Composting 101: How to turn food waste into garden gold

Some basic tips to get you started making your own compost

Getting rid of food scraps through composting is a practice that has gained attention in recent years because it’s environmentally friendly and it creates a product that homeowners can add to their soils. 

Here are some tips and ideas for getting started with composting. 

Create your own compost system

This option has always been commonplace in people’s backyards. If you have room in your backyard, and are interested in organics recycling here are some tips. 

Decide on what equipment to use

• Use a rotating drum container, homemade bins, or even culverts for storage. Compost for Good, an initiative through Adirondack North Country Association,  recommends using a  culvert – 4-foot tall and 3 or 4 feet wide with open side up and a plywood lid. Once the pile has matured, you can simply lift up the culvert to expose the pile. You can also build a wooden square bin or a series of connected ones out of wood. 
• Tools: A long-stem thermometer for temps and a pitch fork or auger for aeration.

Feed it the right materials

• People looking to actively manage their piles should keep them moist, warm and well aerated. Having wood chips or a porous material on the bottom will help with air flow.
• Composting experts often recommend having a carbon/nitrogen ratio of 30:1. This number doesn’t have to be precise. A general guideline is to have three times as many browns to greens in your pile, but you’ll have to experiment to see exactly what works. The ratio is more important if you’re trying to hot compost (see more on that below).
• Carbon materials are often dry and brown like fallen leaves, wood chips, and saw dust. High levels of nitrogen can be found in green materials such as food scraps and grass clippings. You can collect food scraps by putting them in a bucket covered by a lid.  
• Knowing the origin of your materials can be important to avoid using ones treated with herbicides or other contaminants. 

Choose your time frame

• Some people prefer to create hot compost piles, adding all the materials at once in a pile that is a minimum of three cubic feet. The center of these piles can reach temperatures of 160 degrees, although experts say these high temps can kill the good bacteria. A temperature of at least 131 degrees for three consecutive days will kill weed seeds and pathogens. These piles mature in roughly a month and then need to sit for several more after they have cooled off. 
• “Cold” compost piles are built over time and take longer to mature, as long as six months to years. These still can generate some heat as organics decompose. 

Other logistics

• Consider developing a system with your neighbors in order to generate enough food scraps and organic material to get a large pile that will decompose more efficiently than a smaller one. 
• Remove plastic coverings and stickers from fruits and vegetables prior to adding them to the pile and avoid using dairy and meat products.
• Some of the downsides of backyard composting is the smaller piles pose challenges because animals will go after food scraps and the material will often freeze in the winter.  

Too much work? Consider outsourcing it

Because there can be challenges to manage backyard composting piles, many experts recommend taking food scraps to collection sites or having a composter take them away. 

In the Adirondacks, there are a growing number of drop-off sites where people can take their food scraps. Here are some resources for finding these locations.

• Here is a map of places in New York State where you can take your food scraps. A growing number of transfer stations are taking them in the park. 

Click on the map above to see view an interactive map of food scrap drop off sites.

• A list of members of the North Country Community Composting Coalition and the services they offer to the public. 

Additional resources

• The Adirondack North Country Association’s Compost for Good initiative is mostly focused on community-scale composting but offers a number educational resources.
• Vermont has stricter food-scrap recycling laws than New York, and the Composting Association of Vermont offers a number of valuable resources on its website. 
• The state Department of Environmental Conservation has a number of resources on its website for people and organizations interested in composting.

Photo at top: Compost for Good co-founder Katie Culpepper aerates a neighboorhood-scale composter. Photo by Mike Lynch