How to Compost

Composting is a terrific way to recycle food scraps or other organic waste. You'll be helping the environment and, if you have a garden, creating rich fertilizer! How to compost will lead you through the simple steps to composting successfully.

Introduction
- Compost, the often eclectic mixture of discarded organic material (apple cores, wood chips, and yes, even pigeon droppings), makes for rich (yet inexpensive!) fertilizer for your lawn or garden. You can also create compost to be recycled for others' use if you don't have a lawn or garden, depending on where you live. Composting frees up landfill space and is 100% organic!
- Composting is simply the decomposition process required to turn those food scraps and yard waste into usable fertilizer. There are a few options for the home composter, some of which might involve a few wriggly friends. But a simple compost bin and small container for the kitchen to collect food scraps will be enough to get started—soon you'll be feeling great about finding purpose for those underutilized mushroom stems and tomato cores.
Step 1: Get the Right Container
- You'll want the proper containers to collect your compost and make sure it's decomposing properly.
In-House Compost
1. First, you'll need a small compost pail that is suitable for the kitchen (and fits neatly on the counter or under the sink) to collect your kitchen scraps.
2. Most stainless steel or ceramic compost pails are good-looking enough to keep on the countertop. When guests ask you what this mysterious container holds, you can explain the important process of composting!
3. Be sure to get one with a cover to keep bugs away and perhaps carbon filters to minimize odor.
4. If you only plan to recycle your compost material to a city-wide or other community program (like Seattle's composting effort), this pail may be all you need. If you want to add yard waste to the recycling effort, you'll also need appropriate bags or bins to transport it. You may be able to request free yard waste bins from your city.
Backyard Compost
- If you plan to create your own compost pile or bin in the backyard, you may need another container.
1. Though you can simply create a pile of compost for the backyard (starting with a base of leaves, twigs, and other yard waste), you may wish to contain it in a proper compost bin. Some bins "tumble," turning compost so you don't have to.
2. You can also purchase wire mesh to contain your compost pile instead of using a bin.
3. Whether you'll use a pile or bin, neither should be bigger than 3 cubic feet for optimum composting.
4. You can find compost bins at the following retailers:
  - Clean Air Gardening
    Compost Guide Store
    Green Culture
    Planet Natural
Step 2: What You Can Compost
- You'd be surprised at all the things that can be composted! See the Compost Guide's extremely helpful chart that breaks down exactly what can and can't be composted and in what amounts.
Food Waste
- Eggshells
- Coffee grounds and filters
- Fruits and vegetables, including cores, seeds, etc.
- Nut shells (like for walnuts)
- Tea bags
- Corn and cornstalks
Yard Waste
- Leaves
- Grass
- Hay and straw
- Hedge clippings
- Cut flowers (also deadheads from the garden)
- Pine needles and pinecones
- Wood chips
Other Matter
- Cardboard rolls (paper towel, toilet paper rolls)
- Shredded newspaper
- Hair
- Wool and cotton rags
- Sawdust
- Dryer and vacuum cleaner lint
- Ashes (from wood only, like in your fireplace or wood-burning stove, and not more than 2 gallons per 3 foot by 3 foot compost pile)
- Manure (stick to animals who are vegetarian, like pigs, ducks, sheep, goats, cows, or pigeons)
- Seaweed (rinse salt off first)
What Should NOT Be Composted
- Dairy products such as egg yolks, butter, milk, or yogurt
- Weeds
- Black walnut tree leaves or twigs
- Coal or charcoal ashes
- Cat litter or pet waste
- Meat scraps
- Fish scraps and/or bones
- Yard waste treated with pesticides or herbicides
- Grease, lard or oils
- Lime
Step 3: Approaches to Composting
- You can decide how much or how little you want to be involved in monitoring your compost pile.
Passive Composting
1. For many home composters, just throwing compost in a pile is all they're willing to do, and this is perfectly okay. "Passive composting" is fine for individuals, and requires minimal monitoring.
2. It will simply take a bit longer, about a year, to yield compost, and it can be smellier than an active compost pile.
3. If possible, you should still try to moisten dry materials as you add them.
4. And once you have a reasonably sized pile going, try to add some grass and other green waste and bury your fruit and vegetable waste 10 inches underneath the pile.
