People eat a lot of food in the U.S. In fact, the average citizen ate 1,996 pounds of food in 2021. Composting even half of that would reduce methane emissions, help the food supply, and cut agricultural water needs significantly. Unfortunately, composting is still unavailable to many people.
If you’re living in San Francisco, or renting an apartment in New York City, you may have access to municipal composting programs. If this is true for you, all you need to compost in an apartment is a compost container. Otherwise, you can make your compost at home. Read on to learn how to compost in an apartment.
What is composting?
Composting is the natural process of recycling decaying organic matter (compost) into fertilizer. “Compost can be used as a soil amendment in gardens, lawns, and farms,” says Andrew from The Urban Canopy, a Chicago-based urban farm. “Composting helps clean our air, land, and water supply. We like to say, ‘if it grows, it goes.’”
Anything that grows or is made of organic matter eventually decomposes. Composting speeds up the decomposition process by providing a nurturing environment for decomposing organisms such as worms, bacteria, and fungi. While Industrial composting facilities handle a majority of household compost, there are many other ways to compost at home. Putting your food in a municipal compost bin is one way, but you can also start a worm bin, an open-bin compost pile, or a closed-loop system.
Why is composting important?
The solid waste infrastructure in the U.S. focuses on landfilling. Because of this, only about 6% of food waste is composted. Many cities, states, and businesses have created localized composting programs with positive results, but that’s a small portion of the country’s waste. Composting at home reduces the strain on the nationwide composting infrastructure and can grant more people access to community composting programs.
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