When I was a child, some of my earliest memories of my dad were about his interest in environmental sustainability. We were one of the first families in Cincinnati with solar panels and an electric car, and we always had a vegetable garden and home compost. I liked working in our garden and compost, and through this work I gained a hands-on appreciation for the natural environment and started to learn about the impacts of global climate change.

Global climate change was a scary idea to me, and I wanted to know what I could do to stop it or at least slow it down. I learned that not only does composting produce a rich garden fertilizer, but also prevents the climate-warming methane gas emissions when organic wastes are sent to landfills.

For my eighth grade science fair project, I made buckets of compost with different conditions and a simple electronic sensor to measure methane gas, temperature, and moisture in each bucket. During the science fair presentations, I realized that composting was not as mainstream a behavior as I had thought; in fact few of my classmates were familiar with the idea.

This lack of familiarity surprised me, as I grew up believing that every family composts. This made me realize that I could help more families start to compost at home, and that these digital sensors could be used as part of a system to help make it easy and engaging.

Global climate change is the single biggest threat facing humanity. Storms, floods, fires, and drought will increase food insecurity and migration, leading to conflict and suffering. And it is now my generation’s problem to solve. 

A typical family generates over 800 lbs of organic wastes each year. Organic wastes sent to landfills decompose anaerobically and produce methane gas which is 20 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas. Home composting virtually eliminates the greenhouse gas emissions from these wastes while also diverting materials from landfills. The finished compost can also replace chemical fertilizers, which are made from fossil fuels in a CO2-intensive process, making home composting net-negative for CO2 .

Although some might consider places like Cincinnati, Ohio to be relatively unaffected by global climate change, the experiences in my community suggest that it is already a major challenge. Our summers have become hotter and our winters have become colder. Severe weather, periods of drought, and flash flooding are not uncommon. The issue of waste in landfills is also acute here, as the highest elevation in my county is the local landfill, and the hundreds of thousands of people living within 10 miles of the landfill have to endure the local air pollution that it generates, mostly as a result of the organic materials decomposing anaerobically.

Composting is incredibly accessible; all a person needs to start is a small patch of ground where they can pile their organic wastes. Many families start composting but run into simple-to-address problems, such as odors or pests, or just lack confidence about the process. The unfortunate result is that 80% of families that try composting stop within four months.

Like a FitBit for your compost, my smart home composting system equips families with the knowledge of composting experts and the support of a community. The solar-powered digital sensor measures key parameters of the compost and sends that data to a cloud server. This data then feeds an algorithm in the smartphone app to provide simple recommendations on how to care for the compost. In addition, the app is linked to a person’s zip code to connect them with others who compost in their community. The system makes composting fun and engaging through gamification, awarding activity points and badges.

The overarching goal for my smart home composting system is to make composting easy and engaging for more families, schools, and community groups who have an interest in composting, but lack knowledge or confidence. I am passionate about composting and encouraging others in my community to compost because I truly believe it is the easiest and most cost-effective way for families to start reducing their carbon footprint.

On the product development side, over the past four years I have refined the sensor system by designing and building more than 60 iterative prototypes, learning something new with each one. I also convinced my sister, who was also in high school and had an interest in computer science, to create a smartphone app to provide a user-friendly interface for the data. The result is a weatherproof, solar-powered, WiFi-enabled sensor and smartphone app. We even filed a patent application for our idea with my dad’s help. 

On the deployment side, we started encouraging families and schools locally. During my spring break, I hand-built ten devices, some of which are currently being tested as interactive learning experiences at community gardens and high schools to increase the effectiveness of their compost education and outreach programs. 

I recently designed a custom printed circuit board to enable a semi-mass-produced version of the device with plans to build our first 100 systems this winter. Assuming this is successful, I would then look to expand to 500 and then 1000 systems in late 2024 or early 2025.

I recognize that our goals for this project are ambitious. However, I also recognize that it will be a success even if we enable or inspire just a couple additional families to start composting and that every small impact should be celebrated and is a step in the right direction.

After my eighth-grade science fair, I became much more interested in composting. I had researched composting for the science fair and I wanted to share my knowledge. During the Covid remote schooling, I started my own YouTube channel called Composting Corner and created a series of videos where I discussed different aspects of composting. I stopped publishing years ago, and since then the channel has gotten almost 30,000 views. 

In tenth grade, I joined my high school’s Green Club and fixed the broken and unused compost tumbler in our school garden. I then started a composting program at my school for teachers and students, working with other Green Club members to collect food waste in our cafeteria and teachers’ lounges. I am also giving presentations on composting to many of our school science classes to help educate my classmates about the benefits of composting and to increase their participation and awareness. In addition, this year I am training a sophomore to take over leadership of the program after I graduate.

With only ten current prototypes of my smart home composting systems, I have been able to help many people to start composting. I am working with community gardens to use the devices as part of an interactive learning experience for all who visit the garden. In this way, my goal is to educate and inspire people about composting.

The first step to solving mass incarceration is finding meaningful jobs. It’s the #1 action that reduces recidivism. But the next step is harder and requires reentrants to take the initiative themselves. They do their own share of helping to solve this momentous problem. We couldn’t do it without their strong effort and courage to seek a successful lifestyle despite the challenging conditions they’ve lived through.