Victory Park Compost Hub Hosts Saturday Lesson on Turning Food Scraps Into Soil

Pasadena residents can learn how the city’s park-based compost hubs turn everyday food scraps into compost at a demonstration Saturday, Oct. 3, from 8 a.m. to noon at the Victory Park Compost Hub, according to the City of Pasadena.

Public Works staff and the nonprofit LA Compost will guide residents through the composting process, answer questions and share tips for collecting food scraps at home, and residents can receive a free kitchen pail while supplies last, according to the city.

A 2024 Public Works presentation to the City Council listed the hubs as a model program within the city’s organics recycling effort under SB 1383, the state’s organic waste law. Passed in 2016, the law set a 2025 target of sending 75% less organic waste to landfills, where rotting organic material emits 20% of the state’s methane, a pollutant that “heats 84 times more than carbon dioxide,” according to CalRecycle, the state recycling agency.

The law requires every jurisdiction to provide organic waste collection to all residents and businesses, according to CalRecycle, and its regulations let households that compost through community composting opt out of collection as self-haulers, according to Tulare County’s program guide. State rules required mandatory organics recycling programs beginning in January 2022 and local enforcement beginning in January 2024, according to the 2024 city presentation.

Pasadena’s eight hubs are at McDonald, Villa Parke, Allendale, Victory, La Pintoresca, Brookside, Singer and Memorial parks and are open during regular park hours. Each is secured with a combination lock, and residents receive the combination after a brief in-person or virtual training, according to the city’s program page. The Victory Park hub opened in April 2023.

LA Compost was “born in 2013 from the passion and collaboration of volunteers, friends, and families,” Elena Lopez, its outreach and communications manager, wrote in 2024. Its crews first hauled food scraps by bicycle trailer before the group shifted in 2014 to a network of community compost hubs. In 2024, the City of Los Angeles sanitation bureau partnered with LA Compost on food-scrap collection at 20 farmers markets funded by a $400,000 federal grant, BioCycle reported.

Hub training and sign-up information is at https://www.cityofpasadena.net/public-works/recycling-resources/organics-recycling/community-compost-hub/, and questions can be sent to recycle@cityofpasadena.net. Accessibility accommodations for Saturday’s event can be requested by calling (626) 744-7311 or emailing CSC@CityOfPasadena.net at least 72 hours in advance, according to the city.

Victory Park, 2575 Paloma St., Pasadena. Saturday, Oct. 3, 8 a.m. to noon. For more call (626) 744-7311 or visit https://www.cityofpasadena.net/public-works/recycling-resources/organics-recycling/community-compost-hub/.