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Make Magic: Compost

Category

Waste & Recycling

Impact

Cost

Free

Compost Vegetable Scraps at Home and Compost Food Waste with Black Earth at the Transfer Station

Compost enriches the earth for plants and other organisms that live in the soil. You can use the nutrients for your lawn, flowering plants, or vegetable garden. Over 51% of the trash that goes to landfills is compostable. In a landfill, organic waste contributes to the generation of methane, and what could be a valuable resource is lost. Composting can reduce your household waste by up to 50% and your trash bin will smell much cleaner without rotting food. Without the moisture in your trash, you can line your waste bin with a paper bag instead of plastic, keeping plastic bags from ending up in landfills or in incinerators. 

Can I compost at home?   Yes!  By composting in your own yard, you avoid unnecessary transportation of materials back and forth and add nutrients into the soil of your grass, flower beds, or vegetable garden. 

Read instructions on the basics of composting from EPA and the Rodale Institute. 

Can I compost if I live in an apartment?  For those without a yard, vermicomposting, or indoor composting with worms, is a space-saving option. You can make your own bin or purchase one that has added convenience features. It is simple to do and makes a fun science project for kids! If you use a Community Garden, have a terrace or porch with flower or vegetable pots, or have plants around your building, your compost nourishes and adds needed nutrients to your growing projects.

Take it to the Transfer Station! Black Earth Compost accepts compostable food items wrapped in either newspaper or certified compostable bags. It also takes certified compostable tableware. Their bins are located on your way out of the Transfer Station. They accept items you would normally compost at home, plus meat scraps and bones, fish skins and shells, plus greasy paper!  See the full list of what you can put in the bin.

Why Black Earth? Our colleagues at Energize Acton and Energize Wayland have also identified Black Earth as a reliable composting service used by many towns and cities in our region. See a more detailed description under Deep Dive.

Steps to Take

Composting at Home

  1. Buy a compost bin or build your own that allows you to add your materials easily to a pile that  measures at least 3’x3’x3’. Occasionally, you will need to turn the pile to mix the contents with a shovel, pitchfork, or other yard tool to aerate the compost.  A compost machine works the same way as a simple pile but is enclosed in a container with a lid. Some have an attached arm that does the turning for you.
  2. Read up on the basics of composting from EPA and the Rodale Institute . 
  3. Use a small bucket on your countertop or other covered container to collect your food scraps and empty regularly into your yard compost bin (adding leaves, peat moss, and torn newspaper for correct balance of materials).
  4. If you don’t have a yard, try indoor composting with worms.
  5. For home composting, it’s best to keep meat and cheese out of the bin. Black Earth Compost, however, will accept these items, as explained further on. 

Transfer Station Bins

Black Earth Compost bins have been placed near the exit from the transfer station. They are available whenever the station is open. Here’s what to do:

  1. Find some paper bags or newspaper, or buy certifiable compostable bags, to hold food waste.
    1. By placing it in the freezer so it’s not smelly, keep your food waste until trash day, adding to it as needed.
    2. Drop the bag into the Black Earth Compost bin at the transfer station on trash day.
    3. Let us know how it goes by leaving a testimonial.

    Where To Buy Black Earth Compost

    Black Earth compost is available at local stores, including Ace Hardware in Acton.

Deep Dive

Between 30% and 40% of the US food supply is wasted, according to USDA. Most food waste ends up in a landfill, or is burned in a waste-to-energy incinerator. When sent to a landfill, food waste rots and generates methane, which goes into the atmosphere and contributes to climate change. According to OurWorldInData.org, food waste accounts for one quarter of all food-related emissions, or about 6% of world-wide greenhouse gas emissions. Total emissions from landfills was estimated to be 14.1% of total US methane emissions (source: US EPA, 2014).

As you may realize, this is a complex issue with many points of view. The Clear Center at UC Davis has an excellent web resource with links to other useful references.

Composting works differently than a landfill. See this description shared by the Government of Western Australia:

“Anaerobic fermentation is common in landfill and open stockpiles such as manure piles. Global emissions from waste have almost doubled since 1970 and now produce 3% of anthropogenic (human origin) emissions (IPCC 2014). About half of these emissions come from the anaerobic fermentation of solid waste disposal on land…. However, the aerobic process of composting does not produce methane because methane-producing microbes are not active in the presence of oxygen. Composting is one method to reduce methane emissions from organic waste currently stockpiled or sent to landfill.”

Learn more on backyard composting from the Rodale Institute . 

Why we suggest Black Earth as a composting service

Our colleagues in Energize Acton and Energize Wayland have also identified Black Earth as a reliable composting service used by many towns and cities in the region. We are aware that there are other options, and if you use others, we welcome your thoughts (leave a testimonial on this site). There are two ways in which Black Earth stands out:

  1. Unlike trash haulers, they compost the collections themselves (at their sites in Massachusetts) according to strict DEP rules. They have demonstrated to us their process, and have invited us to come for a tour in spring or summer. Let us know if you want to go on a field trip. 
  2. They sell finished compost. For that reason they are more strict than many about what they take for compostable cutlery, plates, and pizza boxes, taking only BPI-certified (by the Biodegradable Products Institute). They do this to avoid plastics in their end product.

 Visit their website: https://blackearthcompost.com

Testimonials

We love having Black Earth Composting at the Transfer Station because we no longer have smelly trash at home. Grocery stores sell certifiable compostable bags…
Black Earth
Submitted by: Francie Nolde

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