Compost Post

When I was a kid, I had a friend who's mom used to live "green" before it ever became popular. She would grow her own fruits and vegetables in her yard and eat only unprocessed, locally sourced foods. I used to think that I wanted to be like her when I owned a home...to live sustainably.  My friend's mom was my first introduction as to what composting was. She had a compost heap in their yard and we would contribute to her compost heap.  My mom would save our food scraps for her to use since we didn't have a compost heap of our own.

Twenty years later, I've decided to become a fellow composter.  We currently live in a townhome so we don't have a yard to compost in. However, our city has a program where we can discard of scraps and they are composted by the city.  I had no idea there was a program like this and that I can still contribute even if I don't have a yard.  I think it's great cities are offering this program so we can still participate.

Going green makes you feel like rolling around in the grass!

I think we're all familiar with the common reasons to compost like reducing the need for fertilizer and giving back to the environment.  It also helps to reduce emissions and waste left over from incineration at landfills.  I don't know about you all, but with summers becoming hotter everywhere in the country, anyway I can decrease greenhouse gases to stop climate change, I'll do it! (This summer is going to be interesting....climate change + pregnancy - A.C. = FUN!)  Also, our city trash bin is pretty small. Trying to fit our trash weekly was always a challenge even though we recycle, too. It was another plus to be able to decrease the amount of trash so we could get rid of all of our trash weekly!

So what can go in your compost bin? I always get super confused when I'm at YogurtLand and they have all those disposal chutes for "trash", "compost", and "recycling". I spend a good few minutes reading what can go in each bin for fear of messing up. Here's what you can actually compost (it's a lot more than you probably thought you could compost):

-Food Scraps:  fruits/veggies, egg shells/nut shells, beans, dairy products, bread/pasta/grains, meat/chicken/fish/seafood

-Food-soiled paper: coffee grounds/filters, tea bags, pizza boxes (totally had no clue this was ok!), paper towels/napkins, paper shreds, paper cartons (like for eggs or berries), paper grocery bags, non-shiny paper plates, and certain other compostable containers as accepted by your city.

-Yard Trimmings: plants, flowers, plastic plant pots that you can recycle, grass/weed/root/leaf clippings, tree branches under 4ft long and 4in in diameter, Christmas trees (cut smaller than the previously mentioned dimensions), Jack-o-lanterns (Score! Because I am a Halloween officiando!)

We finally got our city composting bin. Next, I needed a mini bin for our kitchen and biodegradable bags to make disposable easy. I opted for OXO Good Grips Compost Bin. It's small and perfect for my counter top. The lid does a good job to seal in rotting food smells.  I also got a few rolls of BioBags to line the bin with so we can just tie up the bag at the end of the day and toss it into the larger compost bin outside. They are really durable and stretchy so you don't have to worry about the bag tearing and fits perfectly in the counter top bin.

OXO Composting Bin

BioBag Compost Bin Liners

We've only been composting for a few days, but I am so surprised at how little trash we actually have now!  And best of all, it's just so easy to do which makes it more promising for this habit to stick!

Happy Composting! =)