6th National Cultivating Community Composting Forum Panel 3: Composting for Social and Environmental Justice

1. Composting for Social &
Environmental Justice
Moderators:
Sandy Nurse, BK ROT & Michael Martinez, L.A. Compost
6th National Cultivating Community Composting Forum
May 13th, 2019

2. SJ Vocabulary
Social justice is a concept of fair and just relations between
the individual and society. This is measured by the explicit and
tacit terms for the distribution of wealth, opportunities for
personal activity, and social privileges. In Western as well as in
older Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often
referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fulfill their
societal roles and receive what was their due from society. In
the current global grassroots movements for social justice, the
emphasis has been on the breaking of barriers for social
mobility, the creation of safety nets and economic justice.

3. SJ Vocabulary
Environmental justice is defined federally as the fair treatment and
meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national
origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and
enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. In other
words, your health should not suffer because of the environment where
you live, work, play or learn. The concept of environmental justice began
as a movement in the 1980s due to the realization that a disproportionate
number of polluting industries, power plants, and waste disposal areas
were located near low-income or minority communities. Robert D Bullard
is seen as the father of the environmental justice movement as a lawyer
and academic who worked to define environmental racism. The
movement was set in place to ensure fair distribution of environmental
burdens among all people regardless of their background.

4. SJ Vocabulary
Environmental racism is the term was coined by
Benjamin Chavis while addressing hazardous PCB waste
in Warren County, North Carolina. Chavis defined the
term as racial discrimination in environmental policy
making, the enforcement of regulations and laws, the
deliberate targeting of communities of color for toxic
waste facilities, the official sanctioning of the life-
threatening presence of poisons and pollutants in our
communities, and the history of excluding people of
color from leadership of the ecology movements.

5. SJ Vocabulary
Just Transition is a vision-led, unifying and place-based set of
principles, processes, and practices that build economic and
political power to shift from an extractive economy to a
regenerative economy. This means approaching production
and consumption cycles holistically and waste-free. The
transition itself must be just and equitable; redressing past
harms and creating new relationships of power for the future
through reparations. If the process of transition is not just, the
outcome will never be. Just Transition describes both where
we are going and how we get there.

6. SJ Resources
Climate Justice Alliance
https://climatejusticealliance.org/just-transition/
Indigenous Environmental Network
http://www.ienearth.org
Movement Generation Ecology & Justice Project
https://movementgeneration.org
New York City Environmental Justice Alliance
http://www.nyc-eja.org
Transform Don’t Trash Coalition
http://transformdonttrashnyc.org
This list is repeated on the last slide

7. Marvin Hayes
Baltimore Compost Collective

9. BCC on The Real News

10. Community Composting
“When Your Soil Is Happy, Your Belly Is Happy”

11. Our Vision
We believe that the more that people buy into the fresh, local, food
movement, the more our economy becomes more sustainable, green and
economically self-perpetuating as the dollar remains within our own
communities. OffBeet Compost strives to close the loop from seed to
plate, by adding the final dimension of plate to soil into the mixture.
We are committed to creating a resilient green economy in the
Merrimack Valley Region that generates local green jobs, empowers
community members to be land stewards and contributes to an
environmentally sustainable landscape.

12. Who We Are
Board
Staff

13. What We Do (Services)

14. What We Do (Products)

15. Support Local Events Work With Schools
And We Also....

17. Key Defining Elements
Local (Money & compost re-invested in the community)
Mission Driven
High Level of Community Involvement
Diversity/Representation- We strive to ensure our staff/members reflect
the community at large
Accessible
Fair/More than Livable wage
Transparency

18. Thank You!
www.offbeetcompost.com

39. Kenneth Young
Red Hook Community Farm

40. Domingo Morales
Red Hook Community Farm Compost Site
NYC Compost Project Hosted by Brooklyn Botanic Garden

43. SJ Resources
Climate Justice Alliance
https://climatejusticealliance.org/just-transition/
Indigenous Environmental Network
http://www.ienearth.org
Movement Generation Ecology & Justice Project
https://movementgeneration.org
New York City Environmental Justice Alliance
http://www.nyc-eja.org
Transform Don’t Trash Coalition
http://transformdonttrashnyc.org