information sheet

rolling out City to Soil

This Groundswell Information

Sheet contains a list of things
which might be helpful to
consider when planning to
introduce your own City to
Soil collections. We have also
included a possible
template for the
contents roll-out of City to Soil
which could be adapted
What is City to Soil? 1 to your council.

How will City to Soil pay for itself? 1

Cost neutral collection 1
Reduced quantity of residual waste 1
Revenue from sales 1
How frequent should City to Soil collections be? 1
Whole of town or staged roll-out? 2
Adding City to Soil to an existing green waste collection 2
The use of stickers 2
The Groundswell Community Engagement Strategy 2
Right Tools 2
Right Information 3
Motivation 3
Prizes 4
Addressing Barriers to participation/compliance 4
Summary 5
Managing Contamination 5
The City to Soil kit 6
Printing, artwork and City to Soil logos. 6
Suggested steps in the roll-out of City to Soil 7
What is City to Soil?
City to Soil is a process or methodology that enables
councils and farmers to work together to pull urban
organics out of the waste stream and put them
back into agricultural soils as high-quality compost.
The idea is to engage the whole community in the
separation and collection of their organic waste so
that it can be processed and returned to local farms
as a valuable agricultural input. City to Soil enables
communities to close the loop and complete the
nutrient cycle in a way that creates opportunities for
strengthening local food production while at the same
time reducing waste to landfill.
City to Soil describes the branding, tools and
philosophical approach used by councils involved in
the Groundswell project to introduce a combined food
scrap and garden waste collection.
For more information about the Groundswell project,
please visit www.groundswellproject.blogspot.com
How will City to Soil pay for itself?
In general, there are three ways fund a City to Soil
collection. Depending on your circumstances, some of
these may be more relevant than others.
1. Cost neutral collection
Between 50–70 % of material in the residual bin is
organic and suitable for composting. Even with a green
waste collection, 50% of material
in the residual collection may
still be organic.
If that material is
diverted into the City to
Soil bin, the residual bin
is only half as full as it
was before. It therefore
doesn’t need to be
picked up every week.
So, if every second residual
collection was replaced with a
City to Soil collection, there would be
no net increase in collections or lifts,
possibly an increase in total volume
collected, and the organics fraction
would have been diverted into a
separate stream.
 Groundswell: rolling out City to Soil
If using this option, make sure you collect BOTH bins
on the same week, and the RECYCLING bin on the off
week so that householders are not tempted to put
their waste into which ever bin is going to be picked
up next. You want the residual bin and the City to Soil
bin to be filling up concurrently and to be emptied at
the same time.
This is the model that Palerang Council is planning to
trial once their on-farm composting facility is in place
and ready to receive collections.
2. Reduced quantity of residual waste
Every tonne of waste that does not go into landfill
saves you money. Reducing the quantity of residual
waste by half will halve landfill disposal costs. Savings
from reduced landfill costs can be used to pay for City
to Soil collections.
Also, a 50% reduction of waste going into landfill
doubles the life of your landfill.
3. Revenue from sales
If Councils process their City to Soil collections into
compost, then councils have a valuable product to
sell. This could be done once a year by bulk tender or
individual bagged or bulk sales. Revenue from sales
can be used to pay for City to Soil collections and
processing costs.
How frequent should City to Soil
collections be?
Our experience in the Groundswell project shows
that the more frequent the City to Soil collections
are, the more organics will be diverted from the
residual collection to the City to Soil collection.
We need to make it easier to put organics into
the City to Soil bin, (by providing the right tools,
ensuring MGB capacity and increasing frequency)
and make it harder to put organics into the
residual bin by reducing capacity and/or
frequency.
During the Groundswell project, Goulburn
Mulwaree Council provided a MONTHLY City
to Soil collection. Condobolin provided a
FORTNIGHTLY City to Soil collection.
To get additional diversion, we think you need
to either increase the frequency of the City to
Soil collections, or decrease the frequency of the
residual collection or BOTH. With the right community
engagement strategy, and the right configuration
of collections, all organic waste should be able to be
diverted into the City to Soil steam. This is certainly the
next step for the Groundswell project.
Remember it is easier to give people a new or
reconfigured service than take a service away later.
If you are planning on eventually reducing residual
collections, the time to do this is when you are adding
a City to Soil service.
Whole of town or staged roll-out?
You may want to consider rolling out City to Soil
in a small part of town as a ‘trial’ and leveraging
community and media interest from the trial to assist
in the promotion of City to Soil across rest of town a
month or so later.
Staggering implementation reduces risk for council
and condenses efforts to engage with individual
householders to the trial area.
By focusing on a small area first, Council can leverage
higher levels of householder engagement in trial areas
across the rest of town.
During the Groundswell Project, Goulburn Mulwaree
Council introduced City to Soil to around 300
households in a small suburb call Eastgrove prior to
universal roll-out to the remaining 9000 households.
Efforts were made to speak to as many individual
householders in the trial area as possible during the
delivery of City to Soil kits. Media releases about the
trial were produced and articles with photos of prize
winners appeared in the local papers. The idea was to
generate as many conversations and awareness of City
to Soil as possible so that residents were expecting
their kits and not surprised when they arrived. In
Condobolin, City to Soil was introduced all at once
across the whole town.
 Groundswell: rolling out City to Soil
Adding City to Soil to an existing green
waste collection
Some councils already have a green waste collection.
Introducing City to Soil is an opportunity to re-brand
the existing green waste collection to include food
scraps and decrease contamination. If your council
has poor compliance (high contamination), it is vital
to really focus on what happens to the collection and
where it ends up (i.e. on a local farm).
The use of stickers
Stickers showing the City to Soil logo can be used as
part of a ‘commitment strategy’ where a green waste
collection already exists. Residents are asked to help
spread the word and show their support for City to
Soil by placing the City to Soil sticker on their 240litre
Green Waste MGB. This helps re-brand the green waste
collection to ‘City to Soil’. Commitment Strategies are
based on research that shows people are much more
likely to do a big thing if you ask them to do a small
thing first. This strategy worked very well in Goulburn.
The Groundswell Community Engagement
Strategy
The Groundswell community engagement strategy is
simple, cheap and effective however it does challenge
entrenched approaches to waste education and
the usual way of doing things. It is based on the
assumption that to get people to do something, you
need to give them the right tools, information and
motivation.
1. Right Tools
Fundamentally we need to make it easy for people to
do what we want them to do. The challenge here is to
find tools that are universally desirable to use.
More importantly, the tools need to pass the ‘nanna’
test. Basically, if you can’t get your granny to use the
tools, then you haven’t got the right tools. One of the
main reasons people don’t compost is they don’t like
that smelly kitchen bucket. So we need a system that
does not produce odours and does not need washing.
People are used to placing food scraps into plastic
bags, tying them up and placing them in a wheelie
bin. So it makes sense to replicate these existing
behaviours.
The best tools we could find are vented kitchen bins
and compostable bags. They work because they
emulate and improve on what people are doing
already. Compostable bags improve on the existing
system because they eliminate odours in the kitchen
and in the wheelie bin.
For this message to work however, you need to
convince the community that this is what you are
doing. You need to show them the compost and show
them the occasional farmer and the occasional load
of compost made from their food and garden waste
being applied to a paddock.

