I’m thankful to have a wonderful professional nearby to help me with my own composting. Colleen Falicki is the owner and founder of Back to Earth Compost Crew, a Montgomery County, PA focused composting pick up company. I’ve been using them for years along with utilizing a compost area in my backyard. I’ve asked Colleen to share some benefits of composting since it’s always best to hear straight from the expert!
“Did you know that 30 – 40% of trash that goes to the landfill is compostable?
Great news is that we can change that. Composting is a great way to keep all of the organic waste out of the landfills and incinerators and it’s easy and accessible to all.
There are so many benefits to composting including keeping this valuable organic matter out of our landfills where it generates methane gas and instead creates a vital soil amendment called compost.
Thinking on a grander scale, finished compost when added to the land can sequester carbon, thus, reversing climate change.
We can all do our part to support a more sustainable future and composting is an easy way to get started.
If you’ve never composted before and you don’t have much outdoor space, there are ways to compost such as worm composting and bokashi. Also, a compost tumbler is a great way to compost outdoors on a patio or small outdoor space.
If you have some grass or a yard, there are many different options to create a composting area for a range of budgets.
Creating an open pallet system is a great way to compost in an area where there is a lot of space and pallets can be procured easily at no cost.
Also Geobin composters are very budget friendly, easy to put together and use.
If you’re just getting started and not sure what type of system to use, a curbside compost pickup service like Back to Earth compost crew makes it easy to put your food scraps in a bucket to be picked up every other week or dropped off to one of our compost collection sites.
Once it becomes a habit and regular household food scrap collection is on autopilot, then starting to compost at home might be right for you. We teach compost classes on a monthly basis and would be happy to help get your compost area set up and creating finished compost to use in your garden.
Happy composting!”
Colleen shared some simply tips to get started, no matter the size yard you have. One of many great tips I learned from attending her class is to mix food and “browns.” The browns are things like dead leaves, paper or twigs. I was visiting a friend earlier this summer and she complained her compost smelled, which it shouldn’t. I asked if she adds leaves or paper. She said no, only food scraps. That’s the reason it smells! Compost needs nitrogen, carbon, air and water to properly breakdown. If you’re doing too much of nitrogen or carbon, it will still break down, just not the most efficiently.
Connect with Back to Earth Compost Crew on social media for great tips and follow which farmers market they’ll be visiting!
Kelly's Healthy Home 
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