Compost, Get the Dirt
While composting continues to grow in Madison, get up to date on what items are biodegradable
By Kate Slattery Photos by Tyler VanFossen Print Design by Tanae Swenson
With all of the green initiatives present today, the task of mitigating climate change can seem overwhelming; yet it is every day actions one makes that can make the biggest impact in conservation. When throwing away waste it is a natural reaction to toss everything into a garbage bin, but it is this small act that leads to 250 million tons of trash to be thrown away each year in the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. This amount of waste could form a line of filled garbage trucks that reaches the moon; fortunately there are two simple solutions to this problem: to minimize the amount of waste one generates and to choose composting or recycling over the trash. More than 40 percent of the food in the United States is thrown away according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, which makes Americans 10 times more wasteful than a person from Southeast Asia. When waste is necessary, choosing to compost or recycle when it is permissible boasts a list of enticing benefits. The information below highlights what can and cannot be composted, how to compost and why one should start composting.
How to Compost at Home:
The easiest way to begin composting if you live in the Madison area is to collect compostable materials in a sealed container and drop off the materials at one of the sites below every week. To keep your home compost bin clean use a paper bag liner, which can be composted with your food scraps. An alternate option is to create your own composting bin to place outside; visit the Popular Mechanics website for an easy way to construct your own rotating compost bin.
