Composting Guide
- In the USA, organic waste is the second highest component of landfills, which are the largest source of methane emissions
- In the USA, 30-40% of the food supply is wasted, equaling more than 20 pounds of food per person per month (See article below »)
- Northbrook now offers composting through Waste Management. This is a great option for easy curbside pickup of food waste and yard waste, year-round.
Source: World Food Day USA
Click on the thumbnails below for information on how to compost effectively at home. If you have sources to recommend, please share HERE.
^ Follow GGN’s Compost page on Pinterest
^ Eartheasy.com
^ Organic Gardening
^ Healdsburg Shed
^ One Green Planet
What’s Second Best to Composting?
Directive from Chicago’s Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner says your sink disposal is second best to composting for food waste. Read her Feb. 2014 email about the subject HERE.
Food Waste Collection
Collective Resource
On Chicago’s North Shore, Collective Resource is a company dedicated to “reducing landfill through commercial composting” in offices, restaurants, schools and at events. For a fee, they will drop off containers and pick them up after events. Containers are 5 gallon buckets or 32 gallon toters and are labeled and specially bagged for compost use. All food waste, including animal fat (meat, dairy) can go in their compost bin. Collective Resource is also available (for a fee) to staff your event. Call for a quote.
Wheeling Compost Facility
From their website: “Until now, large generators of food waste have had few to no alternate options for disposal other than including it with their normal daily refuse. Today, Land and Lakes Company offers the Chicagoland area the green alternative of Food Waste Recycling to those who are willing to separate food waste from their current waste stream.”
Internet search for your location
Food Waste
To learn about the issues of leftover food in America see the Natural Resources Defense Council’s August 2012 26-pg. report ‘Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill.’ Click HERE to see the report.
Vermicomposting
Worms produce black gold for your plants. The worms live in a bedding of shredded paper and you feed them your food scraps. In this climate, we need to keep them in a garage or indoors because they don’t like to freeze.
https://rodaleinstitute.org/science/articles/vermicomposting-for-beginners/
The book, Worms Eat My Garbage http://www.wormwoman.com/the-book/ Is the original go-to guide to vermicomposting