One Man’s Trash: A Guide to Composting
This article was written by a guest contributor, Oksana Bihun. Read about Oksana here.
During my sophomore year of college, my friends (only somewhat jokingly) bestowed upon me the title of “Compost Queen.” I had just joined a project team at Cornell called REDO, where we were working to, quite literally, redo doo. We were tasked with developing an on-site composting system for the Smithsonian National Zoo to address their enormous animal *cough cough* waste problem. Say what you will about waste, but I couldn’t think of anything else that so perfectly encompassed my interests. Sustainability focus? Check. Practical environmental land use? Of course. Biological/chemical interactions? You got it.
I reluctantly accept the fact that I spend more time thinking about compost than most, but once you dive deep into its intricacies, it’s hard to turn back! When I was little, I would watch my parents drag tree branches twice their size into a collection site of organic materials we made in the forest behind our house. Weeks later I would come back and find that they were now a quarter of their original size and surrounded by creepy crawlers (nature’s composters!). Since then, I’ve tried out all sorts of different composting techniques, including a worm bin, a tumbler system, and even a Tupperware I dug out of my basement.
A compost bin is like the world’s most fabulous junk drawer. You throw all your trash in it, but instead of building up, it breaks down into something usable and beautiful! The benefits are immense and significant: composting reduces landfill waste (side note: contrary to popular belief, food scraps do not decompose in a landfill because they are cut off from oxygen supplies) thus reducing methane emissions, it keeps soil healthy and productive, it’s a great source of nutrients for your plants, and so much more! Compost relies on a tried and true, basic biological reaction and, as the saying goes, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
So how exactly does it all work?
Compost can be broken down into two components: carbon and nitrogen. Your carbon sources are the dry/brown things you can throw in like dried leaves, twigs, plain brown cardboard, and newspaper. Your nitrogen sources come from fresh/green things like food scraps, coffee grounds, and green garden waste. The ratio of carbon to nitrogen should be about 25:1. Too much carbon and the composting process will take forever. Too much nitrogen and your compost will be slimy and smell like it’s rotting. It’s important to note, however, that the compost will still decompose if this ratio is slightly off, so don’t worry about being overly meticulous.
The beauty of compost is that the variety of things you can throw in it is so diverse. Yes, you have your food scraps and plant waste, but lest I ever forget the time my dear friend cut my hair and then promptly swept the clippings into her compost bin. Beautiful and awe-inspiring? Perhaps not. But man was it creative! So with that, let’s begin our deep dive into how to transform waste in ways that work in our houses and apartments.
So with that, let’s begin our deep dive into how to transform waste in ways that work in our houses and apartments.
1. Worm bin: yep, exactly what it sounds like. A big ol’ bin filled with worms.
Overview
Worm bins consist of an 18 gallon Tupperware filled with shredded paper/newspaper, soil, and worms! During the week, you collect your food scraps in a separate container and then once a week dump the contents into the worm bin for the worms to feast on. This type of composting is visually interesting, as you can see the progress of decomposition. The newest scraps are on the top of the pile, while the bottom of the bin should contain decomposed, ready-to-go compost.
Materials needed
18 gallon Tupperware with holes drilled in it near the top of the container, some shredded paper or strips of newspaper, a bit of soil, and of course your worms (preferably Red Wigglers). Anywhere between 250-500 worms is a safe bet, depending on how much waste you plan on generating!
Set up
Put your shredded paper/newspaper and soil into your bin, making sure to keep the contents wet but not dripping (a spray bottle is often helpful). Once you have around 3 inches of materials in the bin, transfer in the worms and leave them for about a day before starting to add in food scraps. Keeping the worms inside is probably your safest bet due to the stable climate (worms work best at around 60-80 degrees F). However, if you have a covered porch/deck, you can keep the worm bin there until it drops to colder temperatures! Just make sure they’re safe from precipitation and harsh weather- my worm bin came to a devastating end after a particularly heavy rainfall…
Maintenance
Continue adding in food scraps once a week. Once you have a few inches of ready looking compost on the bottom, you can start taking it out of the bin and putting it into your garden. Make sure you pick out as many worms as you can and put them back in the tub.
2. Tumbler: not be confused with tumblr
Overview
A tumbler is a system that you can buy from any gardening/outdoor goods store. It’s an enclosed container that can be rotated in order to mix the composting materials. This is an independent system that doesn’t have any worms or decomposers and only relies on bacteria to break down the scraps.
Materials needed
Your tumbler of choice! There are tumblers of different prices and sizes you can find online or at outdoor/home improvement stores.
Maintenance
The beauty of a tumbler system is its simplicity. You throw in your food/plant scraps and give it a good spin in order to both mix and aerate all the contents (this helps everything decompose smoothly). When adding in new materials, make sure to add at least two-three times the amount of carbon heavy materials as you do nitrogen heavy ones. This ensures that the materials break down evenly and nothing starts to rot or smell! Tumblers work best when you throw lots of content in all at once. This is because every time you add in fresh scraps, the process will be delayed, since the new contents will take time to decompose. Tumblers can take anywhere from three months to a year to produce usable compost and it likely won’t be as uniform and crumbly a soil as a worm bin would produce; but it’s very low maintenance and also fun to spin the bin around!
3. Compost Bin: the Swiss army knife of composting
Overview
The perk of using a bin to compost is that it can be ANY size, and be put in ANY place. This is perfect for anyone living in a tight space or in an urban area. The only maintenance it requires is occasional shaking the bin to aerate and mix up the contents. Truly, composting couldn’t get any easier!
Materials Needed
Any sized Tupperware with several holes drilled into the top.
Maintenance
Similar to a tumbler system, bins work best when you add a lot of compost in at once. Your compost quality won’t suffer if you continuously add more scraps, but it’ll definitely take longer. Whether your bin is shoe box sized or 18 gallons, made sure to give it a good shake every few days to help the process along.
So, which method is right for you? Follow the the flowchart below to find out!
If all else fails.. read these tips:
Don’t throw in meat, fish, or dairy- it can cause VERY bad odors and also attract undesirable pests!
If your compost is too wet, throw in some shredded paper, strips of newspapers, twigs, or dried leaves.
If your compost is too dry, use a spray bottle or throw in scraps from wetter foods like melons and squashes.
The smaller the food scraps you throw in, the faster they’ll decompose (better surface area to volume ratio!).
The internet is your best friend; any problem you experience, I guarantee someone has already come up with a solution for!
Last thoughts:
If none of what I’ve just said sounds doable for you, that’s ok! Municipal compost is still a great option for disposing of food waste sustainably. Most cities have drop off sites or will come collect it from your home (often for a low price). For those of you who are considering trying composting, it’s important to remember that it is a trial and error process! There are many worms that I bought, who are no longer with us, that will attest to that fact. You can very well experience problems like stinky compost, dry compost, compost that’s started leaking, and compost that looks nothing like compost. Patience is, indeed, a virtue but there’s no better feeling than making something awesome out of literal garbage. It can take a long time to see results, but I guarantee that when you do, you’ll understand why so many of us keep at it!