2. Right Information 3. Motivation

Information about the collection needs to be provided What gets people to source separate their organics?
in ways that reach everyone in the community Why would people do this? For me this is the most
regardless of literacy. We need to let people know interesting and contested area of the waste industry.
exactly what we want I strongly believe that
them to do and why councils, waste companies
we want them to do it. and the government
Thought needs to be consistently underestimate
given to the tone of the community. People
information as well as assume that universal
graphics and medium. participation is unachievable
and as a result design
The Groundswell project
non-compliance into their
has developed humble
systems.
two colour graphics in
preference to glossy Obviously there is no single
photos and kept universal motivator to get
information relentlessly people to correctly source
upbeat and as simple and separate. Our research showed that there
inclusive as possible. Pictures of were actually six. Specifically we trawled
specific people with specific through the NSW DECCW Who Cares about
kitchens and food scraps will the Environment? research and found that there
alienate anyone who can were 6 reasons why people might participate and
not relate to that image. different people would respond to one, some or all
of those six.
Rather than worry about multi
lingual brochures, information about The six motivators are:
City to Soil has included drawings which
} Help address climate change
explain what we want without the need for words
or literacy. The project has purposefully chosen cheap } Reduce waste to landfill
or free forms of media including council mail-outs,
} Reduce waste costs
press releases, updates in rates notices, word of mouth,
a blog and steered clear of glossy advertisements } Improve agricultural soils
to maintain the simplicity and ‘normality’ of the
collection. } Support local farmers

Our simple, constant message is “if you put your food
and garden waste into this bin, we will compost it and
get it back into agriculture.” It is a simple and powerful
message.
The result is people KNOW that everything they put
in the City to Soil bin is going to end up on a local
farmer’s paddock. The collection becomes about food
and food production rather than waste and garbage.
} Win prizes
By consciously using combinations of all six
motivators in media releases, article and letters, we
are able to reach the whole community. For example,
someone who has no interest in climate change may
be motivated by the prospect of reduced waste costs
or reduced waste to landfill.

