Some tips for composting kitchen scraps

Post date: Apr 05, 2012 9:3:59 PM

1. Freeze your kitchen scraps.

Freezing the scraps is actually useful to the composting process, as it helps to kick off the decomposition and give the microbes access to the cell contents. Even in winter this helps (it's pretty warm inside those tumblers). It is also helpful for us humans as well because it helps to reduce odours both during storage and transport. Ever felt conspicuous walking down the street with a bag of gooey kitchen scraps in your hands? This is the solution.

2. Use a container or bucket with a lid

It might seem most convenient to use a plastic bag to transport your kitchen scraps for compost, but consider what happens to the plastic bag after you are done with it. A bag that has been filled with wet and stinky kitchen scraps cannot be recycled through New York's bag recycling program - and so they are destined for the land fill. Even if you saved the bag after having used it for something else, using it for compost scraps is basically turning a recyclable item into a non-recyclable one. And the garden then has to be responsible for disposing of the bag. Consider skipping the plastic bag and converting to a re-usable container instead. You can get some very cool looking compost pails with built in odour filters, but a plastic container or bucket with a lid works just as well. The container will also fit into the freezer. Yoghurt containers work pretty well - although because they are small you might need a few of them. They are also easy to disguise - walking down the street with a bucket with a handle is a bit conspicuous.

3. Turn old documents into 'browns'

Browns, the carbon component of the compost pile, make up about 2 thirds of the compost, so browns are always in big demand. Paper is not the best brown to use (the best are natural sources like leaves and hay) but when there is nothing else, paper will do. Shredded documents are a perfect carbon source for the compost pile. Just make sure that you remove any staples and plastic windows before shredding, and do not to include any coloured paper or glossy paper as the dyes are really toxic. We are always looking for browns, so even a few pages worth is going to help. Shredded paper is collected by NYC as part of the recycling program and from all accounts is actually recycled (there is a lot of internet chatter about whether shredded paper that is collected is recycled, but NYC has a state-of-the-art paper recycling facility and even hold an annual 'ShredFest' event where the resulting paper is recycled)

4. Size matters

The size of the food pieces really makes a difference in how quickly they break down. It also seems to make a difference as to whether the insides are exposed. NYC Compost Project use the example of an apple. A whole apple, thrown right into the compost, will probably come back out almost completely whole a month later. This is because it has a protective coating - the skin, made doubly protective by any coatings that the growers and distributors add to help prevent decomposition. Cut the apple in 4 pieces and those will be almost gone in a couple of weeks. Cutting it open exposes the more delicate flesh, and increases the exposed surface area. Sometimes I know it is a pain, but stopping to chop your scraps into 1 - 3 inch pieces makes a big difference.

5. Things you can include

You may not know it but a lot of slightly odd things can be included in compost, and break down very well. For example:

Nail clippings (providing they have no nail polish on them)

Human Hair and Pet hair

Dryer lint (but only when the dryer load is all natural fibres - towels are usually a safe bet)

Stale bread is great (but consider all the other things you could use it for instead like croutons or bread crumbs)

Pencil shavings (especially those awesome newspaper pencils)

Uncooked grains, flour, dried herbs

Bird seed

coffee grounds (including the paper filter) and tea bags (try to get teabags without the staple if you can)