Composting for the Everglades: New project to benefit Miccosukee garden
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The Rev. Houston R. Cypress of the Love the Everglades Movement. Photo: Martin Vassolo/Axios
Your food scraps could be used to help support the Everglades through a new partnership between the village of Pinecrest and the Miccosukee Tribe.
Why it matters: Instead of dumping food waste into crowded landfills, which produce methane emissions, the Everglades Earth Cycle Project will expand Pinecrest's residential composting program and deliver nutrient-rich soil to the Miccosukee Tribe.
Driving the news: The project, funded with a $400,000 federal grant and other contributions, calls for installing four new composting bins in Pinecrest and three around Miami-Dade County District 7.
- The initial phase of the program will supply compost to the Swampy Meadows Community Garden, which grows vegetables just outside the Miccosukee Indian School.
- Another proposal that's been floated is adding new soil to the Everglades' tree islands, though that would need tribal approval, says the Rev. Houston R. Cypress of the Love the Everglades Movement, a partner in the program.
What they're saying: Cypress told reporters on an airboat ride through the Everglades last week that the tribe teaches "the essence of being in harmony with nature is giving back to it."
- With the Everglades Earth Cycle Project, "we're giving back clean and healthy soil; we're giving products that might eventually improve the water quality out here, but we're also giving directly back to local indigenous communities here," he said.
How it works: Pinecrest already has two free public composting bins, one at the Pinecrest Public Library and another between the Community Center and Pinecrest Gardens.
- The new program, in partnership with Fertile Earth Worm Farm, will add seven more to the village and lower-income areas of District 7.
You can compost food scraps, including prepared foods, meat and dairy, per Pinecrest's composting website.
- Also OK: food-soiled papers like pizza boxes, coffee filters and napkins.
- Plants, untreated wood and soil are compostable — but flowers aren't.
Stunning stat: Since Pinecrest started its composting program in late 2023, it has created over 90,000 pounds of compost, per city spokesperson Michelle Hammontree.
The bottom line: Hammontree said composting is a natural alternative to building another incinerator for Miami-Dade's trash.
- "You're taking the food waste, you're turning it into compost, you're putting it back into the environment — here it would be the Everglades — and then the Everglades is giving you clean water so you can continue living this life that we have."