 Groundswell: rolling out City to Soil

 Prizes
The purpose of running
a prize program for
zero contamination is
to reward people for
doing the right thing,
generate positive
messages about the program, generate community
conversations and to reinforce the message that City
to Soil is about food production rather than waste
or garbage. Wherever possible, take a photo when
presenting the prizes and get a short quote from the
prize winner for a press release.
Possible prizes include $100 organic fruit and vegetable
hampers, fruit and veg hampers from greengrocers,
local butchers or local CSA programs. Use the prizes
to drive home the link between City to Soil collection
and local food production and if possible, to forge links
with local food growers or sellers.
Prizes winners can be selected by inspecting bins at
the kerbside prior to collection, or if compostable
bags are numbered and the specific number on the
roll is allocated to a specific street address, individual
bags can be inspected at the composting site. If they
contain no contamination, the number recorded and
that particular house can be identified.
An alternative would be to allocate the bags to houses
at random then offer prizes for a specific bag number
and advertise the prize for collection in the local media.
Wherever possible, take a photo when presenting the
prizes and get a short quote from the prize winner for
a press release.
Remember, prizes are your insurance against creeping
contamination levels.
Addressing Barriers to participation/
compliance
Some of the reasons people don’t already compost
include concerns about the smell or ‘yuk’ factor
involved in having containers of rotting food scraps in
the kitchen, and washing out a smelly kitchen bench-
top composting bin. We need to be very mindful that
for many, this will be an initial barrier to using the
Vented Bins and Compostable Bags. Really focus on
the fact that the bags breathe and reduce odours.
Agree that it seems impossible, reassure residents that
you have tested them and invite residents to road test
them for you and let you know how they go.
Look for vented bins that can integrate with existing
under bench bin brackets (e.g. Biobag’s MaxAir Bins).
Include this point in your information campaign.

Possible Barrier Ideas for Key Messages (grabs for press releases)

Collecting
food waste is Corn starch bags work -trials around the world overwhelmingly support
yucky,
dirty, messy, smelly, the use of the corn starch bag with the Maxair Bin
attracts flies, cockroaches,
T horoughly tested – we think this is the best system, but we welcome your
vermin etc.
comments and feed back, Ultimately, we need to find a system that works
for everyone, we think this might be it.
Try it and see for yourself! Please let us know what you think.
 reathable corn starch bags prevent smells, even if the food scraps are
B
smelly when you first put them in.
If you are worried about smells, replace bags every 2 or 3 days. 150 bags
should last 12 months. If you run out before a year is up, contact your
council for new bags. Replace bags more often in warmer months.

Space/clutter in kitchen  axAir Bin is designed to go on your bench top or integrated into your
M
modular kitchen bin system.

