The food waste composting program at the Transfer Station is so easy to use. I love it.

What I really like about this program is that most food is accepted - not just produce. I also have a backyard composter, but the program at the transfer station takes the items I can’t put in my backyard like meat, fish, bones, eggs, dairy (no liquids) & cooked foods/baked goods. It’s great for turkey carcasses and corn cobs!

I use the pail with a special sealing lid and a kitchen scrap bucket that is available from Wills Hardware. I line the scrap bucket with biodegradable liners, also available at Wills. I keep the scrap bucket on my kitchen counter and when it is full, I transfer it to the pail in the garage. It doesn’t smell since I move it to the pail before it starts to. In the summer, I put the bags of scraps in the freezer instead of in the pail which keeps everything fresher. When I take my trash to the Transfer Station, I bring the pail and empty it in one of the barrels to the right of the tip floor/blue building. You can use whatever works for you…just don’t put anything but food and the biodegradable liners in the bins. (ex. If you bring your food scraps in a plastic bag or container, dump them out…never leave anything but food and the biodegradable liners)

I like knowing I am helping the environment by separating my food waste for this program. The food waste is picked up weekly and then turned into soil at farms OR taken to a facility where it is processed anaerobically and used for energy.

I just started composting this summer. I put it off for many years because of various personal factors (moving, no counter space, no compost bin, etc.) but mainly because it sounded so complicated and I had no idea what I was doing! After listening to Stephanie Seferian's podcast, Sustainable Minimalists, I gained the confidence to JUST DO IT. In episode 81: Composting for Beginners at Home, Stephanie and her guest promote products for helping to minimize kitchen smells and speed up the process of composting. However, to keep myself from buying new, I just started my own compost pile in the wooded section of my backyard. I put my produce scraps, coffee grounds, and eggshells in a lidded take-out container (extra points for reusing a non-recyclable plastic item!) and take it out to my compost pile (mixed with leaves, grass clippings and lots of worms) on a regular basis. That helps to keep the smell out of my kitchen and my trash. It also helps to keep organic materials from being incinerated, which releases harmful chemicals and pollutants into the atmosphere.