1. 1
Union Park District Council
Rebekah Smith, Composting Program Coordinator
Suite LL100
1570 Concordia Ave
St. Paul, MN 55104
651-645-6887
651-917-9991 (f)
Rebekah@UnionParkDC.org
www.UnionParkDC.org
April 2, 2012 - September 1, 2012

2. 2
Summary of Major Activities
In the two weeks following April 2, we continued to promote the Union Park District Council (UPDC)
Composting Program and engaged approximately 87 residents. On April 12, a Master Gardner prepared
University of St. Thomas (UST) Green Team members to lead our main compost training for the public,
which they did on April 21 (UST 4/21 Training) with assistance from UPDC board members, Master
Gardeners, Eureka Recycling and community volunteers. Ninety-eight residents (98) completed the
training that day and received a compost bin. The remaining 23 participants who got a compost bin
completed other training options. On May 8, UPDC staff, Mac-Grove District Council Staff and
Macalester students toured Specialized Environmental Technologies, Inc./The Mulch Store, a
composting facility in Rosemount. On May 10, a Master Gardener taught a class on vermiculture,
resulting in five (5) participants purchasing worm bins. In July, we gathered post-program surveys.
Progress toward Primary Goals and Activities

Goal: Directly engage 100 residents by providing the tools needed to
practice composting and food waste reduction
Activities People Reached
(219)
Got a bin
(121 + 5 worm
bins)
Started Composting
(n/total answers)
(66+5 worm bins)
Displayed
Sticker
(n/total answers)
UST 4/21 Training 98 98 51/55 11/55
Online Training 12 12 9/11 0
One-on-One training 3 3 3/3 0
Facebook Pledge 45
(- 23 people mentioned
elsewhere=
22)
16 15/15 0
Online Quiz
($50 Gift Certificate Incentive)
80
(-37 people mentioned
elsewhere=
43)
17 (+12 who
did quiz as
part of
training=
29)
12/13 2/13
Took pre-program survey 21 (+ 112 who completed the
program)
0 0 0
Worm Bin Training 6
(-2 mentioned elsewhere=
4)
5 5/5 1/5
Total1
219 126 71 14
Data Source: Workshop records included unique claim tickets for compost bins and evaluations with open-ended
questions (e.g, “What did you learn?). Pre and post-survey data and the quiz responses were captured in a Google
document/spreadsheet. Facebook records.
In addition to the total verifiable touches of 219 households, we did three Earth Day tabling events
directly reaching about 20 people. We also provided a donated worm bin to a fourth grade classroom.
Participants received literature from the Pollution Control Agency2
, Eureka Recycling, and Rethink
Recycling3
, and a Master Gardener bookmark with resources including a helpline number. Participants
1
Participants may have done more than one activity; total may be less than sum of numbers in the column.

3. 3
also received a Rethink Recycling reusable shopping bag, a “Union Park Composts!” sticker, a Ramsey
County; "Go Green" guide, and a Smart Trips map.
 Goal: Provide Educational material to over 18,000 residents
Activity4 Reach Effort Cost Total
Verified
Touches
Pre-
Registere
d/Pre-
Survey
Got A
Bin
Set up
bin
Quiz Face-
book
Online
Email - Low - 26 20 9 7 11 3
UP E-News 6*900 Med $210 18 16 13 9 5 1
Online Forums - Low - 10 7 4 1 5 3
UP Website - Low - 2 2 1 1 1 2
Total 56 45 27 18 22 9
Physical
Flyer on Door 1*4500 High $350 51 27 21 13 40 7
UP POST 4*7,800 Med $1500 28 27 23 12 8 1
Newspaper 6*60,000 Low - 11 10 9 6 2 1
Sign on Street - Low - 11 6 11 2 - -
Bulletin Board 1*8 Med - 9 6 3 2 5 -
Total 110 76 67 35 55 9
Networking
UST Green Team - - - 17 3 17 4 - 2
Word of Mouth - - - 9 8 8 5 4 1
Community Outreach - High - 20 1 1 1 1 -
UP Board Member - - - 3 2 2 1 - 2
Business Card - Low - 1 1 1 1 1 1
Total 50 15 29 12 6 6
Dissemination/Replication
We sent a memo notifying the following of this program: St. Paul District Council Community
Organizers/Directors (17), City Council members, the City of St. Paul’s environmental coordinator, the
Mayor’s office, our MN House and Senate delegations, and Eureka Recycling. We also did some
preliminary outreach through various online forums (e.g., UPDC Issues (247), UPDC Facebook (113)
Transition Towns (88), Gardening Matters (1000+-). With the understanding that the City was planning
to do a 2013 push for composting, we sought advice from the City and Eureka Recycling. We produced a
three-minute video with highlights from the final report, both of which are posted on our website. In
2
“How to compost your organic waste”, “Diagnosing common backyard composting problems” , “How to compost
with worms”, and “How to grow a healthy, no-waste lawn and garden”
3
“A Recipe for Good Clean Dirt"
4
17 people listed more than one way they learned about the program and may be counted more than once.
Therefore, the “Total Verified Touches” is intended to give a general idea of the impact of any given activity and
not to represent exact numbers.

