Scenic City Scraps to Soil

Pending Approval

Natalia Artz

Planted this seed

Scenic City Scraps to Soil is a targeted, high-impact initiative designed to bring zero-waste practices into Chattanooga’s most visible tourism and hospitality hubs. Chattanooga has built a national reputation as the Scenic City, a destination defined by outdoor access, environmental stewardship, and a thriving tourism economy. However, a significant portion of waste generated by high-traffic hospitality destinations still goes to landfills, particularly food waste and single-use plastic products. We currently partner with established sustainability leaders like the Tennessee Aquarium, the Chattanooga Zoo, Clumpies, the Creative Discovery Museum, Marriott Chattanooga Downtown, Rock City, and Ruby Falls....

Create a vintage WPA-era national park poster illustration of a community project in Chattanooga, Tennessee, a National Park City surrounded by mountains, rivers, and forests.

Composition: Vertical 4:5 poster layout. Bold foreground focal element representing the project. Use either a natural landscape or urban environment, depending on the subject.

Title: Scraps to Soil
Subtitle: National Park City

Typography: National park sans-serif, bold font. Sans serifs feel the pull of the Machine Age. Rough, worn, and perfectly imperfect. The individual letterforms do not strictly abide by all typographic rules, but this intentional imperfection adds to its charm. This typeface feels as if it was drawn by hand, just like the hand lettering in the vintage National Park posters. Just the title and subtitle, NO OTHER TEXT in the graphic.

Focus the composition on the project. "Scenic City Scraps to Soil is a targeted, high-impact initiative designed to bring zero-waste practices into Chattanooga’s most visible tourism and hospitality hubs. Chattanooga has built a national reputation as the Scenic City, a destination defined by outdoor access, environmental stewardship, and a thriving tourism economy. However, a significant portion of waste generated by high-traffic hospitality destinations still goes to landfills, particularly food waste and single-use plastic product". Location: 1 Carter Street, Chattanooga, Tennessee 30707, United States. Resources available: Local Compost Site, Fleet of trucks already in service, Proven track record of successful implementation at scale, Full stock of 64 gallon compost bins, buckets, and compostable products, Printed educational materials.

Style: WPA-era screenprinted travel poster. Bold graphic composition, simplified shapes, warm earthy color palette, dramatic light and shadow, mid-century screen print texture, minimal detail but strong silhouettes, layered depth, optimistic and heroic tone, clean vector illustration, retro travel poster design, subtle paper grain texture.

Area Geography: Chattanooga is defined by a dramatic transition from flat river basins to towering plateaus. It features sheer granite and sandstone cliff faces (famous for rock climbing) and hidden subterranean wonders like Ruby Falls. Just west of the Great Smoky Mountains, sharing that iconic blue-mist horizon.

Native wildlife and flora: box turtles, white-tailed deer, red-tailed hawks, eastern bluebirds, tulip poplars, dogwoods, rhododendrons, and mountain laurel.

Activities: Pick activities relevant to the project. People here enjoy mountain biking, hiking, rock climbing, kayaking, paddleboarding, trail running, fishing, rollerblading, white water rafting, and community gardening. Weave relevant activities and local nature into the scene.

City life: Chattanooga's urban core is compact, walkable, and layered — historic brick warehouses, Art Deco civic buildings, modern glass infill, pedestrian bridges, riverfront paths, and steep green bluffs all within a small footprint.

Flora & Water: The landscape is carpeted in dense deciduous forests of oak, hickory, and tulip poplars. No pine trees. Hidden in the folds of the rolling hills are moss-covered rolling brooks, limestone swimming holes, and tiered waterfalls that spill over rocky ledges.

Typography: National park sans-serif, bold font. Sans serifs feel the pull of the Machine Age. Rough, worn, and perfectly imperfect. The individual letterforms do not strictly abide by all typographic rules, but this intentional imperfection adds to its charm. This typeface feels as if it was drawn by hand, just like the hand lettering in the vintage National Park posters. Just the title and subtitle, no other text in the graphic.

Photos

1 Carter Street, Chattanooga, Tennessee 30707, United States

Downtown Chattanooga boasts the highest density of hospitality and event infrastructure in the region, and thus is the most effective zero-waste proving ground for its visibility and high waste generation from tourism. As millions of people vacation in Chattanooga, they bring external waste streams to our local landfills. Composting services in the tourism sector reduce this outside impact and extend the lifespan of our landfills.

Gardeners

Normand Lavoie
Michael Ryan
Natalia Artz

Roots

Downtown Chattanooga Alliance(not committed yet)
World Centric(not committed yet)
ILSR - Institute for Local Self-Reliance(not committed yet)
BPI - Biodegradable Products Institute(not committed yet)
City of Chattanooga Department of Public Works(not committed yet)

Guides

Chattanooga Tourism Company

Fertilizer

Local Compost Site
Fleet of trucks already in service
Proven track record of successful implementation at scale
Full stock of 64 gallon compost bins, buckets, and compostable products
Printed educational materials

Budget

High-end estimate of $15720: a 12-month plan for weekly compost collection services across 5 tourism-centric locations. Cost covers bins, labor, diversion metrics and easy-to-use account portal, as well as optional service twice weekly.

Obstacles

Education and training are known obstacles that NewTerra is prepared to resolve. We offer consistent staff training and onboarding and have a wealth of information and resources available on our website for new or inexperienced composters. The time to begin is always now!

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Sunlight (3 supporters)

Cintly G.Rebecca S.Olivia T.

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