PARI(s) compost
Aziza Chebil (CRI), Élodie Lemesre (Sciences Po), Kan Parthiban (Harvard), Margaret Schultz (Harvard)
The average Parisian throws away three times more than the average French citizen. Paris is focused on reducing its food waste in half by 2025 which can only be achieved by mandatory legislation and overall citizen participation. Currently there are initiatives for citizens to start their own individual composting systems. However, there are not enough biowaste collecting systems in place to eliminate the thou- sands of tons of food waste that are incinerated in the regular waste stream.
By incinerating biowaste, there are numerous environmental consequences including burning freshwater stored in the food waste, contributing to air pollution and depletion of soil organic matter.
As a pilot program, Pari(s) Compost! advocates for mandatory composting legislation and an educational outreach campaign for the 4th arrondissement and its 26,796 inhabitants. The project strives to place 12 large biowaste receptacles within public parks in the arrondissement.
Pari(s) Compost! will then expand the project to the 18th arrondissement for its 199, 135 residents. Pari(s) Compost! believes that in order for Paris to achieve a sustainable circular economy, biowaste needs to be sorted and collected as compostable waste that can be turned into usable compost by urban farms and landscapes within the city.