4. 4
addition to the above mentioned, we notified our partners, advisors5
and program participants about
their availability. As of October 11, 2012 the video has been viewed 82 times. We used this video and a
preliminary report for presentations to interested 2011 and 2012 Community POWER grantees, the
UPDC Board, and the UPDC Neighborhood Issues Committee. Finally, we have posted a program toolkit
on our website, which others can download and adapt as needed.
RethinkReclying.com continues to be promoted as a resource on our website and in various
correspondences. We included its “Recipe for Good Clean Dirt” in the info packets given to participants
and distributed them at Earth Day events, encouraging people to put this “cheat sheet” on their
refrigerators (some reported they did so). Program participants also received a Rethink Recycling
shopping bag. Finally, we used the compost banner at four events6
.
Sustainability
Thirty-three (33) participants expressed an interest in a neighborhood “green club”. We plan to engage
this group in future activities, possibly including work we’ll be doing with our second Community
POWER grant to promote composting among businesses. In addition, using a train-the-trainer model,
this program built capacity among UST students, such that they could offer some form of this program
again, either with UPDC or other partners. One idea to keep the cost of bins down in the future while
reaching buyers would be for UPDC to organize various groups (schools, churches, clubs) to do a bulk
purchase. UPDC continues to host the Resolution Compost 2012 website and field requests for compost
bins, “Union Park Composts!” stickers and information. In the meantime, the newly established
Merriam Station Community Garden is a potentially site for public composting demonstrations.
What are you most proud of?
We generated enough interest in composting to exceed our goal of directly engaging 100 households by
more than two fold, including 121 households that got bins and five additional households purchasing
vermiculture supplies. This success was a result of 1) a partnership with the UST’s Green Team; they
subsidized 20 percent of the bins sold, helped with event logistics, took the lead on the training, and
organized volunteers to flyer the neighborhood 2) help from UST staff and faculty, six Ramsey County
Master Gardeners, UPDC board members, and Eureka Recycling 3) community volunteer engagement
including support from the Desnoyer Park Improvement Association and 4) a comprehensive
composting website. In addition, we are proud to have increased our capacity to promote composting in
Union Park by having trained the UST Green Team to run the program. Their program advisor reported
that the students considered this to be the most important project they did this year.
Primary Challenges and Supports Needed
Some experienced with composting wanted to opt out of the training. To accommodate for the varying
degrees of composting experience we expected among participants, we organized our main training
5
UST, MN Department of Pollution Control, Ramsey County Public Health Department, Ramsey County Master
Gardeners, Capitol Region Watershed District, Mississippi Market, Egg Plant Urban Farm Supply, The Mulch Store,
Desnoyer Park Improvement Association, Summit University Neighborhood, Lex-Ham Community Council, Mac-
Grove Community Council, The City of St. Paul.
6
A Master Gardner experienced with doing such events noted that the banner effectively attracted people.

