What if the banana peel, egg shells and chicken bones you threw away could —instead of rotting and turning into polluting methane — become something that enriches the soil where we grow plants?

The village of Pinecrest has launched an innovative effort to do just that. The pilot project converts food scraps into nutrient-rich compost that will be delivered to the Miccosukee Tribe in the Everglades which, for starters, plans to use it in a community garden.

The project called the “Everglades Earth Cycle” is the first large-scale compost program in the county sponsored by a local government. It’s funded by a $400,000 United States Department of Agriculture grant, a $40,000 grant from the office of Miami-Dade County Commissioner Raquel Regalado and a $10,000 donation from Fertile Earth Worm Farm.

“It really has fostered a sense of environmental responsibility in our community,” said Shannon del Prado, a Pinecrest council member.

The village, which includes some of Miami-Dade’s most affluent neighborhoods, has already collected 90,000 pounds of food waste in just one year. There are currently three drop-off locations: The Pinecrest Library, Pinecrest Gardens Community Center and the farmers’ market on Sundays. The village plans to expand the operation to nine total locations. Fertile Earth Worm Farm, a commercial composting operation in South Miami-Dade County, picks up the food scraps twice a week, power-washing the bins to keep them from smelling and collecting bugs.

“It’s what nature intended. It’s a cycle,” said Lannette Sobel, the founder of Fertile Earth Worm Farm. “There’s no such thing as waste. Whatever is waste in one cycle is just a resource in another. And that’s exactly what we’re trying to do, just replicate what mother nature does with composting.”

Reducing the volume of garbage heading to near-capacity landfills would help Miami-Dade, which is still deciding how to handle its waste in the future. There’s also a climate benefit from composting, which can reduce damaging methane emissions from food rotting in landfills.

The grants help support Pinecrest’s free residential food scraps drop-off program, the first in Miami-Dade county, and to truck the compost to the Miccosukee’s 4-year-old community garden. The garden currently boasts a row of plant beds with vegetables like lettuce, swiss chard, and dill – and the plan is to expand the garden by an acre.

Rev. Houston Cypress, a Miccosukee artist and activist who runs Love the Everglades, an organization that stewards environmental protection and cultural preservation, said this pilot project could maybe one day help solve some of the larger problems the Everglades is dealing with like water quality issues from fertilizer run-off and tree islands eroding because of high waters in some areas.

“It may not directly address problems, because we’re talking about a pilot project in the south, but these are solutions that could be potentially applied throughout the whole watershed,” Cypress said.

Because the Everglades is such a sensitive environment already impacts by water pollution, the tribe is approaching the use of compost carefully, Cypress said. Scientists will have to test trucked in soil to determine if it might one day be suitable for restoring natural areas as well, he said.

The grant will also be used for educational workshops to start a compost operation and food scraps program to be on-site at the Miccosukee reservation. The money is expected to hit the village’s bank accounts in the summer.

Cypress said that he thinks the project is about more than just composting. He see’s it as a way to “thrive together” and take a step towards a healthier future by keeping waste out of landfills while fostering a sense of teamwork:

“When we talk about the Everglades you got to remember the folks that live out here,” Cypress said. “I think this is about engaging the local communities and making sure that nobody gets left out and making sure that everybody is supported in the solution.”