Yes! Try this at home!
77% of Americans understand the importance of separating compostable organic waste from household garbage.
Stinky garbage is a sign that we’re not being smart about recycling. Anything that can rot really doesn’t have to go to a landfill or a waste-to-energy facility. Living organisms—from microbes to worms—can use the energy from the organic matter in our solid waste to recycle water and nutrients in a natural composting process.
This is the second in a three-part series on composting. Last week, we covered the main environmental benefits of composting: cutting the number of garbage trucks on our roads in half, doubling the available space in our existing landfills, putting water and valuable nutrients back into circulation, building healthy soil, and avoiding emissions of methane gas. In this week’s action guide, we’ll explore the basic composting process and some best practices that help a host of decomposers make compost faster.
An easy way to remember what composting is all about is to think what your microbes W-A-N-T: water, air, nutrients (i.e. food scraps and other organic waste), and temperature. If you have those four ingredients, you provide the right conditions for decomposers in our ecosystem to make compost, which is an earthy, dark, and fertile material you can use to enrich your soil and help all sorts of plants grow well.
Help! I just pile up leaves and branches in a corner of my yard. Is that composting?
Yes! Composting is a completely natural process that occurs whenever you collect organic material (anything that was once alive) and allow it to get wet, exposed to air and microbes that occur naturally in our environment, and warmed up to around 70 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius). Organisms that have evolved to decompose proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and other complex molecules into simpler molecules will release the energy stored in chemical bonds, warming things up a bit more and accelerating the decomposition process.
You can think of composting as a very safe and slow biological fire that consumes wet fuel and produces compost instead of ashes when it’s done. If you’re intentional about providing the optimal conditions for your community of tiny decomposers, they can complete the job quickly. If you don’t provide them what they want—water, air, nutrients, and a temperature that’s warm but not too hot—you’ll preserve organic material rather than compost it. But if you keep piling up leaves and branches and allow normal weather conditions to prevail, your local ecosystem will make compost eventually.
Help! I want to compost faster. What should I do?
You can get compost from anything that was once alive, but a standard recipe is to combine five parts dried leaves with one part green grass clippings and chicken poop. You can substitute vegetable scraps from your kitchen for the grass clippings and chicken poop. The very fastest way to make compost is to break up all the ingredients into small pieces (filling an old garbage can with dried leaves and using a weed wacker to shred them is a quick method), keep them moist but not too wet, mix them together in a pile that is at least three feet tall and three feet in diameter, and keep the pile at 70 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius) or warmer.
The exact best ratio of “browns” (like dried leaves) and “greens” (like fresh grass clippings or kitchen scraps) depends on the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio of the material. Five garbage cans full of dried shredded leaves to one garbage can full of fresh grass clippings and chicken poop (a five parts to one browns to greens ratio) is a good starting point. Layer the pile, greens in first then browns on the top, keep it moist, and mix it around every three days or so. If you’ve done everything perfectly—that won’t ever happen, but it’s something to strive for—after four weeks you’ll have finished compost. More likely, it will take six to eight weeks. But if your pile dries out or gets too wet or gets too cold or gets too hot or doesn’t have the right ratio of carbon to nitrogen, it could take much longer.
If you find your pile isn’t heating up and then starting to shrink down after three days, try adding some more greens. If your pile starts smelling bad and getting slimy, try adding more browns. Feel free to turn and mix your pile as often as you want—just keep it moist. The goal is to provide lots of oxygen from the air to the organisms that are living in the moisture in your mixture without allowing all the water to evaporate. With too much water, not enough air can get through the pile; with too much air, the pile will dry out. It’s hard to be perfect, but it’s easy to be “good enough”—better to err on the side of adding more water than you think you need. Just break up clumps in your pile and make sure excess water can drain out.
Help! I started a compost pile weeks ago and nothing seems to be happening.
My first compost pile was a disaster: I didn’t know I needed to water it. I made a small pile and assumed rain would provide enough moisture. But it didn’t: week after week I’d go out and inspect my pathetic pile, not realizing that it was simply too dry. By the end of the summer, I finally realized that I needed to water my compost pile. But then the weather turned cold. My small pile was finally wet enough but couldn’t get warm enough. So it wasn’t until the next spring that anything happened. Unfortunately, by the time I remembered to go looking to use the compost, a vine had grown all over it. The little batch of compost that had finally formed was a tangle of roots.
Here’s a checklist if your compost pile is just sitting there, not transforming into the rich, dark, fertile soil you’re imagining:
Is your pile big enough? A small pile will dry out and cool down very quickly. Either gather enough material to make a bigger pile, or check out our advanced composting action guide next week, which will discuss how to nurture smaller batches of compost in an enclosed compost bin.
Is your pile wet enough? You can preserve dry organic material for thousands of years. Anything that isn’t damp to the touch won’t compost.
Is your pile too wet? You can preserve wet organic materials for thousands of years, too. (For example, in a peat bog.) Anything that is submerged in water without oxygen won’t compost. It’s moist things that are exposed to warm air that compost quickly.
Is your pile too cold? If air temperatures are dropping below 60 degrees Fahrenheit, the organisms in your compost pile might be going dormant. You may need to provide some insulation around the pile or a lid on top of the pile to retain enough warmth to keep the composting process going. If you’re in a climate zone that has a real winter, your outdoor composting season will end sometime in the fall and start up sometime in the spring.
Is your pile too “brown”? If you don’t have enough “greens” that have lots of available nitrogen, your composting microbes might not have enough nutrients to complete their life cycles. Things like chicken poop, fresh kitchen scraps, and green leaves might provide a nitrogen boost to get your compost going.
