Pedal To Petal

2007-11-21T11:40:00.000-08:00

Pedal To Petal is a permaculture-based collective of bicycle loving food security activists who are taking direct action to reduce carbon emissions and landfill waste and to feed the soil and the city's hungry.
This mandate is realized through bicycle powered kitchen scrap pick-up, the building of edible landscapes and composting.
Click here to learn how you can have us pick up your kitchen scraps.

Weekly Food Waste Pick-Up

2007-11-21T11:34:00.000-08:00

Don’t have the time or space to compost your food waste?

PEDAL TO PETAL now offers weekly home pick-up of kitchen scraps

Only $5/pick-up

PEDAL TO PETAL uses bicycles to provide this year-round service and recycles your kitchen scraps into rich organic compost.

PEDAL TO PETAL supports urban organic agriculture projects that provide fresh produce for low-income Victorians.

Feed The Soil. Feed The City.

To schedule weekly pick-up email pedaltopetal@gmail.com

What Can be Composted

• Vegetable waste.
• Cooked foods.
• Bread and grains.
• Dairy products.
• Fruit, egg shells, coffee grounds.
• modest amounts of meat scraps.
• grass and hedge trimmings.
• Old plants and cuttings.
• Branches/twigs.
• Fallen leaves.

What Can't be Composted

• Cat and dog waste.
• Non biodegradable items - plastic, metals.

Detailed Rate Structure

2007-11-15T19:57:00.000-08:00

Single-Unit Dwellings
Sliding Scale starting at $5/pick-up for up to 5 gallons
If you are willing and able to pay more, we accept $2-5 dollars more

If you are looking for an affordable compost solution for your multi-unit dwelling, business or office, please contact us!

Special Discounts
Refer a friend and receive one week free pick-up. No limit to number of referrals.

We are open to barter/trade. What do you have to offer?

More About Pedal to Petal

2007-11-11T01:06:00.000-08:00

What is Pedal To Petal?

Pedal to Petal is a collectively owned and operated project whose mission is to:

Reduce carbon emissions, reduce landfill and reduce dependence on fossil fuels and chemical fertilizers.

Create employment for our members that aligns with our deep commitment to environmental protection, sustainability, social justice and community self-sufficiency.

Increase the amount of food being grown in the city of Victoria and assist in the effort to provide fresh, healthy food to anyone who wants it, regardless of their income.

We aim to achieve these goals with the implementation of this initial project:

Domestic Food Waste Pick-up
According to a CRD study, kitchen and yard waste comprise 30% of our household garbage. Backyard composting is one way to reduce the amount of food waste being trucked to landfill.
Currently, the CRD is conducting a pilot project in which domestic food waste is being picked up from residences and trucked to a compost facility. This is a commendable project and it inspires us to take this idea one step further and work towards an even greater reduction in fossil fuel use.

Pedal to Petal members are offering to pick up your domestic food waste using bicycles, and deliver it to backyard compost piles where it will be turned into nutrient rich compost without the use of powered tools or equipment.

Feed The Soil, Feed The City

This is your chance to not only reduce the amount of waste being trucked to landfill, but to reduce the amount of fossil fuels that would otherwise be used to truck this waste to landfill or industrialized compost facilities. Human (and bike) powered technologies are adaptable to any future.

How Does Our Service Work?

2007-11-10T22:44:00.000-08:00

We can provide you with a 5 gallon bucket, with a lid that seals. You are also welcome to use your own container, we will gladly empty it out into our own.

Depending on where you live, we can currently offer to pick up your compost on either Monday or Tuesday during the day between 9am and 6pm. You may choose any frequency of pick-up. We could come by once a week, every second week, once a month, or simply whenever you email to let us know your bucket is full.

If there is an accessible outdoor location we could use as the bucket pick-up/drop-off spot, that would help us a lot. For people living downtown without a suitable spot, we are able to ring your residence and exchange buckets in person, between 6pm and 8pm on Monday evenings.

If you live in a home with a separate entrance, you could leave your bucket somewhere between the door and the curb. If you live in a building with a shared entrance, an out-of-the-way spot external to the building may be most convenient. The recycling areas behind apartment buildings have been found to work well.

We use a sliding scale starting at $5 per pick-up for 5 gallons of material. Many of our clients have decided to pay $2-5 more for their pick-ups because they believe in the service we provide. We are now also asking for a one-time $3 bucket fee to help cover the costs of purchasing and delivering new buckets.

What Happens to the Compost?

2007-11-01T22:20:00.000-07:00

The Pedal to Petal process is closed cycle, from food to compost to soil and back to food again, all without the use of fossil fuel dependent vehicles and machines.

Pedal to Petal members are involved in the creation and maintenance of organic edible landscapes throughout the city of Victoria. The compost created through this project will feed the soil and feed the city. An increase in locally produced food will mean a decrease in the amount of food imported from off-island. This further reduces the amount of fossil fuels being used in the course of providing ourselves with sustenance. Not only that, but small-scale organic agriculture has far less of an impact on the environment than farms that rely on the use of heavy machinery. We turn the compost piles by hand and use a method of cultivation that eliminates the need for roto-tilling. Once again, a vast reduction in fossil fuel use.

We do not sell the finished compost. It is generally given away to groups and individuals that grow food in publicly visible and/or accessible locations, so as to both grow food and raise awareness of urban agriculture. If you are in need of compost for your garden project, please email us at pedaltopetal@gmail.com.

Community Self-Sufficiency

2007-10-30T22:41:00.000-07:00

The employment we create will allow people to work at their own pace, in a way that does not take time away from the important environmental and social justice work they are involved in, but compliments and enhances this work.

Many of us have had difficulty finding the kind of employment that suits our values and ethics, and so we are working to create our own opportunities.

We hope this will inspire others to take their health, well-being and survival (as well as the health, well-being and survival of their neighbours and of the natural world) into their own hands. The opportunities to work co-operatively for a better quality of life for all are limited only by our imagination and persistence. We have all the tools we need in each other to begin building a just and sustainable society. We hope you can join us in bringing about this change.

Backyard Space Needed for Compost Bins!

2007-10-15T00:59:00.000-07:00

The space that we have now to bring food scraps back to is limited. We are looking for new places to build compost bins. If you have a corner of your backyard that you would allow us to put a compost bin and bring food scraps to on a once-a-week basis, we would be pleased to work out a deal that makes it worth your while. Compost bins will be build to be very rat resistant and will be turned often to keep odours to a minimum.

Please email or call Matthew Schultz at (250) 532 8137 if you can help.