Urban composting is easy and beneficial to the planet.
My urban composting journey began with a couple of clicks in August 2019. Since then, I’ve enjoyed weekly pickups and feel I am making a positive change for the planet. Learn more about how easy urban composting can be, even in small spaces.
In the United States, approximately 100 million tons of food waste are generated each year. When left to rot in landfills, food waste produces methane, a gas that is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. It seems senseless to throw compostables into the trash when nature can regenerate the waste into soil nutrients.
While I make a conscious effort to buy only what we need, our household still produces food waste. In 2019, I began wondering how I could repurpose my food scraps while while living in a city apartment.
One day while I was searching the internet, Compostnow.org popped up. My excitement grew as I explored their website and realized that they are a composting service for homes, offices, and food services in my home city of Atlanta, Georgia.
After almost 2 years of composting, it has become a part of my lifestyle.
A little container by the sink is where I collect food scraps throughout the day. This makes it easy to collect without continuously bending down. At the end of the day, I dump it into the Compostnow container that easily fits under the kitchen sink. Once a week, I grab the handle and take it to our building garbage room. Compostnow picks it up, leaves a clean container, and takes care of the rest!
In addition to reducing CO2 and landfills, I love that I can donate my compost to a local farm, garden, or park.
The Compostnow site is easy to use and shares stats on my impact (see my stats below). If you are going to be out of town, simply indicate a skip on the site and they will not pick up until you are back. There is also a large list of farms, gardens, and parks that have registered to receive composting. Select one or more and share your compositing. If you have a garden, the compost will be delivered back to you!
Since starting in August of 2019, my 573 pounds of food scraps have been transformed into 287 pounds of compost.
Every month, I am able to divert about 27 pounds of food waste from a landfill. Every little bit helps and it is a pleasure to be a part of nature’s cycle.
Compostnow is a great service to have in the neighborhood. We love seeing their vans pass by and their growing presence in Atlanta.
If you are interested in composting, consider DYI options, paid services such as Compostnow, or seek out community-provided composting services (i.e., San Francisco). Search for local composting services near you.
Please let us know about your composting experiences in the OPL Community tab of our app. We would love to hear from you!
This experience was shared by OPL Founder and Wayfinder Lorie Buckingham.
Learn more about Lorie.
