A Compost Pile for Every Home!

Ted and I returned this morning from a company retreat at the beach in Marin. It was a beautiful and relaxing weekend, full of good food, lots of barbecuing, and epic Scrabble matches. There was a lot of cooking going on, and the one thing I noticed was how much food waste went into the trash can. I’m not sure I would have noticed this before we started composting, but with the compost heap at home it seemed like such a waste to toss out perfectly good nutrient-rich scraps that could have served well in a compost bin. In that regard, I was glad to return home to my kitchen scrap container, even if it wasn’t easy to leave the beach behind.

Composting is relatively easy and completely painless, and it significantly reduces the amount of material in our trash can every week. I don’t know why I waited so long myself, except for the fact that I’m lazy. We have a decent amount of yard space, so finding a spot for our compost bin was easy. But what about people who live in small apartments with a tiny or nonexistent yard? The NYC Compost Project provides a great example of how to compost if you live in a shoebox. The site explains the best ways to compost if you have no yard, a small yard, or a full-sized backyard. There are photos of each step, which are great for super-visual people like me. NYC Compost also has several other helpful links, like troubleshooting guides and in-depth looks at composting issues.

NYC Compost was created by the New York Department of sanitation to help city dwellers learn about composting, but I’ve found the site to be helpful despite having a medium-sized backyard in California. Everyone should have a compost pile, no matter where (or how) you live; all it takes is a little creativity. So get to it!