For two years, from a single residential property in Palm Springs, California, we ran a community composting operation.

What started as a pilot project, supported by Community Composting for Green Spaces, grew into something larger. It became the foundation for UFO Palm Springs.

No city contract. No facility permit. Just operations, documentation, and soil.

Here is what two years produced.

82,000 lbs of organic material composted on site.

That material came from 2 local restaurants and a farmers market orange juice vendor, both within a 5-mile radius of our backyard, as well as a mushroom farm 15 miles away and local tree trimming partner. It was collected, processed, and turned into finished compost nourishing the soil on the same property where it was composted.

Nothing left the neighborhood.

33 cubic yards of finished compost produced from that material. That compost is now in the ground, building raised beds, feeding fruit trees, and supporting the urban farm infrastructure at this site.

27 raised beds installed and planted using compost-built soil.

30 fruit trees established, along with native gardens designed for desert conditions.

Composting alone does not build a resilient urban farm in the desert.

In December 2025 we completed two water conservation projects.

A laundry-to-landscape gray water system now irrigates tropical trees on site. A rainwater harvesting system captures and spreads rainfall across the backyard. Laundry-to-landscape systems can be installed without a permit under the California Plumbing Code. Every city in California can authorize these installations today.

Eleven people were trained on site, including Climate Action Fellows, Urban Conservation Corps members, and our own staff.

Water conservation and composting are not separate systems. For California cities managing both organic waste diversion and drought resilience, they are part of the same infrastructure conversation.

Composting infrastructure does not reduce contamination on its own. People do.

Over two years we delivered 8 community workshops focused on SB 1383, source separation, and practical steps residents can take at home. We worked specifically with elderly community members, partnering with Jewish Family Services of the Desert to reach residents in Cathedral City, Desert Hot Springs, and Palm Desert.

Nearly 100 community members educated across those sessions.

We delivered a hands-on composting training for the Palm Springs High School environmental club in February 2026, connecting students directly to the laws and systems shaping their city.

California law does not just require cities to divert organic waste. It requires them to procure recovered organic waste products and document outcomes. AB 2346 gives cities the option to invest in community-scale composting infrastructure and count that investment toward their compliance targets.

What this site demonstrates is straightforward.

Community-scale composting can process organic material locally, produce finished compost for municipal application, deliver source separation education that reduces contamination, and support workforce development, all from a single residential property operating under SB 279.

This is not a model that requires a facility. It does not require a large capital investment. It requires operations, documentation, and consistency.

We have two years of both.

As of this week we are composting at 1,000 lbs per week.

That rate is supported by two full-time staff members and two Urban Conservation Fellows who join twice a week, learning about urban conservation from a different point of view. Together they manage composting operations integrated into a broader urban farm that includes seedling production, fruit tree management, and soil building.

This is the community composting model California's legislation was designed to support.

We are currently in conversations with two Coachella Valley cities exploring how this model can support their SB 1383 procurement and AB 2346 strategies.

If your jurisdiction is evaluating community composting as part of its 2026 to 2027 compliance planning, reply to this email with your jurisdiction and we will follow up within 48 hours. We are open to site visits, structured conversations, and documented partnership frameworks.

Prema Walker

The Compost Capitalist

Founder, Prema's Permaculture & Composting

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