Autumn, with its abundance of fallen leaves, decaying pumpkins and garden waste, can be a great time to start composting, or to improve your home compost system.
Here are some recommendations from the Franklin County Solid Waste Management District on how to best start composting this fall.
Composting can be made easier with effective, low-cost composting equipment. Wildlife-resistant home compost bins are sold at cost by more than 50 western Massachusetts municipalities, and are available through regional waste districts.
The waste management district sells “Earth Machine” home compost bins to district residents for $45. The bins feature a door in the bottom that can be lifted up to shovel out finished compost. Residents can purchase the bins at the transfer stations in Colrain, Orange and Wendell during the individual locations’ open hours. However, the district headquarters at 50 Miles St. in Greenfield is the best place to purchase them due to more extended hours of operation. Call 413-772-2438 to make sure the office is open.
The waste management district also sells “Sure-Close” kitchen compost collection pails for $5. This two-gallon pail sits on the countertop or underneath the sink to collect compostables before taking them out to the home compost bin or municipal compost collection. The pinholes in the tightly locking lid allow moisture to evaporate, which reduces odor.
In your kitchen, collect fruit and vegetable scraps and peels, eggshells, coffee grounds and paper filters, stale bread and leftover grains. Do not add the following materials to your home compost bin: pet wastes, meat, bones, poultry, fish, dairy, and oily foods such as peanut butter and salad dressing.
Add kitchen scraps to your outdoor compost bin by making a small hole in the center of the pile, dumping the food waste into the hole, and covering the scraps with leaves, finished compost, or other carbon-rich materials. Covering the kitchen scraps reduces pests and odor, and speeds up the compost process.
Ideally, a home compost bin’s contents should consist of about 75 percent carbon-rich materials such as fall leaves, brown yard waste, straw, used paper towels and napkins, ripped up egg cartons, paper bags, or newspaper (printed with soy-based inks, like this one is); and 25 percent nitrogen-rich materials such as food waste and grass clippings.
If possible, only add small amounts of oak leaves and pine needles to your compost bin. Maple and other local leaves are ideal. Shredded leaves are even better. If you stockpile fall leaves in a covered trash can or under a tarp, you can add them to your compost bin all year long.
The composting process needs oxygen; stirring the pile every few weeks or months with a shovel or pitchfork will speed up the compost process. Introduce helpful microorganisms to your bin by adding a few shovels full of garden soil or finished compost. You can also add water occasionally to make the contents as damp as a wrung out sponge. For a simple composting how-to guide from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, visit tinyurl.com/compostingiseasy.
Compost is finished when it looks like crumbly, dark brown, sweet-smelling soil. Save money by applying homemade compost to gardens and lawns instead of purchasing bagged fertilizers and topsoil. Compost improves soil structure and water retention, adds nutrients and minerals to soil, and reduces waste. Composting also reduces climate-changing gases that are emitted from landfills and through long distance trash transport.
If home composting isn’t possible for your household, commercial or municipal composting can dramatically reduce trash volume. Commercial composting accepts a wider range of wastes than home composting, including all types of food waste (except liquids), plus paper plates, paper napkins, paper towels and BPI-certified “compostable plastic.”
Municipal compost collections at these eight Franklin County transfer stations accept compostables free from residents, and send them to a commercial compost facility: Bernardston, Greenfield, Leverett, Orange, New Salem, Northfield, Wendell and Whately. In addition, Martin’s Farm offers free food waste drop-off in a designated compost dumpster at the farm at 341 Plain Road in Greenfield.
For more information, contact the Franklin County Solid Waste Management District by phone at 413-772-2438 or by email at info@franklincountywastedistrict.org, or visit their website at franklincountywastedistrict.org.