Stories of urban composting, esp. humanure and park compost?

Hi Kate,
I'd love a shot in the arm ... maybe I even need a coach! But, when I stop and think about it it drives me a little bit whacky.
I'm in Taiwan, in the south, in an absolutely gorgeous little city - it's full of history and it's very laid back and here money is not the prime motivator, hummanness seems to out-motivate money. AND it used to be a city of luxurious trees and parks w/ luxurious plants. In my 15 years here I watch magnificent 100s+ yo trees die slow deaths.

I've never seen the parks with spongy soil, really ... and most certainly one of the factors is the high priority on being "neat and clean" ... which means raking everything loose from the ground and putting it in plastic bags onto trash trucks (occasionally compost trucks) for burning and/or off-site compost.

It's a deep cultural norm. I only know 1 citizen group in this city that managed to have a self-managed compost bin in the park.

my question,

What can I do? ^_^ (quickly into the coaching realm)
and
How can I nudge culture change so it is really culture change based on love and awareness?

Keen for your thoughts!

much appreciation for what you do!
Jane

This, to me, is the same problem with the paella.
The authentic real paella can only be made in a large flat pan, 1 inch deep, round rice, more rice than stuff, cooked without stirring in a fire pit stuffed with orange tree wood.
If you try to make a customized paella you will get dire sights from the purists.
So, when we make a homemade paella we usually call it 'rice with stuff' to avoid infuriating the purists. (Still, we love very much the large pan and the no stirring rule).

A public park culturally has to be like the people there think it has to be. Maybe in a far past they tried many other things and that's what they ended up liking. The reason for keeping parks neat and clean is that many people dislike bugs, and mulch promotes living, that is, bugs.
The only way a see to bypass that cultural aversion is by not calling it a park. Maybe calling it 'bug city' is excessive. Perhaps 'wild park' or 'urban rewildering', something telling that you are not doing a conventional park, so yes, you already know that there are composting facilities, but this is not a park, so please, let us do it our way.

If I lived where I wanted the city to offer a composting project I would first start talking about how wonderful it would be if this were available.

This would let me know if there are other folks that would be interested in this.

Next, I would have a "Coffee or Tea" meeting at my house to get these folks to accompany me to the Town Hall Meeting to discuss this issue.

Jane said, "I only know 1 citizen group in this city that managed to have a self-managed compost bin in the park.

I would also contact this group to see how they got the self-managed compost pin installed. Who did they talk to?

For years our municipal and regional government gave out free compost bins to households.   They still fund local compost education and subsidise home composting.   They set up education booths at events to get the word out and also to teach about rain harvest, rain gardens,  polycultre lawns that don't need irrigation,  and the like.   Since at least the 1990s, probably before.

It saves the government money if we do these things.