Each year, Americans send 32 millions tons of food waste scraps to landfills. If you think that sounds like a lot you are right. That number represents 12% of the municipal solid waste in the U.S.
When you add lawn clippings, leaves, branches and shrubbery trimmings, this represents another 33 million tons or 13% more municipal solid waste. We are filling up one-quarter of our landfills with food and yard waste that can be composted.
Every day a person generates 8% waste that can be composted. That adds up to 140 lbs per person of waste that we are needlessly sending to the landfill. A family of four could compost 560 lbs of yard and food scrap waste each year.
Composting is easy and something simple that you can do to make your household a little greener and reduce the amount of waste going to the landfills.
There are several different options available when you are selecting what you are going to use as your compost bin. Bins are sold at many lawn and garden stores and online, but there are cheaper options, too that work just as well.
You can build a compost bin with reusable pallets, two-by-fours and plywood, cement blocks, chicken wire or as a freestanding pile without a bin on the ground.
Another option is to use a 32-gallon dark colored trash can with a lid. Drill holes all over the container and you've got your compost bin.
To start a compost, find a shady spot that is dry in your backyard for your bin. Then add a mixture of greens and browns.
Browns provide carbon and include dead leaves, branches and twigs. Greens provide nitrogen and are grass clippings, vegetable and fruit scraps and coffee grounds. Water is necessary to keep the compost moist and help the organic material to break down.
As you start collecting brown and green materials from your yard and kitchen begin adding them to your compost bin. Larger items will need to be chopped or shredded.
Remember to add water to any dry materials that you put in the compost to make them moist. You can keep your compost moist by covering it with a tarp.