 Groundswell: rolling out City to Soil

Summary
In summary, the Groundswell City to Soil Community
Engagement Strategy taps into known motivators and
transcends the requirement to change people’s values.
Education messages and materials have been kept very
simple.
The use of drawings & social marketing strategies
ensures people do not have to be literate to correctly
participate. The program transcends conventional
education strategies which rely on values change or
environmental awareness. It is also notable for its
ease of implementation, simplicity, affordability and
effectiveness.
The success of the education program is dependant on
making sure that the right tools have been provided,
and that the right motivators have been identified.
People need to know what you want them to do as
well as why. Strengthening the link between people
and where their food comes from is integral to keeping
physical contamination out of the organics stream.
A good community engagement strategy builds positive
links between households, councils, processors and local
farmers. Focus on the positives regularly and religiously.
Managing Contamination
The two councils have been providing a combined
food scrap and garden waste collection to 10,800
households for over two years. During this time
Carrots
Prizes for zero contamination.
Inspect City to Soil MGBs on kerbside or individual
biobags at composting site.
Target streets of poor performers.
Ensure good press coverage of winners.
Regular press releases highlighting the collections,
the excellent participation by householders, and
the excellent compost being made.
Press releases with farmers who purchase or use
the compost. Photos of compost being delivered or
spread and quotes about how good the community
is doing and how lovely the compost is.
Reward good performers.
 Groundswell: rolling out City to Soil
contamination rates ranged between 0.076%, 0.4%
and 0.2%. During the second year of the project very
little community education was undertaken, and
frequency of prize allocation decreased.
Kerbside audits of the City to Soil bins in Goulburn and
Condobolin undertaken at the end of the second year
showed an interesting phenomenon. On the surface
it looked like contamination levels had crept up to
the 1% mark. However, on closer inspection of the
data, over 80% of the contamination was contained
in just 2 bins. This means that almost all bins had zero
contamination and two householders were completely
non-compliant.
If we hadn’t drilled down into the individual bin
data, we may have been tempted to put out a press
release highlighting the increase contamination levels
and reminding residents how to use the service, and
this would have been a big mistake. Instead, the
community should be rewarded and congratulated for
their outstanding support of the City to Soil collection.
Council then has options about how to address the
non-compliant householders - either by putting a
sticker on the bin and refusing to pick it up, speaking
directly to the householder, targeting the street with
prizes for zero contamination, a letter to householders,
or a combination.
Kerbside inspections prior to collection are valuable
and worth the effort. These can be targeted to known
non-performers.
Sticks
Note address and send letter to household explaining
there was contamination in their City to Soil bin,
remind them what goes in, what doesn’t, and how it
is important for worker safety and farmers that there
is no contamination in the collection.
Door knock non-compliant household, speak to them
about the collection, about the contamination, and
how it impacts on the compost.
Refuse to pick up MGBS with contamination.
Place a ‘rejected’ or ‘contaminated’ sticker on wheelie
bins that are not picked up due to contamination.
For repeat offenders, a final consequence would
be the complete removal of their City to Soil MGB
either permanently or until they have satisfactorily
completed an education session.
 The City to Soil kit
The following items can be included in
householders City to Soil kits:
} 1 x vented kitchen top bin
} 1 x roll of compostable breathable bags to
fit kitchen top bin
} 1 x City to Soil instruction leaflet
} 1 x Letter from Mayor or General Manager
} 1 x 240litre green with lime green lid City
to Soil MGB (wheelie bin).

F or towns with an existing 240 litre Green

Waste collection: To the Householder

} 1 x City to Soil Sticker

} 1 x leaflet asking residents to show
support for the new collection and help
spread the word by placing their City to
Soil sticker on the green waste wheelie bin.
Examples of all of these can be seen on the
Groundswell Blog:
www.groundswellproject.blogspot.com

Printing, artwork and City to Soil logos

The NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change
and Water is trade marking the City to Soil logo to
help protect the integrity and use of the image. Please
see Groundswell Blog for more information.
The original City to Soil artwork was produced by
Carolyn Brooks, a designer and illustrator located in
Queanbeyan NSW. Carolyn also designed the layout
for the City to Soil instruction leaflet and variations on
the logo for the MGB hot stamp. Carolyn’s website and
contact details are at: www.carolynbrooks.net

For updates and more information on the Groundswell project go to: www.groundswellproject.blogspot.com

Written by Simone Dilkara, 2010. Graphic design/illustration by Carolyn Brooks The Groundswell Project
was assisted by the NSW
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Government through its
Attribution 3.0 Unported License and can be reproduced Environmental Trust
providing the Groundswell project is acknowledged as
 Groundswell: rolling out City to Soil the original source.
 Suggested steps in the roll-out of City to Soil
The following timeline outlines how City to Soil might be rolled out across a town in two stages.

Time line Task

Pre-planning Organising license to use City to Soil trademark from DECCW

Pre-planning  ecide how you want to let the community know about City to Soil. Will this involve a series
D
of workshops, media events, or letters from council? A low key option would be a letter to each
household (perhaps included in a council update) and a press release saying this is what Council
is going to do, these are the reasons why and this is how it is going to roll-out. Presentations
to Rotary, Lions, CWA or other similar clubs can help engage local leaders in City to Soil. It
really depends on the nature of your town, the political situation, and the relationship between
Council and residents. Ideally, you want people to find out about City to Soil from a combination
of formal (letters, press releases) and informal sources.

Pre-planning Need to select trial area (If staggering implementation).

3 months prior 

Select vented kitchen top bins and compostable bag provider.
Organise artwork for bags (and kitchen top bins if necessary).

3 months prior  rder vented kitchen top bins and compostable bags. Decide if bags should be printed with
O
unique numbers for each roll, so that bags can be traced back to the household where it came
from.
Allow 3 months lead time for bags.

