Cambridge Earth Day Celebration Offers Sustainability Resources and a Pile of Free Compost

At the City of Cambridge’s annual Earth Day celebration on Saturday, city officials offered residents information on local sustainability programs — and free compost to haul away by the bucketful from a heap in front of the Cambridge Public Library.

The event at Joan Lorentz Park drew several hundred attendees. The compost, processed by the New England waste processing company Casella Organics, sat in a 45-cubic-meter pile.

“We hope people will take plenty of finished compost home and grow whatever they want to with it,” said Michael D. Orr, recycling director at the Cambridge Department of Public Works and a co-organizer of the Earth Day celebration.

Orr said Saturday’s event was designed to educate residents and “thank them for collecting yard waste, collecting food waste, separating it from the trash.”

Several community programs and nonprofit organizations tabled at the event, including the city’s Forestry Division, Green Cambridge, the city’s Stormwater Program, the Cambridge Plant and Garden Club, and Sustainable Cambridge.

“Everyone is all passionate about trying to do what’s best for our planet,” Orr said. “We want to make sure that they understand what they’re doing and get a behind-the-scenes understanding of how processes work and how city departments help to run these processes.”

Orr said the event was a chance for city staff and nonprofits to answer residents’ questions about yard waste collection and recycling.

Students from the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, representing the Cambridge Plant and Garden Club, gave free seeds and planting instructions in zine format. Green Cambridge described its free tree planting services, and staff from the city’s stormwater program told residents about a program that allows them to “adopt” a stormwater drain — committing to monitor drains and clear away debris that can clog them after storms.

Gregory E. Lund, a Casella Organics salesperson who helped organize the Earth Day event, said that composting is a way for people to “put organic matter back into their soil.”

“They can grow vegetables with it. They can make their garden soil richer, so they don’t have to use as much fertilizer,” Lund said.

Cambridge resident David A. Carlson contributes 20 to 30 bags of yard waste per year.

“I feel like I’m taking back a little bit of what I’ve contributed to the city’s composting program,” Carlson said. He said he puts the compost “in places where it will do the most good.”

“Some I just sort of spread over thinly everywhere that I can. And then I save a little bit for contingencies, for other things, and I also give a little bit to neighbors,” he added.

Residents were able to shovel and bring home the compost on their own, which Lund said made it an environmentally friendly alternative compared to bagged compost.

“It’s roughly 2,160 half-cubic-yard bags we didn’t have to use to do this, so over 2,000 plastic bags we saved,” he said.

Residents brought their own bins to collect compost from the event, which Lund described as “hilarious.”

“That is the epitome of recycling,” he said.