The Garbage Awakening
My ‘climate depression’ reaches its peak when I take out the trash. Every time I see garbage piles where people haven’t even followed basic recycling principles, my heart sinks. These spaces reveal our laziness and desire for convenience, showing complete disregard for whoever must clean up after us. In this climate crisis, with unprecedented weather patterns each season, do we humans still have hope when we consume and discard as if there’s no tomorrow?
I only became aware that actual people clean up our waste about five years ago. This work isn’t just filthy—it can be deadly. After learning about waste workers who died while disposing of food waste, I felt ashamed of how I complained about garbage without considering what happens next. Since that day, I’ve been unable to casually throw away food waste again. I committed myself to composting, determined to systematically organize methods I could practice for life.
Finding a Practical Solution
I gathered extensive information about composting from domestic and international sources to convince others. For years, I had buried food waste on my villa rooftop and in my community garden plot, but sometimes doubted the quality of my compost. On some days, I’d be horrified by cockroaches swarming my compost, and earthworms from my entryway container would regularly appear in my room or on my balcony. In a country where over half the population lives in apartments with no yards, how could people possibly make compost? After extensive research, I finally discovered a method for indoor composting without outdoor space.
‘Bokashi Composting’ is a system where food waste is stacked in a container with adequate floor space, allowing liquids and solids to separate as the waste breaks down.
The Bokashi method was magical. Simply separating solids and liquids allowed me to create compost without pests or mold! Of all the composting methods I’d tried, this was the easiest, fastest, and most convenient, with virtually no restrictions. Even without understanding the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio basics or maintaining the recommended 70-80% moisture content, I could turn food waste, tissues, and even hair into quality compost. I enthusiastically spread the word, but no one seemed interested in trying it. By November, when it was time to clean up my garden plot, I had my epiphany: We have nowhere to use the compost. I, too, would have to stockpile mine at home until the garden reopened.
Building a Community Solution
When I shared my frustration about creating good compost with nowhere to use it, a local community activist suggested I join the resident council. Following this advice, I became the youngest member of the Gyulhyeon-dong resident council in Gyeyang-gu, Incheon in 2021. With three like-minded individuals, we created a community garden in the center of our neighborhood park. While growing beautiful flowers had meaning, I wanted to emphasize the symbolic significance of managing food waste. We named it the ‘Gyulhyeon-dong Decomposition Garden’ and placed compost bins at its center.
Since 2021, the Decomposition Garden has demonstrated that citizens can manage waste at its source through collective action. Initially supported by small grants from the resident council, we’ve since become self-sufficient by collecting coffee grounds from local cafés in exchange for donations, which fund seeds and seedlings. Gyulhyeon Park, once a chronic illegal dumping spot, has seen a significant reduction in littering thanks to the watchful care our garden provides. Participants practice composting, reflect on their eating habits, and gradually reduce their food waste. In 2022, our peak year, we transformed 1,400 liters of food waste and 2,000 liters of coffee grounds into flowers in our neighborhood park.
Facing Limitations
However, we encountered clear limitations. Our small management team—just two people including myself—had to devote significant effort to encourage participation and maintain the garden. More problematically, flowers aren’t particularly nutrient-demanding plants, so much of our quality compost simply accumulated. When irresponsible participants dumped improperly fermented waste in our bins and disappeared, the management team had to deal with the consequences. With limited space for compost bins in the park and gardening responsibilities, it was difficult to recruit additional members to increase our composting capacity.
Connecting Farmers and Consumers
All these problems could be solved by partnering with farms. Farmers regularly purchase compost to improve productivity. With clear end-users and established relationships, people would approach composting more responsibly. Coincidentally, ‘Marché,’ a farmers’ market regularly held throughout Seoul, had been seeking advice about compost. True to its commitment to waste-free markets—having already replaced plastic with paper bags for vendors—Marché operated stations where shoppers could trim their vegetable scraps. But they wanted to establish a more substantial circular system that would benefit farmers. In 2023, I proposed a compost circulation method at Marché’s ‘Earth Farmer Forum’ and our shared enthusiasm led to the launch of ‘Organic Punk × Marché Compost Club’.
The Compost Club turns Marché into a hub for compost exchange between urban consumers and farm producers. Unlike the current food waste collection system that consumes energy and emits carbon, our approach involves farmers bringing empty compost containers when they come to sell at the market and consumers returning filled ones when they shop—circulating waste without additional energy expenditure. During our first season from April to October, 16 consumers were matched with seven farms, delivering home-fermented compost and circulating a total of 555 liters of food waste compost through the market.
Growing Through Relationship and Exchange
The Compost Club’s significance lies in its grassroots development without special funding, created through collaboration between Marché, organizers, and participants. This confirmed that such initiatives could be implemented wherever farmers and consumers meet. Building on feedback from our first season, we launched the second season in 2024 under the slogan “Farming × Fermentation.” Throughout 2024, participants from both seasons circulated 1,255 liters of food waste compost, 22.595kg of eggshells, 23.885kg of coffee grounds, 10kg of sawdust, and 50 seedling pots through Marché.
“I was hesitating to come because Marché is quite far, but these people carrying compost containers from such distances are so special that I wanted to meet them,” said one participant.
We had envisioned the Compost Club for people living near the farmers’ market who could easily walk over with their compost containers, but most participants traveled long distances using public transportation. Some even came from Ansan, Paju, and Ilsan. While food waste processors are becoming more common, what motivates people to spend precious weekend mornings carrying slow-fermented compost containers to Marché? It must be their deep respect for food and the community around this activity. Compost Club participants have long wanted to connect with farms that grow ecological food. For them, noting farming methods and farm names in their compost journals, food waste isn’t something to dispose of quickly but something too precious to discard carelessly.
Transforming Waste into Relationship
Through the Compost Club, participants began to see farming not just as production but as a site of decomposition and circulation. They developed a profound interest in the soil that transforms their leftovers into new fruits. By addressing food waste concerns together, farmers and consumers ensured valuable organic matter wasn’t wasted and could be returned to farm soil without using electricity or petroleum. Farmers received safer, traceable compost from consumers they had relationships with, while also reducing packaging waste generated when purchasing commercial compost.
The Compost Club’s greatest achievement is ‘relationship restoration’ Consumers became active participants in farming rather than mere purchasers of agricultural products—we were no longer strangers to each other. Through the deep relationships formed in the Compost Club, we constantly expressed gratitude. Consumers found “joy” rather than inconvenience in fermenting food waste, while farmers shared not only their produce but also rice bran and husks. Mutual gratitude and sharing enriched our time together. Though the composting activity began in frustration and anger, the process and conclusion were filled with love. If this sentiment spreads and grows, perhaps it really could save our planet.