Compost Learnings

I’ve posted before about my home composting experience, but I’ve learned a few more tricks since then and thought I’d share.  I know the main thing people worry about is smell and pests, and that can be a challenge if you don’t manage the pile right.  But I’ve learned some easy tricks that keep things smooth, sweet-smelling, and pest free.

1. If you’re just throwing kitchen scraps in a pile and not adding a significant amount of “browns”, it will quickly become a slimy stinky mess that emits methane just as badly as sending your waste to a landfill! For a few years, I struggled to find the right source of browns, which are drier, carbon-rich materials like shredded paper and fallen leaves.  Finally, I found my source!  Shredded paper grocery bags!  I started feeding these through my home paper shredder rather than recycling them, and now I never lack for enough browns to keep my compost pile smelling like the forest floor.  I also run the lawnmower over some of my fall leaves to create another source of browns for the winter, which I keep in a contractor bag by the compost bin.

2. Fruit fly traps – Ideally I’d empty my countertop compost bin outside on a daily basis, but… life.  And while I’ve never had an issue with more serious bugs, fruit flies love a pile of banana peels that have been sitting on the counter for a few days.  The carbon filter on my container prevent any smell, but the fruit flies did get annoying.  I tried a few different approaches to controlling them (fly paper was gross and didn’t work) and finally found these simple homemade fruit fly traps worked like a charm.  You just put a little apple cider vinegar and a drop of dish soap in a mason jar, and poke some holes in the lid with a nail.  I put two in discrete spots in my kitchen, and have rarely seen a fruit fly since.  You can find instructions and photos for making these traps here: https://www.thespruce.com/get-rid-of-fruit-flies-1388144 .

Really, I never understood why people blame composting for stink and smells – if I wasn’t puting my kitchen scraps in the compost, they’d just be stinking up my garbage and forcing me to take it outside more often, and the coyotes and racoons are just as happy to tear apart my trash bag looking for food as they are to tear open my compost bin.  I find that this way it’s much easier to manage the smells when I keep the organic materials separate.

Also, did you know that your household trash is incinerated in MA, not put in a landfill?  (See https://www.mass.gov/guides/municipal-waste-combustors) . While they do generate some electricity from this process, MA’s climate plan calls for municipal solid waste disposal to be reduced by 90% by 2050.  Composting plays a huge role in this, so by composting you are doing your part for the climate!