Where the Compost Lives
User: erdevereux@gmail.com
Vendor: Drive Green - Green Energy Consumers Alliance
Action: 2551 - Composting Curbside Pick-up
This story could have been about where the compost dies, but when you store it in your freezer it is just dormant while waiting to be put out curbside for the weekly pick-up on its way to a N. Shore destination where it will be gradually warmed and treated in three kind steps, first as sludge and, eventually, returned to nurseries, farms and composters like you to spread in your garden. Freezer time is not required, of course. My wife came up with that solution for temporary storage (we have an extra freezer in our basement which can handle a few bags a week).
Backing up to when we moved to Natick five years ago, we started with a Black Earth trial that came in a welcome pack of material as new resident in town. My prior experience with composting had been less than glorious. I bought a back yard unit like the one at my church which ate flowers and leftovers from the kitchen. Like many rookies, I was inexperienced at managing a compost on my own and didn’t have a neighbor to tutor me. I was unsuccessful and eventually become discouraged. I didn’t officially call it quits before we moved to Natick, but I might as well have admitted my failure.
What made the difference here in Natick? Not having to stir my own sludge in an outdoor container was certainly one of the keys. But just as important was discovering a way that worked for us to store compost before the pick-up. Others no doubt succeed without such a handy storage area to keep the rich organic scraps from becoming odorous, insect magnets inside or outside, where it might attract more than insects (bears in Natick? Not unheard of, I imagine). Having a schedule was also helpful.
The biggest reward of this composting service was unexpected and locked us into the value of paying about $2 a week, plus the minor cost of reordering rolls of biodegradable bags. Our recycling went from several tall bags of trash and food scraps, down to one a week — one which did not smell or attract insects while it was in the house. If this seems like less than a lottery win, consider what happens when you entertain or have overnight guests who stay, and stay, and stay… That’s been us. For 3 months out of four beginning in October, my daughter, her husband and their two diaper-aged girls lived in our house. Our composting bag storage expanded it’s square footage in our freezer, but had we not been composting, we would have needed a diaper service in addition to every square inch of space in our recycling bin. Add holiday packages and discarded wrappings, and that’s why I became a familiar face at the recycling center.
Not everyone may fall in love with composting the way we did, but there are mental benefits to knowing that you are helping the environment by creating good compost for growing and reducing the amount of stuff that gets burned. As Bill McKibben of 350.org fame is fond of saying, if we are going to save the planet, we have to stop burning stuff.
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