Backyard Composting

I was on pinterest and a composting pin caught my eye. The pin redirected me to Someday I'll Learn. They talked about composting and how easy it was. I started to think about how much trash we throw out for just two people. We do the recycling thing but I thought we could do better.

I googled "composting chemung county" and was immediately directed to Chemung County's Composting Program. Crazy! Who knew? I read through everything that they said about composting and their program. I couldn't believe everything that you can compost. Here's the list of items that can and can't be composted.  It looked pretty easy but it was going to take additional effort on our part. We could do it. I had looked at the bins we could get from Chemung county and fortunately, they were only $50. The actually retail for $199. I figure that's a pretty good deal. Next step, convince Tony. This was actually much easier than I thought. I sent him a "Wanna try?" e-mail and he said sure. Easy peasy.

A couple weeks ago, Tony set up the composter near the house but hidden from a main line of site. I had to get a countertop compost container.  I wanted something that we could throw food scraps for a week then take them out to the compost bin.  At first, I was planning on getting the OXO Good Grips Compost Bin mainly because Shelley works for OXO.  Unfortunately, I didn't like how it didn't snap shut.  I was worried about bugs and the smell.  I ultimately settled on the Oggi Stainless Steel Composter.  I liked the way the top nestled into the base and the filter.

Here's what I do when I take our kitchen scraps and add them to the outdoor composter.

Step 1: Add some "brown" from the above list.  For me, It's leaves.

Step 2: Add the "green" from the above list.  This is our kitchen scraps.

Step 3: Cover the "green" with "brown."

So far, there is no smell, no bugs, nothing.  It's really nice.

Do you compost?