It’s the last day of International Compost Awareness Week so I thought we could talk about the magical art of turning of turning food scraps into compost.
There are so many reasons to start composting. Besides creating a nutrient packed material that your garden will love; composting helps reduce your carbon footprint. Think about it—you just peeled a cucumber; you toss the scraps into your plastic kitchen trash bag and it heads to the 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.
We all need to take accountability for what is entering our local landfills and take the necessary steps to reduce our waste. Composting is a great way to start, but I understand it’s not always accessible to everyone. However, from your own backyard to compost pick-up services, you’ve got options. Let’s talk about them!
Curbside Composting Services- leave your compost bucket by the curb and have it collected like your trash or recycling by one of these incredible companies:
Rhode Island - Rhodeside Revival
Eastern Massachusetts - Black Earth Compost
Greater Boston, Providence, Worcester, Southern New Hampshire -Bootstrap Compost
You can also Google “curbside composting in (insert state here)” to find out if there’s a program near you!
Hub Spot Drop Off Services
Aquidneck Island, Jamestown, Bristol – Healthy Soils Healthy Seas Rhode Island Project – This project is spearheaded by Clean Ocean Access and is in partnership with Rhodeside Revival, Aquidneck Community Table, and The Compost Plant. In addition to joining the backyard composting movement, the project offers curbside collection services, or you can drop off your food scraps at the various hub spot drop off locations listed here.
Purchase Bulk Compost
Earth Care Farm – Charlestown, Rhode Island
Our backyard compost bin.
Backyard Composting
Do you have the space to start backyard composting? Here’s what you’ll need to get started:
Compost bin- check out RIRRC for more information about purchasing a bin by clicking here.
Food scraps and leaves
Compost aerator or even a shovel to help turn compost
Small Indoor Compost Bin (I keep ours under the kitchen sink and empty it every few days)
When deciding where to place your bin, consider the following:
Level area (on top of dirt or lawn)
Well drained area (if a particular spot in your yard pools with water, avoid placing your compost bin there)
Sunlight (your compost pile can be in a shady area, but the sun helps to move the process along)
Compost these items:
Fruit and vegetable scraps
Coffee grounds
Coffee filters/teabags
Shredded newspapers and papers
Leaves
Stale pantry items like crackers or bread
You will want to have 3 parts “browns” (leaves, shredded paper, etc.) and 1 part “greens” (fruit, vegetables, etc.) in your compost pile at all time. For more details regarding the parts and a comprehensive list of items to compost, visit the Rhode Island Resource Recovery page.
Avoid composting these items:
Meat
Cheese
Fish
Dairy
Oil
Bones
Glossy Paper (i.e., magazines)
Stickers
Plastics
Pet waste
*Some curbside composting collection programs allow meat and dairy products into their bins, but I would not recommend putting the above items in your bin at home.
Do you compost? If so, what method do you use?
Two years of our kitchen food scraps turned into compost!
