COMPOSTING
It’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it.
There I stood, on yet another rainy Saturday, staring down at my growing pile of food and paper waste. “Ugh, composting” I sighed, “it’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it”. I dumped my kitchen-sized compost bin into my outdoor bin and began my search for another earth worm or two. Gross, but cool, admittedly.
I’m not even sure if I’m doing the whole composting thing right, but it looks like it’s working. I haven’t exactly gone the entire kitchen to garden cycle with my compost, but I can contribute to the who, what, when, where, and whys, composting. Here goes…
WHO CAN COMPOST?
I’d like to say anyone can compost, but I am totally aware that it’s not that easy for everyone. However, if you have a little bit of a yard, a landlord and neighbors that don’t mind, a few leaves laying around, and some carrot peels…you can begin your at-home compost journey.
Maybe you don’t have much space or your neighbors aren’t that cool…there are options. Rhode Island and Massachusetts both have great curbside composting programs that function similar to your trash and recycling services. Basically, you sign up for an account, a 5-gallon bucket is delivered, you fill it with food scraps, and the bucket is picked up weekly or bi-weekly. The best part? Some of these programs eventually return your food scraps to you, but in the form of compost.
Curbside Composting Programs:
RHODE ISLAND - Rhodeside Revival
EASTERN MA - Black Earth Compost
GREATER BOSTON - Bootstrap Compost
You can also Google “curbside composting in (insert state here)” to find out if there’s a program near you!
If you’re located on Aquidneck Island and backyard composting or curbside composting simply don’t work for you, Aquidneck Community Table offers a Food-Scraps-to-Compost program. All you have to do is pick up a bucket, collect your food scraps, and drop your bucket off at either the Middletown or Newport Farmers Markets. The annual rate is a super low $70, but the feeling that comes with knowing that you are helping to divert thousands of pounds of food waste from the landfill is seriously worth it.
WHAT CAN I COMPOST?
Yes, please:
Fruit and Vegetable Scraps
Coffee Grounds
Coffee Filters and/or Tea Bags
Eggshells
Shredded Newspapers and Paper
Yard Waste (leaves, grass clippings)
Stale pantry items such as crackers or bread
There are literally hundreds of household items that you can compost. From cotton balls to dead floral arrangements, the list goes on and on. I pretty much use my own discretion at this point.
No, thank you:
Meat
Cheese
Fish
Dairy
Oil
Bones
Glossy Paper (i.e. magazines)
Stickers
Plastics
Pet Waste (I didn’t want to have to type this, but it’s a really popular question)
*Some curbside composting collection programs allow meat and dairy products into their bins, but I would not recommend putting the above items in at home.
WHAT DO I NEED TO START COMPOSTING?
Compost Bin (I purchased mine through my local Town Hall to support their efforts, but you can purchase one online or even build your own)
Food Scraps
Earth Worms (stick these guys in your bin as you find them and they will help break your materials down)
Compost Aerator
Small Indoor Compost Bin (I keep ours under the kitchen sink and take it out when I’m chopping veggies, etc.)
WHEN CAN I START COMPOSTING?
Yesterday.
Seriously, you can start composting at any time. We started composting in the dead of winter. With the weather being so cold, one might think that instead of decomposing that the materials would just freeze due to the cold but that wasn’t the case. There were definitely days when my coffee grounds froze, but on the sunny winter days, the center of my compost bin warmed up and the break down process began. Now that it’s late Spring, the decomposition process is definitely moving a lot faster. But in the case of composting, there is no better time to start than the present!
WHERE SHOULD I PUT MY COMPOST BIN?
When scoping out your potential compost bin grounds, consider the following:
Level Area (on top of dirt or lawn)
Well Drained Area (if you know a particular spot in your yard pools water, avoid that area)
Sunny Area
WHY SHOULD I COMPOST?
There are so many reasons to start composting. Besides creating a nutrient packed material that your flowers will love, composting helps reduce your carbon footprint.
The primary reason that we started composting was to reduce the amount of waste entering our local landfill. When food scraps end up in landfills (especially in a plastic trash bag), the food materials literally just suffocate and rot which produces methane gasses.
According to the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation, 3,800 tons of trash are buried in the landfill each day. One ton is equivalent to two thousand pounds so we are talking about approximately 7,600 pounds of waste going to our landfill on the regular. It is estimated that the Central Landfill in Johnston, Rhode Island will reach capacity in 2034- that is just fifteen years away. Each year, 100,000 tons of food are buried in the Johnston landfill. If these facts don’t freak you out a little bit, we can’t be friends. (Kidding, kind of)
We all need to take accountability for what is happening at our local landfills and with that, we need to do everything we can as a collective group to reduce our waste. Composting is not only beneficial for you, but also for your community.
Questions, concerns, or thoughts? Let’s get the conversation flowing. Drop me a line!
audrey@whalestrailsandales.com
