The first place I lived where we composted our food scraps was in Richmond Hill, Queens. That summer, I lived with my boyfriend’s family, in the early 1980’s. His Mom composted most of our food and used it on her beautiful garden. I remember her being very specific about what could and could not be put into the compost. This included absolutely no animal products, not even eggshells. She cultivated a beautiful rich compost for her garden.

I simply fell in love with the idea of composting!

We are allowing nature to do its job.

We are engaging in the natural cycle of life.

We are nourishing the soil, so it can nourish us.

We are not burying food in our landfills.

It’s a beautiful thing!

Since moving away from Queens, I have tried to compost everywhere I have lived. Remember, I am not a gardener, I’m a conservationist, and my primary goal for composting has always been to limit what I throw-out or put into the landfill. I see no reason to contribute to the building of more landfill mountains than necessary. If it can decompose, it should be allowed to decompose, not stuffed in a plastic garbage bag and buried under other garbage bags, where it will sit for a very long time.

Look at all that garbage!

Where ever I have lived in a home with a backyard, I have composted. Sometimes I would dig a hole; about two feet deep, fill it with food scraps and once filled, I would cover it with soil. If there was a forest, I would place the compost bin on the inside edge of the woods. In this case, I would take a bit of fencing material, the kind you put around young saplings to protect them from critters. It is about 3 feet high and, when formed into a cylinder, its diameter is about 2 ½ feet, perfect size for a compost pile.  You may be asking yourself about critters. I have never had any problems with critters. But in the country, there are critters and if they eat the compost, YAY, it continues the circle of life. When I lived in the suburbs of Northern California, I was warned about roof rats, but never had an issue. And we had a very large open compost bin (5 ft high and 5 ft across) that we put lawn debris in along with food scraps. When we lived in San Francisco, the waste removal company took compost along with all the other recyclables, as it is mandatory. I loved it. The city even provided kitchen pails and carts at no charge.

Our little compost pile

Remember, I am simply diverting my food scraps from the landfill. However, there are other benefits to composting beyond not making garbage mountains.

Did you know?

• When waste is sent to landfill, air cannot get to the organic waste. Therefore as the waste breaks down, it creates a harmful greenhouse gas, methane, which damages the Earth’s atmosphere. However, when this same waste is composted above ground at home, oxygen helps the waste to decompose aerobically which means hardly any methane is produced, which is good news for the planet. And what’s more, after nine to twelve months, you get free fertilizer for your garden.
•  A recent estimate from the Environmental Protection Agency predicted that up to one-fourth of all landfill waste could have been thrown into the compost. It’s amazing to think that a quarter of our waste could be turned into nutrient-rich soil.
• Even if food does biodegrade in a landfill, whatever comes out of it won’t be useful. Even if it does turn into very good compost, nothing will grow in it, and chances are some of the toxic materials that end up at the landfill will contaminate it.

There are many ways to compost but simply, all you need to do is get a container with a lid, put it by your sink and throw your food scraps into it. When it’s full, take it outside and let it decompose as nature intended.

Food for the Earth!