition of more carbon and or nitrogen sources, and monitoring of the temperature levels to ensure the process inside the unit is always at a steady state for an effective composting process to naturally occur, is carried out for the duration of the composting process. This process typically takes 6-8 weeks to complete. Following this the compost is then moved outdoors to curing piles where after another 1-2 weeks will be fully cured and ready for use.
Implement a Community Composting Program to explore methods of organic waste diversion while providing an educational tool for students, as well as creating nutrient-rich compost to be used within the Community. The Health Centre in Paqtnkek uses diverted organic material and turns it into usable compost. This compost can be used within the community garden on site, private gardening projects, as well as within restoration and beautification projects.
The compost tumbler that is housed inside the organic compost shed is an in vessel anaerobic composting unit. It requires tumbling (movement) every three days once the initial food waste (nitrogen source) and wood pellets (carbon source) have been added to the unit. The unit can compost upwards of 40kg of organic waste per week. Once both sources are added, monitoring of the moisture level, which could require the addition of more carbon and or nitrogen sources, and monitoring of the temperature levels to ensure the process inside the unit is always at a steady state for an effective composting process to naturally occur, is carried out for the duration of the composting process. This process typically takes 6-8 weeks to complete. Following this the compost is then moved outdoors to curing piles where after another 1-2 weeks will be fully cured and ready for use.
Project Results:
- After opening its doors in the spring of 2018, The Organic Compost Shed has produced many batches of compost for its community.
- Community members have successfully run gardening projects during the summer months with the use of this compost through a soil amendment process, which has aided in larger and stronger crop growth.
Project Outputs:
- Provided a full understanding of where your food waste goes and the possibilities of what can happen to your food waste if diverted properly, and how your food waste can be a part of a closed loop system.
- What you can then do with compost.
- The demonstration of closing the food-loop all on site from the beginning process of adding food scraps from a leftover meal into the tumbler, to the final product of food being harvested from the garden.
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