• Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin

Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service

Your neighborhood. Your News.

newsMilwaukee NNSMilwaukee NNSSearch
Subscribe to NNS today!
Advertisement
  • Home
  • News
    • Arts and Recreation
    • Community
    • Economic Development
    • Education
    • Health and Wellness
    • Housing
    • Public Safety
    • NNS Spotlight
    • Special Report
  • Posts From Community
    • Submit a Story
  • Community Voices
  • How To
  • Multimedia
    • NNS Local Video
    • Photos
    • NNS on Lake Effect
    • NNS WGLB 1560 Radio
  • Subscribe
  • Donate
  • About
    • Staff
    • Partners
    • News 414
    • The neighborhoods we cover
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service

Diederich College of Communication, Marquette University

You are here: Home / Home / Carousel / Bargains on compost bins, rain barrels good for customers, environment

Bargains on compost bins, rain barrels good for customers, environment

June 11, 2014 by Patrick Leary 1 Comment

Share this...
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin
Area residents line up to buy compost bins and rain barrels at discounted prices.

Area residents line up to buy compost bins and rain barrels at discounted prices. (Photo by Patrick Leary)

Jesse Tobin wheeled her child around a parking lot in Washington Park on a recent weekend morning looking for a way to improve the way she composts food scraps.

“I have been looking for a compost bin and it’s a really good deal,” she said. “We currently compost, but this is a much better setup than we have.”

Tobin, a Martin Drive resident, was one of several hundred people from the  Milwaukee area to purchase compost bins and rain barrels at a recent sale organized by Milwaukee’s Department of Public Works and Norseman Plastics, ltd.

Becky Curtis, a recycling assistant for Milwaukee DPW, coordinated the event with the help of Norseman representative Kelly Weidenfeller and volunteers from Rotaract Club of Milwaukee, a group of young professionals.

“We want people to come and buy the compost bins and rain barrels so that they can manage their organic waste at home on site and keep that out of the trash, and to use the rain barrels to harvest rain water and keep that from becoming run-off pollution and stress on the sewer system,” Curtis said.

Join us for our 24-hour giving challenge with Give Marquette Day!
Volunteer Phil Busch assists two customers who purchased a compost bin.

Volunteer Phil Busch assists two customers who purchased a compost bin. (Photo by Patrick Leary)

A seven-year city employee, Curtis credited the sale’s success to the discounted prices. Instead of at least $100 for a compost bin or rain barrel, the items went for $45 and $55, respectively.

“It’s all about volume,” Weidenfeller said. “When someone sells it in a store, people are there not necessarily for just that, where when people come here, this is what they’re looking for specifically.”

Weidenfeller, who is from Minnesota, has travelled across the country for three years organizing similar events. The cities manage the advertising and Norseman sets up the sales and provides the equipment for discounted prices.

“There are sales where we sell out of them,” she said. “We can just fill up the truck and send out a ton of them.”

Curtis said that Washington Park provided an ideal location for the event, not only because of its convenient parking lot and central location, but because the surrounding neighborhood features plenty of yards, but not a lot of compost bins.

“The more people we can get on board that maybe haven’t been before, the better,” she said.

Convincing people to compost at home is especially important, since Milwaukee does not collect compost the way it does garbage and recycling. Additionally, Department of Public Works self-help centers accept yard waste during “leaf season,” but do not take in food scraps.

“We don’t have residential collection for composting, which is why we encourage [people] to have a compost bin, to compost at home and to take care of that on site,” Curtis said

Daren Olson, a Riverwest resident, jumped at the chance to buy a discounted rain barrel.

“I really appreciate that water is a limited quantity,” he said. “I want to do my little part to get the water off the Milwaukee sewer system.”

The rainwater barrels also save the city and its residents money, according to Curtis.

“You save money on your water bill,” she said. “You can use water from your rain barrel to water your garden instead of from the tap. It’s expensive to treat that water and make it drinkable, and then use it for washing cars and putting on the plants.”

Tobin’s main purpose for attending was to benefit the community, she said.

“I convinced my neighbor to get one too,” Tobin added. “He’s a landscaper, and he wasn’t even composting, so I figure I’ve done a good deed in the world.”

Those kinds of good deeds can go a long way toward improving Milwaukee, said Phil Busch, a past president of Rotaract Milwaukee, as he helped carry the bins and barrels to customers’ cars.

“We’re looking to make Milwaukee as good a city as it can be, even better than it already is,” he said.

“This event helps people in our community, helps them save money, helps them have resources for their gardens, and that helps make Milwaukee better.”

Share this...
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin

Filed Under: Carousel, Community, Health and Wellness, Home, Neighborhoods, News, Washington Park, West Tagged With: compost, Environment, rain barrel, washington park

Avatar

About Patrick Leary

Comments

  1. AvatarKym says

    June 12, 2014 at 3:18 pm

    Thanks Rotaract Milwaukee for helping MKE go green!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Advertisement

Top Stories

Advertisement

How To …

How to avoid stimulus check scams

A new round of stimulus checks will likely also bring out a new round of scams. Here’s what to watch out for.

More "How To" articles

Advertisement

Recommended Reading

A Vaccine Reality Check

The Atlantic

UWM study on the state of Black Milwaukee describes the city as ‘the epitome of a 21st century racial regime’

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Videos Show How Federal Officers Escalated Violence in Portland

The New York Times

These mayors want to fight Covid-19 and the recession with one big idea: A guaranteed income

Vox

The World John Lewis Helped Create

The Atlantic

News

  • Arts and Recreation
  • Economic Development
  • Education
  • Health and Wellness
  • Housing
  • Public Safety
  • NNS Spotlight
  • Special Reports
  • Multimedia
    • NNS Videos
    • Photos
    • NNS on Lake Effect Radio

Engage with us

  • Posts from Community
  • Community Voices
  • Submit a Story

About NNS

  • Staff
  • Partners
  • News414
  • The neighborhoods we cover
  • Internship opportunities
  • Careers
  • Terms of use
  • Advertise

Connect with us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS feed

Communities

Contact

mailing address
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Diederich College of Communication
Marquette University
1131 W. Wisconsin Ave.
Johnston Hall 430
Milwaukee, WI 53233

email
info@milwaukeenns.org

phone & fax
PHONE: 414.604.6397 FAX: 414.288.6494

Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service is a project of Diederich College of Communication and Marquette University.
© 2020 Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service. Terms of use.
1131 W. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee WI 53233 • info@milwaukeenns.org

Copyright © 2021 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in