Oct 9-10: Compost celebration at Phipps

Celebrate Composting in this season of Happy Early Rot! at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens

We all know that Obama and all the various heads of state attended a gala there a couple of weeks ago. Well…here’s a more modest, but stimulating, affair for the rest of us! Over the past months, Phipps has extended its organic waste diversion efforts to include all its greenhouses, its cafeteria (front and back) and its catering. Come celebrate composting with Phipps Conservatory, the Pennsylvania Resources Council, friends and neighbors. Learn some things. Share your interest in this important frontier. Snack and mingle.

Friday, October 9

6 p.m. in Botany Hall: “Composting: the Big View”

A free lecture/slide-show by Nick Shorr of PRC.

Nick discusses how interest in ‘helping things rot’ — both directly, in our backyards, and indirectly, through diversion of compostable waste of the institutions where we work, eat, go to school, etc — may be a real pivot in our relations with Nature. He places this frontier in the history of human-Nature relationships, and of agricultural change; and asks us to consider how we can help maximize the regional benefits of this vast resource frontier. Before joining PRC, and leading their institutional composting program, Nick taught global agricultural history to undergraduates at Wake Forest, Indiana University, Dickinson College, Chatham and Carnegie Mellon. He has worked on farms in three states; managed farmers’ markets; worked on composting facilities and in community gardens in New York City; and did dissertation fieldwork in the Brazilian Amazon.

6:45 p.m.: Light Food & Refreshments, courtesy of Phipps

7 p.m. in Botany Hall: Backyard Composting workshop.

A workshop by Lauren Seiple (PRC). $40 (or $50 per couple). Fee includes attendance and a composting bin.

Lauren has taught this workshop to hundreds of Pittsburgh-area residents over the past two years. Her topics include

Ø The benefits of composting

Ø How composting works

Ø What you should & shouldn’t compost

Ø How to set up and maintain an effective compost pile with minimal fuss and effort

To register, please call Lauren at 412-431-4449 ext. 325, or laurens@ccicenter.org

Saturday Oct 10, 10am-2pm

Ø Short video on organic waste diversion at institutions

Ø Table with literature on composting workshops and initiatives in the region

Ø Unveiling of the new, improved café patron recycling/composting station