2 Ways To Start Composting Today

How to Start Composting Today

Ya you're stuck at home, but you can start composting today with things laying around your house. Join us for how ...

Posted by Hillside Solutions on Wednesday, April 15, 2020

There’s a super simple way to start composting in your backyard today without spending a dime, just using stuff laying around your house, and without ticking off your neighbors. There’s also a way to compost all the things you can’t do in your backyard through our Compost Club subscription service. We go into both here during our Earth Day month Facebook Live series.

Option 1: DIY Composting At Home

  1. Only compost the big 3: veggies, fruits, yard waste. There’s some other stuff you can do (like egg shells), but to start, this will keep it simple.

  2. Toss your veg/fruit scraps into a container in your kitchen. You can use any trash can, painter bucket, or anything else that can hold material. No fancy charcoal filter needed, no expensive compostable liners needed. You can always rinse it out with water.

  3. In your backyard, just toss it on the ground some place where sun hits the pile, air, and you can reach it with your hose for occasional dousing. No fancy turner needed (and besides, they don’t have enough room).

  4. No smells, bugs, or animals with the right mixture: For every 1/4th food waste, try to add 3/4th’s yard waste. Doesn’t have to be exact, but if you start to get a smell or see bugs, that’s your sign to add more yard waste.

  5. Mix it up often, or don’t. If you want soil fast, mix things around once or twice a week. If you’re not in a hurry, once a month or less is still okay. Nature knows what to do.

  6. When it smells like earth/soil, it’s done! Just take a sample, put it in a container for a day, and if it smells like earth, it’s ready. If it smells rancid, let it go longer. That’s it!

But what about meat, dairy, or compostable take-out packaging?

Option 2: We’ll Do It For You Via Compost Club

Why it matters: Because we have an industrial site, we accept food waste, BPI certified compostable take-out materials, paper towels, napkins, and a variety of other compostable materials that otherwise go to the landfill to put off methane gas. Instead, members add much-needed nutrients back into the soil and counteract the effects of climate change.

Quick Overview: You subscribe to Compost Club just the same as signing up for Netflix. You gain access to a network of drop-off points. From there, we take your materials to our Soil Dynamics farm in Ashland, turn it into nutrient-dense soil, and then make some of that available to you for use in your own yard, garden, or house plants.

 

Brent Crampton