Are your pieces too big? If you haven’t shredded your leaves, or you have big sticks or other chunks of material, you might not have enough surface area for microbes to colonize. You can either just wait patiently (eventually, even big logs will break down), or you can take matters into hand and find a creative way to chop big pieces into smaller pieces.
Do you have something in your pile that is deadly to microbes? Too much salt, too much acid, too much alkali, or too many pesticides could be making it hard for your composting microbes to survive, even though you’ve provided them everything else they need. Eventually, sunlight and water should break down and dilute any noxious components in your pile.
Help! I don’t have a yard. Can I still compost?
Absolutely, with a little help from your friends. Someone in your friend group or family might know an organic gardener. These people are often looking for more material to make their own compost. Or your town might have a municipal composting facility that will accept organic material from residents. Another possibility is a commercial composting service that might even offer curbside pickup.
As you start your composting journey, I recommend two pieces of composting equipment in every kitchen: a strainer basket for your sink and a gallon-size compost pail for your counter. The strainer basket in your sink makes it easy to collect things like carrot and potato peels. You can dump things from your strainer into your compost pail, which is simply a little bucket (I prefer a metal one rather than plastic or ceramic) with a tight-fitting lid that allows you to stash your organic trash rather than tossing it in the garbage. Into your countertop compost pail, you can also toss in banana peels, apple cores, and things like that.
One more piece of composting equipment is helpful: a plastic five-gallon bucket with a tight-fitting lid that you can store somewhere out of sight. This allows you to empty your kitchen compost pail every day and store your compost in your five-gallon bucket until it is ready to give to your gardening friend, take to your municipal composting facility, or put out for your composting service.
Help! I tried composting, but it wasn’t worth it because I made hardly any compost.
This is a big misconception: that you can make lots of compost from the amount of organic solid waste a typical family generates. I think composting is less about how much finished compost you can produce and more about taking responsibility for your own waste, turning a large portion of your garbage into a small area of fertile soil.
In my experience, I will typically put 10 or more gallons of kitchen garbage through my backyard tumbling composter for every 1 gallon of finished compost I produce. I’ve read scientific studies that claim you can get about one gallon of compost from two gallons of organic waste in a commercial composting operation, but I’ve never met anyone who could do this in their own backyard. Perhaps the difference is that in commercial quantities, garbage compacts down much more than it does when you’re taking it out one gallon at a time.
If you want to make a lot of compost, you’ll need to start with a large amount of garbage. Maybe pooling your efforts with a group of friends and family might generate the volume that will make the whole process worthwhile for you.
Help! I only produce a little bit of organic waste each week, not enough to create a pile three feet tall. Can I compost a little bit at a time rather than in a big batch?
Yes, you can keep adding small amounts of new material to a compost pile, just be prepared for your process to take a longer than if you can make it in a bigger batch.
Here’s a standard procedure for collecting material a little at a time and turning it into compost:
Create a three-chamber composting structure out of shipping pallets, cinder blocks, wood planks, or fencing. Each chamber should be a cube about three feet on a side, with two side walls and a back wall. You can add a removable lid or a hinged roof if you want, but that’s not necessary. The front of each chamber can be open or can be a removable wire mesh or a removable wall. You’ll want to access each chamber from the top and the front, using a shovel or pitchfork to move and turn your compost as you’re making it.
Start collecting and piling up material in the first chamber. Alternate greens and browns, putting browns on top and watering the material as you add it.
Once you have filled up the first chamber, remove the front wall (if necessary), use a shovel or pitch fork to move all the material from the first chamber to the second chamber, mixing it up. Water this material thoroughly.
Keep adding new material to the now-empty first chamber.
Every few days, turn and water the material in the second chamber. It should heat up and start shrinking down. When this happens, your compost is “cooking.”
Once the material in the second chamber stops heating up when you mix it around, move it to the third chamber where it can finish becoming compost, which looks dark, retains moisture, crumbles easily, and has an earthy smell.
Keep the rotation going: add new material to the first chamber, move it to the second chamber once the first chamber is full, turn the full pile in the second chamber while your compost is actively “cooking,” move cooked compost from the second to the third chamber, let compost finish in the third chamber, and remove it from the third chamber when you’re ready to use your compost.
Help! I heard you can’t compost meat, dairy, fats, and oils. Is this true?
Nope. You can compost meat, dairy, fats, and oils, but these materials are not recommended for beginners making their own compost in their own yards. We’ll tackle advanced composting in next week’s action guide.
Help! I don’t have a lot of dried leaves. What else can I use for “browns” in my compost pile?
Paper towels or paper plates or plain cardboard (torn into small pieces) can take the place of dried leaves.
What’s Still Ahead on the Pathway…
Last year, we explored the pathway to sustainable movement, energy, and goods. Now, we’re exploring the pathway to sustainable food to transition from the standard American diet to a healthier-for-our-planet plant-centered diet and transition from industrial to regenerative agriculture. Stay with us on the journey as we blaze a trail to a superbly sustainable future, one practical step at a time.
References and Further Reading
Survey: Most Americans will compost if it’s convenient, WasteDive
Calculating the Reduction in Material Mass And Volume during Composting, Compost Science & Utilization
How to Build a 3-Bin Composter for Less Than $5, The House & Homestead
How to Compost Paper and Cardboard, Eco Packaging Solutions
Oh, Fred, I was excited about trying to get started on my path to composting, then finished the reading and was completely overwhelmed with the complexity of the whole thing. I will try to find out if my town (Champaign Urbana) has a place I could add my organic materials to create a composting pile !