3 months prior Order City to Soil MGBs if necessary. Allow 3 months lead time.
Make provisions for the MGBs to be delivered. Decide who is going to deliver them for the trial
site and for the rest of the town.
 Organise contracts if using external organisation. Time delivery carefully if supplier is going to
deliver.

2–3 months prior Announce City to Soil if desired.

6–8 weeks prior Design City to Soil instruction leaflet.

Order Printing for City to Soil instruction leaflet and City to Soil stickers.

5 weeks prior  raft 2 letters from Council for trial area residents. The first letter is to notifying residents of the
D
new collection. Key message is: “Your suburb has been selected to trial City to Soil, this is what
Council is going to do, this is how it is going to happen.” The second letter is for inclusion in City
to Soil kits. Key message is “ Here is your new City to Soil kit, this is what you do, please place
stickers on MGB”.

5 weeks prior  raft up 2 letters for rest of town. The first letter is delivered 2 weeks prior to delivery of the City
D
to Soil kits. Key message for first letter is: “This is what Council is doing, it has been trialled in
xxx area and is working very well, based on success of trial, we are rolling out to the whole town,
and this is how it is going to happen”. Second letter is delivered with the City to Soil kits. Key
message is” Here is your City to Soil kit, this is what you do, please place City to Soil sticker onto
your MGB”.

4 weeks prior Information leaflets printed. Stickers printed (if adding City to Soil to existing Green waste
collection).
2 x letters from Council for trial area produced.

3–4 weeks prior Assemble City to Soil kits for trial area.
Kits contain: MaxAir Bin, Biobags, City to Soil instruction leaflet. 2nd letter from Council, sticker
and invitation to “help show your support and spread the work about City to Soil by placing this
sticker on your Green Waste Wheelie Bin”.

 Groundswell: rolling out City to Soil

 3–4 weeks prior  ssemble City to Soil MGBs if required. Plan for enough MGBS to be ready for delivery to trail
A
area. Continue assembly for rest of town. Organise who will delivery MGBs to trial area and to
rest of town.

3 weeks prior Write press release for roll-out in trial area.

2 weeks prior Send out press release for roll-out in trial area.

2 weeks prior Information letter about City to Soil commencement delivered to trial area residents.

2 weeks prior  ommence delivery of MGBs to trial area. Do not do this until residents have received letter
C
about commencement of City to Soil collections in their area.

2 weeks prior  rganise delivery of City to Soil kits to residents in trial area (kitchen top bins, compostable bags,
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2nd letter, instruction leaflet, sticker).

FIRST COLLECTION Commence City to Soil collections in trial area.

1st week after Hold information session / public meeting in trial area if desired.

1st week after  rganise prizes, media and select and notify prize winners in trial area. Remember to take photos
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of the prize winners and to get permission to publish photos and names.
Run press release on prize winners.

2 weeks after 2 x letters from Council to rest of town produced.

2 weeks after Draft media releases.

3 weeks after Produce media kit.

3–4 weeks after Assemble City to Soil kits for rest of town.

1–6 weeks after F ollow up meetings/discussions with trial area residents. Is there a councillor or residents group
for that area?

6–8 weeks after Send out first City to Soil letter to rest of town.

8–10 weeks after Deliver City to Soil kits with second letter to rest of town (2 weeks after delivery of 1st letter).

8–10 weeks after S end out media kits to coincide with either delivery of City to Soil kits of commencement of
collections (ideally both).

10–12 weeks after Commence City to Soil collections in rest of town.

10–12 weeks after Organise prizes, media and select and notify prize winners.
 Remember to take photos of the prize winners and to get permission to publish photos and names.
Run press release on prize winners.

Ongoing Keep prizes going. Monitor for participation, contamination and compliance.

Ongoing K eep press releases going. Write articles about the quality of the collections, the low
contamination rate, and the quality of the end product. Show photos of the composting site and
the compost being processed. When compost is finished, write articles about where it goes to
- ideally try and get photos of a local farmer using the compost and saying nice things about it.
Always be positive. Focus on people doing the right thing.

Ongoing  ddress poor performing households or streets at the street or individual house level, never in
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the media. Use a combination of prizes for best performers on bad streets and bin stickers, door
knocks, letters or bin refusal. See section on managing contamination. In the media, always be
positive. Focus on people doing the right thing.

 Groundswell: rolling out City to Soil