Founded in 2010 and opened in February of 2015, SixTwelve is a community education center that focuses on creativity and sustainable living. We provide a PreK program three days per week for 3-5 year olds and camps during fall, spring and summer breaks for 6-17 year olds. We house the Oklahoma City Girls Art School after school program, and offer classes, workshops and educational experiences to adults week nights and weekends. We have a community garden, rain gardens, a hoop house, chickens in a chicken coop, a compost bin, a playground, a fire pit and soon we will have a community kitchen.

Our mission is “Sharing Tools to Build a Better Community,” and we strive to encourage creativity and sustainability in everything we do. Even our building represents this endeavor, as it sports a geothermal heat and air system. We also opted not to have any garbage disposals in the sinks at SixTwelve, so as to encourage composting at all times. We try to reduce waste in whatever ways we can (composting and recycling), and encourage

SixTwelve hosts the Oklahoma Cimarron Sierra Club meetings and a local pick up site for the Oklahoma Food Coop, once per month each. Other non-profits and community groups use our space for workshops, meetings and events. We believe that sharing our space with others encourages community and we partner with some of these groups to provide movie nights, game nights, no trash potlucks and anything else that we can imagine to help bring people together!

We are currently working on residencies for artists, writers, chefs, musicians, dancers, film makers, urban farmers, teachers and even administrators who are willing to share their knowledge with us and with the community. So far we have organized four different residencies in OKC and have sent three residents to Savannah, Georgia as a part of our pilot program. We hope to officially announce our program and application this summer!

Oklahoma City, USA – December 4, 2014: Plant workers talk in front of food waste composting area at NPPC Oklahoma City, which produces dry pet food.

Nestlé Purina PetCare Company, which has operations in Oklahoma City, is committed to continuous improvement towards sustainability in every step of its value chain. One of the company’s ambitions is to achieve zero waste to landfill in all facilities by 2020.

“As a pet care company, our mission is to enrich the lives of pets and the people who love them,” said Kris Bilbrey, Factory Manager for Purina’s Oklahoma City facility. “We do that by developing nutritious foods for pets, creating a lasting positive impact on communities and sustaining a healthy planet.”

With a group of 350 passionate associates behind the initiative, the Oklahoma City factory reached its 2020 zero waste to landfill goal several years early by focusing on three key areas: employee engagement; improving processes to minimize generation of waste; and partnerships with credible vendors for composting, recycling, energy recovery, and other forms of beneficial use.

Nestlé Purina’s vendor partners in Oklahoma City include Covanta, a world leader in providing sustainable waste and energy solutions (Tulsa); Republic Services, an industry leader in U.S. recycling and non-hazardous solid waste; and Minick Materials, the leading commercial composter in the state of Oklahoma.

Most of the factory’s waste is organic, and prior to establishing relationships with local composters, this material was being sent to the landfill. “Composting is a better solution for the environment and our factory,” Bilbrey said.  Lenny Roland, Manager, Total Performance Management, adds,

“Our composting efforts are making a difference and ensuring sustainability for future generations.”

The City of Norman has a yard waste compost facility that began operations as an effort to divert waste from landfills to offset landfill fees, and to provide a valuable service to the community. Residents of Norman are able to drop off yard waste only at the facility, such as grass clippings, leaves, and small limbs. The city also has a residential yard waste pick up service during growing seasons. The compost facility uses a natural process that does not require starters or additives. The compost is turned, and watered, at certain temperatures and moisture content levels. This type of composting takes a few days longer to produce, but provides a high quality compost at a low cost to residents. Plans are approved to implement the use of treated water from the water reclamation (wastewater treatment) plant to control the moisture content.

Over 10% of the City of Norman’s total waste and recyclables collection is diverted to the compost facility.  The total incoming yard waste at the compost facility equates to 26,000,000 pounds (or 13,000 tons) each year. The annual compost production varies each summer, depending on the weather. Finished compost is available for residents approximately every 90-120 days. The compost is free for Norman residents with options to either load individually, or pay a loading fee of $10 per scoop.

To help promote awareness of the program, City of Norman Sanitation services staff gave away bags of compost as the recent Earth Day Festival. As part of International Compost Awareness Week, the city will provide compost loaded for free to a randomly selected winner who likes and shares on the OK Compost Conference Facebook page.

We are proud to announce our Keynote Speaker, Jona Tucker. Jona works for The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and is the Director of the Pontotoc Ridge Preserve, Oka’yanahli Preserve, and Boehler Seeps and Sandhills Preserve.

Jona hopes that by collaborating with people and partners, TNC can increase the number
of acres and places protected for conservation in Oklahoma. She believes that every acre added to a preserve is a victory for conservation and that there is no substitute for fertile land protection. “I hope to live long enough to see more people care about Oklahoma’s land, water, and native species; because these things are intrinsically valuable.”

Jona’s presentation will focus on the importance of soil health in Oklahoma ,and the role of healthy soil and plants in withstanding drought and flooding in Oklahoma.

There is still plenty work to be done and you can help by sponsoring a booth, signing up to become a vendor, sharing our link on Facebook, and promoting the Conference to everyone you know!

In the coming weeks look for the sponsorship form, conference agenda, and other helpful information which will become available online.

Mark Your Calendars Now for October 5th 2017 from 8:00am until 4:30 pm at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds located in Norman, Oklahoma.

If you have any questions, ideas, or comments please contact me through email at info@compostconference.org or by phone at 405-702-5173.

Happy composting!

–Jennifer

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The Compost Conference planning committee! Left to right: Terry Craghead, Annie Napier, Roshini Nambiar, Sonia Ligon, Mark Walvord, Jason Huffaker, Eric Hemphill, Michelle Chao, Katrina Pollard, Jaci Wise, Paul Streets, Kelly Dillow and CJ.

I also wanted to take a moment and thank our sponsors again for their support. We look forward to being able to continue this project, a feat that would be almost impossible with out the help from our sponsors. 

Sign up to receive early notification of next years conference here!