By Diana Rodriguez

Liberty Wildlife Intern

Food waste is a big problem that often gets overshadowed by other sustainability issues, but properly addressing food waste is crucial. The USDA estimated that the U.S. wastes around 30-40% of our food supply each year, that’s approximately 133 billion pounds. Households are the largest contributor, making up 43% of the total food waste sent to landfills. Clearly, we need to make changes on an individual level if we want to alleviate this problem, and composting at home is a great and easy way to give a new purpose to food that would have otherwise ended up in the trash.

What exactly is composting? Naturally, all organic matter eventually gets decomposed by millions of microscopic organisms. Composting is simply speeding up this process by providing the right environment for these microorganisms to thrive. The product we end up with after this process is complete is called compost, or what farmers like to call “black gold” for its high nutritious value for plants. 

To start composting at home, the materials you’ll need are a container, food scraps, water, and something to mix it with like a shovel. You don’t need to purchase a fancy compost bin; as long as the container has good drainage, aeration, and keeps animals out, it will do perfectly fine. One popular option is drilling holes into an old trash bin and placing it on wooden planks to allow water to drain. The City of Phoenix even offers compost containers for $5 each as an affordable option. Once you have your bin, it’s best to place it outside in a dry, shady area that is easily accessible by a hose. 

Generally, what goes inside your compost bin are browns, greens, and water. “Browns” provide carbon to your compost pile, and consists of dry and woody plant materials. Dry leaves, twigs, shredded newspaper, and dried yard trimmings are some examples of browns.

“Greens” refer to materials that provide nitrogen to your compost pile. Most of the food waste coming from your kitchen will be the greens you will add to your bin. Fruits, vegetables, grass clippings, crushed egg shells, and coffee grounds are examples of greens. Some common items you can’t compost are meat, fish, dairy, diseased plants, and grease. Keep your compost moist by adding water once or twice a week. In addition, use a shovel to turn the contents every few weeks, or when the internal temperature drops below 100℉. 

The ratio of browns to greens is also important. The ideal ratio varies, but 4 parts browns and 1 part greens is a good place to start. If you don’t want to be exact with it, you can simply do a sniff test. If it smells really bad or acidic, you have too many greens and should add more browns to the mix. If your compost looks too dry, you might have too many browns and/or not enough water. A compost pile with the correct ratio should have an earthy smell and feel like a damp sponge. 

Next, all there is left to do is wait! Depending on how much effort you put into maintaining your compost, it can take as little as 6 weeks to as long as a year or more. You’ll know it’s ready when it no longer resembles the food scraps you once put in. It will be dark brown to black in color, smell earthy, and have a crumbly texture.

There are a variety of uses for compost, the main one being a soil amendment in gardens. Compost is great for growing plants because it enriches the soil with nutrients, it improves the water 

holding capacity of soil, and can be used as mulch. Don’t garden? You can always give your compost to someone who does or donate it to a community garden or school who will have use for it. Composting also provides many benefits that exist outside gardening. Aside from reducing food waste sent to landfills, composting helps conserve water, reduces methane emissions which helps combat climate change, and prevents soil erosion, to name a few. Finally, although composting is a great way to reduce our food waste, we should first prioritize reducing our consumption so there is less to waste in the first place.

Citations:
https://www.usda.gov/foodwaste/faqs 
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-enormous-scale-of-americas-food-waste/
https://www.phoenix.gov/publicworks/garbage/disposable/composting-and-green-organics