5. 5
event (UST 4/21 Training) such that participants could complete five lessons in any order and at their
own pace, as opposed to a one-size-fits-all lecture format.
Community POWER staff and our Ramsey County Contact, Jean Buckley, did an excellent job advising us
on this project.
Lessons learned
• 39 participants of the 75 people (52%) who responded the question said they had 0-6 months of
experience. Some of the rest with more experience were interested in replacing or adding to
existing bins. Both have merit, but it’s worth making sure the program goals are in line with the
target audience.
• On the day of the training, we allowed 3 households to purchase more than one bin. Instead, we
could have reached even more households if we had held these bins back for a little longer.
• Access to UST’s loading dock and fork lift to manage unloading the bins was critical.
• Working with partners maximizes bin purchasing power and reach. We worked with the UST
Green Team, but it’s easy to imagine other groups that could have also been good partners.
• Fall compost bin workshops/sales could fill a need. By the time some people get around to
responding to promotional materials, the area bin sales were done for the spring. Fall sales
would mean that participants wouldn’t have to wait a year to get a bin. It would also mean that
participants would have plenty of leaves or “browns” when they started composting. Three (3)
of 80 (3.75%) surveyed mentioned lack of brown materials was a concern.
• While nice, incentives such as drawings for gift certificates did not appear to encourage people
to get a bin. The same incentive for taking the compost quiz was also ineffective until we
distributed a flyer door-to-door. However, it’s possible that incentives used to encourage
participants to do the post program survey might have been effective.
• At first glance, it would appear that physical communications (e.g., hard copies of newsletters,
flyers) resulted in more people setting up bins than electronic communications (e.g., e-
newsletters, Facebook) did.
• A variety of communication approaches was needed to reach our goal of directly engaging 100
households.
• Training was divided into short lessons that could be done in any order: 1) benefits of
Composting/Food Waste Reduction 2) bin placement 3) what to compost 4) aerating and
watering compost 5) harvesting compost. The objective was to help participants avoid common
problems and for the most part we succeeded with 62 of 66 (94%) respondents reporting they
were composting with no problems. However with 7 of 66 (10%) reporting frustration with flies,
it might have been a good idea include a lesson that addressed troubleshooting specifically.
• Answers to some survey questions might have been easier to interpret if the survey also
included a question about whether the respondent was a homeowner who had control over
lawn care practices or a renter who did not.

6. 6
Changes to Key Staff, Budget, Timeline, or Activities
We did not spend as much money on worm bin supplies has we had expected. Therefore we had a
surplus of $140. We have reallocated that money to purchase stamps, which will be used to 1) respond
to requests for stickers or other compost information and 2) engage the 33 participants who expressed
an interest in a “green club” that promotes composting.

7. 7
Results of Behavior Change Evaluation
We selected survey questions related to composting and lawn care practices. Participants took the
survey online as part of registering for the program. In a few cases, people who registered the same day
of the event were given a paper survey. Sixty (60) participants retook the survey In July. This survey
contained additional questions. We also asked participants of the UST 4-21 Training to evaluate it, which
they did by answering open-ended questions in writing.
Summary
Households/Participants Notes
Asked to complete the pre-
program survey
122 + 11 same-day registrants +
14 UST students
We asked everyone who
expressed interest in getting a
bin to complete the pre-survey.
Completed the pre-program
survey
133 Some UST students did not take
the pre-survey. We also missed 5
same-day registrants.
Asked to complete the post-
program survey
133 We asked everyone who did the
pre-survey to complete the post-
survey, whether or not they
completed the program. We
offered an incentive of a chance
to win a gift certificate (4 @ $15-
$25) from a hardware store.
Completed post-program survey 80
Asked participants to evaluate
the UST 4/21 Training
98
Completed UST 4/21 Training
Evaluation
78 Unfortunately a few of the bin
claim tickets did not have the
survey printed on the back.
Positively changed at least one
behavior due to the project
88 88 individuals claimed to be 1)
following less toxic lawn/garden
care practices and/or 2)
composting or composting
additional items, due to
participation in the program.
This number includes those who
took the pre and/or post survey
Follow less toxic lawn/garden care
practices more frequently now, due
to participation in this program.
Pre Survey: 41/133 (30.83%)
Post Survey: 26/80 (33%)
Of those who completed the
pre/post-program survey.
Recently started composting or
composting additional items, due to
participation in the program.
Pre Survey: 45/133 (33.83%)
Post Survey: 58/80 (73%)
Of those who completed the
pre/post-program survey

8. 8
On the pre and post-program surveys, participants were asked:
Which of the following lawn/garden practices do you follow?
Pre-Survey (of 133 Responses) Post-Survey (of 80 Responses)
Never % Some-
times
% Always % Never % Change Some-
times
% Change Always % Change
1. 21 15.8 63 47.4 49 36.8 10 12.5  41 51.3  29 36.3 
2. 25 18.8 69 51.9 39 29.3 15 18.8 - 42 52.5  23 28.8 
3. 7 5.3 47 35.3 79 36.1 3 3.8  22 27.5  55 68.8 
4. 5 3.8 29 13.2 99 45.2 1 1.3  20 25  59 73.8 
Yes Yes
5. 67 50.4 72 90 
KEY
1. Improve soil naturally through aerification, or adding organic matter (including compost)?
2. Choose plants based on your yard's soil conditions?
3. Use alternatives to chemical herbicides and pesticides (use nothing or non-toxic options)?
4. Avoid putting yard waste in the trash collection (creative reuse of branches/wood, composting, leaving grass
clippings on the yard)?
5. Do you reduce food waste and/or yard waste by using a compost bin or pile or by using a worm bin
(vermicomposting)?
What did you compost before hearing about this program?
Pre-Survey (of 133
Responses)
Post-Survey (of 80 Responses)
Total % Total % Change
Lawn Clippings 69 51.9 47 58.8 
Leaves 82 61.7 55 68.8 
Garden Waste 76 57.1 48 60 
Food Waste 60 45.1 41 51.3 
Other organics (e.g., office paper, paper towels) 30 22.6 21 26.3 
Did not compost 40 30.1 18 22.5 
What do you compost Currently?
Pre-Survey (of 133
Responses)
Post-Survey (of 80 Responses)
Total % Total % Change
Lawn Clippings 68 51.1 57 71.3 
Leaves 81 60.9 70 87.5 
Garden Waste 75 56.4 64 80 
Food Waste 65 48.9 73 91.3 
Other organics (e.g., office paper, paper towels) 30 22.6 60 75 
Did not compost 34 25.69 4 5 
=decrease, =increase, =positive change, =negative change

