Volunteering for Painted Bins
I recently had the opportunity to volunteer for the Painted Bins project, which is using children’s art to keep food waste in parks and other public areas from the landfill.
Painted Bins, a project of Sustainable Marin, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, has the goal of removing food waste from our landfills to help prevent global warming. The compost bins they will be using will have local children's art related to composting and the environment. They plan to have QR codes with more information about composting and the Painted Bins project.
Painted Bins aims to encourage composting by adding compost bins to parks starting in Corte Madera, CA then expanding to other cities in Marin County, CA and the broader Bay Area. The long-term goal is to expand to cities all across California. These compost bins will not only help reduce food waste, but also help to inform the public about composting which will hopefully encourage them to create composting habits even while at the park.
Educating the Public
Over Memorial Day weekend last year, my Dad and I manned a space in the Corte Madera Town Center that provided information about Painted Bins and displayed the artwork of 3rd and 4th graders from Corte Madera’s Neil Cummins Elementary School. After learning about compost at school, they were asked to create artwork related to what they learned about composting and the environment.
In my opinion the event was a big success because over the weekend more than 200 people showed up. The kids had created some incredibly inspiring art that depicted a world with and without composting. I was very impressed by their artistic talent and their understanding of composting. It was particularly cool when the kid artists came in and pointed out their pieces of art to us and their parents.
Compost Bins to Reduce Landfill Waste
This Spring, the Painted Bins project plans to place eight compost bins in Corte Madera parks decorated with 16 of the art pieces created by the school kids. The 16 pieces of art were chosen by an independent jury out of 60 pieces created by the kids. At the moment, most parks in Corte Madera don’t have compost bins so adding them will greatly reduce the amount of food scraps ending up in landfill. The art on the side of the bins should attract people and hopefully communicate the importance of proper disposal of food waste.
Fighting For the Future
My generation is faced with the challenge of addressing climate change and I’m grateful to be able to support a project working towards that effort. Food waste currently contributes to about 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. By placing these 8 bins in the Corte Madera parks, the Painted Bins project is projected to remove the equivalent of 8.4 fuel burning cars from the road each year. This may not seem like a lot, but imagine if every city in California added Painted Bins to their parks, we could remove the equivalent of thousands of cars from the road. Just imagine if this caught on throughout the country. We could make a world of difference in the fight against global warming.
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Dashiell Flock-Lobl, sophomore at Berkeley High School.
Would you like to volunteer with Painted Bins and help us drive change through art? Click here and complete the volunteer form.
