Step Up Your Composting game! Here’s how…

Ready to step up our composting game?

In Morgan Hill, we have a green bin that goes out to the curb each week. In the past, most of us have used this green bin for our grass clippings and tree trimmings only. In California, we have been instructed to use our green bins for more than that.

SB 1383 went into effect January 1, 2022. This law requires diverting food and plant waste from the landfill. Landfills are one of the top emitters of greenhouse gas emissions. Separating food scraps from our trash to keep them out of the landfill is one of the most important things we can do to impact climate change. Now we have the power to do this right at the curb!

You can’t pick up the newspaper or look at your phone and not see something about climate change. There are some really scary facts hitting us right now about climate. If you’re like me you often ask yourself, “What can I do?” Now we’ve got an easy to do assignment that will directly affect climate change and we can do it from our own homes.

The first thing you need to do is get some type of compost bin that you can put on your counter or in your fridge. You can use a pail or a bowl-I like something with a lid. I find that keeping it on the counter means everyone in the family will actually use it often. Simply do a search for a compost bin and you will see all the many shapes and sizes available to you. They are easy to find in stores and on-line.

Once you’ve got your container and put it in the kitchen you are ready to go. What goes into the compost bin? You can compost just about anything from your kitchen: vegetable peels, stale bread, nut shells, fruit pits, coffee grounds, tea leaves, pasta, egg shells, cooked meats, etc. Do not put raw meat, liquids, or cooking oils in your bin. In Morgan Hill, you can empty your compost bin into a paper bag or wrap in newspaper and then put in the big green compost bin supplied to us. You can place it at the curb each week. In as little as 60 days, the organic material is transformed into nutrient-rich compost and soil amendments that are ready to be used by farmers.

According to the Composting Council, if everyone in the United States composted all of their food waste, the impact would be equivalent to removing 7.8 million cars from the road. Another way to look at this is something I read on The Zero Waste Chef’s blog, “If food waste was a country, it would rank third in greenhouse gas emissions, behind only China and the U.S.” Start separating your food scraps and stop putting them in your trash can. This is a very easy thing for all of us to do and there is a huge pay off. Start today. Planet earth will thank you.