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If you want to help take care of the planet, there are many things you can do on an individual level to be more sustainable. You can use eco-friendly products like Swedish dishcloths, reusable bags and bidets. You can drive less or switch to more sustainable fashion brands and shoes. And when food sits in those landfills, it’s unable to decompose. “When organic material such as food scraps is sent to the landfill, it is unable to break down naturally, but instead produces methane, a harmful greenhouse gas,” says Elena Lopez, outreach and communications manager at LA Compost, a nonprofit that helps improve compost access and education. “Next, it turns wasted resources like food waste, leaves and paper and turns it into rich compost that can be used to grow our own food and regenerate our depleted land.”
What is compost?
Compost is a soil chock-full of nutrients that’s created after organic matter breaks down. “It’s mostly a matter of picking the right option for your family, and your living situation.”
How to compost
We’ll dive into all the different ways you can compost, but before you choose which one is best for you, it’s important to know how composting actually works. It may seem complicated because there are so many different methods, but at its root composting is very simple.
“There are four essential elements of the composting process. Lopez says any problems that arise can most likely be solved by adjusting your ratio. “Composting is a natural process and is all about creating the right environment for organisms to live and do their jobs breaking down the organic material.”
However, depending on what method of composting you use, this ratio can differ. Louie aka The Compostess says you need to take into account all factors, such as if your environment gets really hot or cold and what sort of food scraps you plan on composting. You can’t let it get too wet or too dry or else the process won’t work properly.
Compost tips
The basics are simple, but to ensure you have a happy composting journey we asked our experts for their favorite tips and tricks.
What can compost be used for?
“Compost is like a magical elixir for any soil ecosystem,” says Louie. “Set your own expectations of what you want to do,” says Louie. To trench compost all you need to do is dig a deep hole, toss your food scraps in and cover it with 8 to 10 inches of soil.
A second and similar way is with a digester, which is basically a bin that’s partially underground and partially above ground. According to Louie, while digesters are able to compost your waste without worms since they’re placed in the ground, adding the little critters can help speed up the process — especially if your soil doesn’t naturally have a lot of worms — but in general they aren’t necessary.
Both of these methods require less upkeep than other composting methods because they have access to the actual soil, which helps break down food with less maintenance. “Simply put the three pallets together to make a U shape and then on the front fashion some sort of door to keep dogs out, such as wood slabs, chicken wire or another pallet. Or if you are using the hardware cloth chicken wire method, use about 10 feet and tie it into a circle. They live in a bedding of carbon-rich paper or cardboard, eat your food scraps and poop out nutrient- and microbially rich casting.
Portion control is critical to success when vermicomposting, says Louie. Oftentimes you’ll see statistics that composting worms can eat half their weight in scraps per day, but Louie warns that intake is at a worm’s peak performance, so you should start off slow with just a cup or two of food scraps, depending on how many worms you have. She says you should then wait for the food to be mostly gone before you feed again.
Bokashi
Bokashi is a method that Louie says isn’t actually composting but rather “a process of fermenting organic food waste in an airtight container.” It’s a little different than other methods since normal composting is aerobic, but in short, bokashi uses a specific kind of fish flake to ferment food scraps in an airtight, anaerobic setting. Although it’s a bit more work, Louie says bokashi is a great option because you can decompose all sorts of things that you wouldn’t be able to in normal compost like meat, bones, oils and candy.
Countertop machines
The last indoor options are countertop machines that rapidly dehydrate and churn your food scraps. They are expensive this one from Lomi is $499 and depending on the machine you get, the final product might not actually be compost but rather a shrunken, dried-out version of your food that can then be put into a composter or sprinkled into your garden.
What can be composted
There’s a little bit of debate about what can and cannot be composted, but it really depends on what type of composting you’re doing. “A short list of typical home composting inputs are fruit and veggie scraps, eggshells, coffee grounds, unbleached paper products, cardboard, newspaper clippings, yard trimmings and old flowers,” she says.
Other things you might not think to compost? “I would recommend also composting hair and fingernail clippings both your own and pets,” says Greenfield.
What not to compost
While you can compost a lot, there are definitely things you shouldn’t be throwing in your bin. “Compostable plastics are designed to decompose in industrial facilities at extremely high temperatures,” Lopez says. Here’s a list of our favorite tools that will help you get the best compost possible.,