5. Try to put a piece of plywood over your compost pile or bin if you live in a rainy climate, or use a tarp as a cover to keep compost moist.
Active Composting
1. Creating a mix of brown and green waste will help your compost pile decompose more quickly.
2. A ratio of one part green (grass, plants, vegetables, fruit, coffee grounds—anything nitrogen-rich) to two parts brown (dry leaves, bark, wood chips—anything carbon-rich) seems to compost the fastest.
3. The EPA recommends starting with 6 inches of brown waste, adding 3 inches of green waste with a little soil or finished compost mixed in, mixing the two and then adding another 3 inches of brown waste.
4. You'll also want to "turn" or "aerate" your compost regularly, which simply means moving things around about once per week or every other week. Because your compost pile will be hottest in the center, it's important to move the dry, outer layers to the middle to decompose.
5. You can try using an aerating tool (though a simple shovel will do) to mix up your compost efficiently.
6. To be sure your compost pile or bin is getting to a high enough temperature that matter is decomposing properly, be sure that:
  1. It's wet enough: your compost pile should be roughly as wet as a well wrung-out sponge; add water if necessary.
  2. It's not getting too wet, either; a soggy, smelly compost pile won't decompose correctly. Put a piece of plywood over your compost pile or bin if you live in a rainy climate.
  3. It includes enough nitrogen-rich material; adding nitrogen-rich kitchen scraps like eggshells, coffee grounds, and fruit and vegetable peels may help.
7. If you're careful with what you put in your compost bin, you can even compost indoors using an old garbage can or specific indoor composting container.
8. Find composting tips specific to where you live at the EPA's list of compost goings-on by state. You can find workshops, tip sheets, and lots of other info here depending on where you live.
Worm Composting
- Worm composting, also known as "vermicomposting," uses red worms to compost organic waste.
1. Worm composting can be done indoors and can happen quickly, as worms munch through food waste.
2. Worm composting can be good for people living in apartments and can be done year round, making it a popular classroom project, as well.
3. Stick to kitchen scraps, however, as it could take worms forever to make their way through tough yard waste. This type of composting is good for vegetables, fruit, and relatively small amounts of normal food waste.
4. You'll need a different type of container for worm composting, such as this one from Clean Air Gardening.
5. You can order worms from sites like Amazon.com and Uncle Jim's Worm Farm.
6. See the University of Nebraska's terrific instructions for putting together your own bin and adding bedding for the worms.
7. In about 3-4 months, your worms will have eaten through the food waste producing valuable compost you can use as fertilizer.
Step 4: Using or Recycling Your Compost
- In time, you'll have usable compost for your lawn or garden.
1. Once your compost has turned into brown, crumbly material, it's ready to be used. Just check to see that no original materials are recognizable!
2. The type of composting you're doing will affect how quickly your compost is ready.
  - If you're composting fairly actively (i.e., aerating regularly, balancing materials, monitoring moisture), your compost could be ready in a couple of months.
  - Passive compost (simply throwing whatever you have in a pile and doing nothing else) can take 6-12 months, or longer.
  - Worm composting takes about 3-4 months.
3. If your compost is truly ready, it's time to use it!
4. Experts recommend using an inch of compost on your garden beds, 2-3 inches on a newly planted lawn, or up to 1/2 inch on an existing lawn or well tended garden each year.
5. Partially decomposed material can be used as mulch instead.
6. Your compost should improve water-holding capacity, soil structure, density, and fertility of your soil.
7. If you participate in a program that will recycle your compost for you, turning it into fertilizer that may be sold at your local garden center, you'll only need to prepare your compost for pickup or bring it to the nearest community recycling center.
8. To find your closest recycling center, use Earth 911's recycling center locater. Then contact the center to find out if they have resources to handle compost.
Conclusion
- Congratulations, you did it! And now you're not only being environmentally sound by creating more waste, you helped turn your kitchen and garden scraps into something useful.
Resources for How to Compost
Products for Home Composting
- Clean Air Gardening: Stainless Steel Compost Pail
- Clean Air Gardening: Compost Turning Garden Tool
- Clean Air Gardening: Compost Bins
- Compost Guide Store: Compost Bins
- Green Culture: Compost Bins
- Planet Natural: Compost Bins
- Clean Air Gardening: Worm Composting Bin
- Amazon.com: Red Worms
- Uncle Jim's Worm Farm