Urban Composting is Possible!

What if you knew urban composting is easy and rewarding to you and the planet?

My composting journey began with a couple of clicks in August 2019. It has been easy with a weekly pickup and is perfect for small spaces.

In the United States approximately 100 million tons of food waste are generated each year. Food waste seems senseless when nature has such a great way to regenerate the waste into nutrients for the soil. While I make a conscious effort to buy only what we need, there is always food waste. How could I change this while living in a city apartment? There did not seem to be good composting options.

One day 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, or food services in my home city, 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.org picks it up, leaves a clean container, and takes care of the rest!

In addition to reducing CO2 and landfills, we love that we can donate our compost to a local farm, garden, or park.

The compostnow.org site is easy to use and shares stats on progress (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 to you!

Since starting in August of 2019, my 573 pounds of food scraps have been transformed into 287 pounds of compost.

Every month my 27 pounds of food waste is diverted from the landfill. Every little bit helps and it is a pleasure to be a part of nature’s cycle.

Compostnow.org is a good 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, you can consider DYI options, paid services such as Compostnow.org, or some communities provide composting services (i.e., San Francisco). Check out our OPL insight on Composting in a City Near You to get some information on where to compost in your area.

Please let us know about your composting experiences!