9. 9
Looking just at the 77 participants who completed both the pre and post survey, we found:7
Which of the following lawn/garden practices do you follow?
Pre-Survey (of 77 Responses) Post-Survey (of 77 Responses)
Never % Some-
times
% Always % Never % Change Some-
times
% Change Always % Change
1. 13 16.9 36 46.8 28 36.4 10 13.0  38 49.4  29 37.7 
2. 16 20.8 43 55.8 18 23.4 14 18.2  40 51.9  23 29.9 
3. 2 2.6 28 36.4 47 61.0 3 3.9  21 27.3  53 68.8 
4. 2 2.6 19 24.7 56 72.7 1 1.3  20 26  56 72.7 -
Yes % No % Yes % No %
5. 45 58.4 32 41.6 69 89.6 8 10.4
KEY
1. Improve soil naturally through aerification, or adding organic matter (including compost)?
2. Choose plants based on your yard's soil conditions?
3. Use alternatives to chemical herbicides and pesticides (use nothing or non-toxic options)?
4. Avoid putting yard waste in the trash collection (creative reuse of branches/wood, composting, leaving grass
clippings on the yard)?
5. Do you reduce food waste and/or yard waste by using a compost bin or pile or by using a worm bin
(vermicomposting)?
What did you compost before hearing about this program?
Pre-Survey (of 77
Responses)
Post-Survey (of 77 Responses)
Total % Total % Change
Lawn Clippings 41 53.2 45 58.4 
Leaves 51 66.2 53 68.8 
Garden Waste 49 63.6 46 59.7 
Food Waste 38 49.4 39 50.6 
Other organics (e.g., office paper, paper towels) 24 31.2 20 26.0 
Did not compost 19 24.7 17 22.1 
What do you compost Currently?
Pre-Survey (of 77
Responses)
Post-Survey (of 77 Responses)
Total % Total % Change
Lawn Clippings 41 53.2 54 70.1 
Leaves 50 64.9 67 87 
Garden Waste 48 62.3 62 80.5 
Food Waste 42 54.5 70 90.9 
Other organics (e.g., office paper, paper towels) 24 31.2 58 75.3 
Did not compost 16 20.8 4 5.2 
=decrease, =increase, =positive change, =negative change
7
Some students did not complete the pre-survey but a few did the post-survey.

10. 10
Of the 80 respondents to the post survey, 72 got compost bins. Of those 66, started composting and 6
did not set up their bins. The following is a summary of responses to open-ended questions.
How is the composting going? (of 66 who started composting)
Problems/Questions Total %
None 62 93.94
Fruit flies, flies, gnats 7 10.61
Would like it to work faster 4 6.06
General 2 3.03
Too soon to say 2 3.03
Maintaining Moisture 2 3.03
Product Issues 2 3.03
Thought it would be easier 1 1.52
What made you interested in composting? (of 80 responses)
Moral Total %
Right thing to do 13 16.5
Good for the Environment 17 21.5
Total 30 37.97
Exposure
Following examples of others 24 30.4
Media 3 3.8
UPDC Composting Program 29 36.7
Other Composting Program 1 1.3
Total 57 72.15
Financial
Access to more affordable bins 18 22.8
Save money on fertilizer 4 5.1
Total 22 27.85
Lawn & Garden
Make Soil 18 22.8
Gardening 27 34.2
Storm Water Management 1 1.3
Yard Waste Processing 1 1.3
Total 47 59.49
Trash & Recycling
Commitment to Recycling 9 11.4
Trash/Landfill Reduction 36 45.6
Total 45 56.96
Now have space to do it 5 6.3