Ever since I was a little girl, I've had an almost freakish obsession with compost.  In fourth grade, I stuck a candy thermometer in our compost pile after school and diligently recorded the temperature for a science project. (I didn't win any prizes).  In college for a horticulture assignment, I gave a compost lesson in the form of a quasi strip tease: I took off brown clothes (representing carbon) and green clothes (representing nitrogen) in order to excite my classmates about the wonders of organic detritus.  (I got an A-).

(Space constraints abound in apartment dwellings; the author satisfies her composting fix by sharing containers, drilled with holes and filled with red worms, with neighbors in their back alley.)

With my Captain Compost cape in hand, I moved to Portland in 2005.  You can imagine my thrill when I discovered, “Wow!  These people compost!”  From my meanderings around town, here is what I have seen: Fork It Over!  – Metro’s food donation program.  Why do I mention a food donation program in a blog article on composting?  Because as cool as it is to make gold (rich dirt) out of garbage (organic matter), I am more interested in good resource management.  Food should primarily be eaten.  I really admire how Metro developed this Fork It Over! program (complete with a funky icon of a hand holding a fork) before they started developing the region’s composting program.  “It’s safe.  It’s simple.  It’s the right thing to do.”  (I took that from the Fork it Over! site).  Now, on to more composting resources. 

Let’s define what we’re talking about: When I say “composting,” I mean putting vegetative waste – veggie scraps (onion peels, carrot tops, egg shells, apple cores, etc), coffee grounds, ashes, leaves – in a consolidated space so the organic materials break down into nutrient-rich soil.  Alright.  Moving on.

Backyard Composting – I have seen the space-ship like black “Earth Machine” bins, available from $35 at the MetroPaint Retail Facility on Swan Island, 4825 N. Basin Ave.  I have heard mixed reviews of these bins.  Some folks like them because they are small, somewhat sleek, deter rodents, and fit their space.  Other friends have said they do not want a big hunk of plastic in their yard, and that it is hard to get the mature soil out of the bottom compartment.    These friends opted for a simple wire mesh wrapped around four stakes of wood pounded into the earth.

Vermi-Composting – since I don't have a yard, I share a 32-gallon tupperware container, with drain holes, with my apartment neighbors. The principles behind backyard composting are the same, only you add worms to facilitate the process.  Directions are here. 
Business Composting – Portland has a unique program called “Portland Composts!” (okay, so the name isn't so unique).  Anyhoo, businesses separate organic material (the regular vegetative waste and ALSO meat, fish, oils, food-soiled paper, and wax-coated cardboard – basically, anything except foil and plastic) which then, currently, gets sent to the Cedar Grove commercial composting facility.  I love going to my local burrito joint and seeing their green bins (food waste) next to their blue bins (paper, metal, plastic).  Recently, when I asked the lady that served me my burrito about the composting program, she excitedly exclaimed, “Oh, it’s awesome!  Our trash totally changed.  Before it was 80% garbage and 20% recycling.  Now, with the composting, it’s, like, 20% garbage.”  I nearly hugged her.

Residential Composting – For those that either do not have a back yard, or simply are not in the composting way, organic collection will likely be part of the curbside pickup in the future. 
Other information is available at:
 Complete Book of Composting, by J.I. Rodale  (For those that want to know EVERYTHING about composting; probably overkill for most.)
 The Toilet Papers: Recycling Waste and Conserving Water, by Slim Van Der Ryn (For those who want to do doo for their compost, too.  This book is hilarious.)
 Worms Eat My Garbage: How to Set Up and Maintain a Worm Composting System, by Mary Appelhof (Really good, small book with great illustrations.  Even gives directions on how to build a worm-bin coffee table.  Nice resource for urban dwellers.)


CONSTRAINTS -
It can be a smelly process – like when I created a mini-cesspool with my first version of my tupperware compost bin... and didn't drill any drain holes.  Ewww! 
Space constraints – It can be hard to find a spot, especially apartment dwellers.
 Overall – It can be kind of yucky.

BENEFITS -
You cannot completely mess up the composting process – it's organic.  Put it all together.  It will happen.
It reduces your trash significantly.  
It's neat to create your own little ecosystem with worms and grubs.
It can be a community effort.
If your food waste goes to the landfill, it creates methane, which is 21 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2.  If your food waste gets composted, you got it: no methane.  Here’s some more science behind it from the EPA in case you’re interested. 

(The neighbors add fresh material to two of the bins and let the final bin mature, shown above.)

Organically yours,

Meredith