Photograph by Julia Marchese
Queen City Commons is a locally run compost collection group focused on diverting Cincinnati’s compostable waste from the landfill, working with local farmers to ensure that energy from the Cincinnati region returns to local food production. Now they have a fancy new truck to help make composting more accessible to the average person.
Since the start of the compositing programs in 2020, pick-up operated out of a 2014 Ford E250 transit van, a camper van with a lift gate on the back. The van was purchased by co-founder Marie Hopkins and was lovingly dubbed the Wiggler. It had around 500,000 miles on it by the time it was taken off route for good.
Twelve collection bins could fit in the van, causing pick-up routes to be short and grueling. “We would fill up, go out, pick up 12 bins, dump them at a farm, and then go pick up 12 more. And that was a full day’s work,” recalls other co-founder Julia Marchese. A large part of the job required intensive labor, including dumping each individual bin at partnering farms and washing each one before returning it to the drop location. Towards the end of its time, the van began breaking down and was not a safe, reliable, or efficient option for Queen City Commons. “It wasn’t very sustainable long term,” says Marchese.
Three years ago, Hopkins and Marchese applied for a grant through Hamilton County Resources, Cincinnati’s solid waste management office, to purchase a new vehicle. Supply chain issues during the post-COVID era brought the process to a snail’s pace for Queen City Commons, resulting in many delays and setbacks.
In a July 2024 newsletter, they announced the truck had finally arrived and been in operation for a little over a month. Marchese describes the experience of working with both vehicles as the difference between night and day. The new truck allows compost pick up routes to be less labor-intensive and safer. The compost capacity with the custom-built truck has more than doubled compared to the old Wiggler. “We can collect a little over 4,000 pounds of food scraps just in one route— about 30 bins of food scraps versus before it was only 12.”
The new truck carries the scrap bin up and over the side of the truck with a custom cart tipper that functions similarly to those on garbage and recycling trucks. A pressurized hose attached to the truck makes spraying down the compost bins easy and fast.
With the time and space saved with the new truck, Queen City Commons’ capacity for new composting partners and neighborhood drop-off bins is expanding. They recently moved into their first official office space and are looking to add another member to their worker-owner team. Currently Queen City Commons has 12 neighborhood drop-offs in the general Cincinnati area reaching as far as Covington, with goals to continue establishing more in the future. Marchese says, “I want somebody to be able to throw their food scraps in a compost bin and know that it’s going five minutes down the road from their house to help a farmer to grow more food.”
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