Composting in the City? Yes, You Can!
written by Laura Sears
on 05/18/2011
By Laura Sears
metrocurean contributor, lb's good spoon
Moving to the DC area, I was sad to be leaving behind my compost bin and concealed pile in my backyard. Not only is it an excellent way to reduce the amount of garbage you throw away, but composting turns your organic food scraps into a rich soil source for your garden.
You can imagine my delight then when I learned about Compost Cab, an easy, effective and clean way for you to compost even when you live in the city, often times with no yard.
Compost Cab provides you with a rat-resistant and odor-free bin, picks up your organics weekly, and turns your food scraps into fertile compost. If you do have a patch of green and are a residential subscriber for nine months, you can get a percentage of the weight of what you've contributed returned as rich compost.
If you live inside the Beltway in DC or Maryland, the weekly pickup fee is $8. If you're able to get to the Dupont Circle FreshFarm Market, you can drop off your compost there for just $2. Other drop-off locations will be popping up so keep your ears out for those. Compost Cab operates year round and as founder Jeremy Brosowsky says, "Compost waits for no one!"
Brosowsky also commented that they are "building a business around the idea that composting is not just about waste reduction — it's about food production! I think we can all agree that while farm-to-table is good, farm-to-table-to-farm is better, and that's what we're focused on."
I'm sold, are you?
Laura Sears is a personal chef, cooking instructor and food writer following her love of cooking and writing after a career in various business jobs. Born and raised in Ohio, she is both molded by those roots and the ones she grew as an early adult in Santa Barbara, Calif. Her love for local, seasonal food blossomed there as did her desire to garden each opportunity she got.
Living in DC has been a recent change though she is encouraged by the number of farmers markets and local suppliers of meat and dairy. You can follow her on her personal blog LB's Good Spoon that was created in 2008 after several friends kept asking her what she had cooked up recently!
Comments
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You're sold? I'm hesitant to pay someone else $32 a month to haul away my kitchen scraps. In my aunt's neighborhood in California (noting of course that we are nowhere near as enviro-friendly as CA) the county dropped off compost bins, picks up the contents for you, and allows you to go pick up a few cubic feet of fresh compost for soil every Spring for free. It seems a bit farfetched that many people will agree to pay that much money for a service with no direct consumer benefit.
5/18/2011 2:46:00 PM EDT
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Hopefully we'll all soon be up to CA enviro-friendly standards. Some places still don't have recycling offered to their city! We can hope for more services like these that could maybe even someday link with cities and counties nationwide at no cost to the participant!
5/19/2011 6:12:50 PM EDT
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I understand not everyone may be keen on the idea of paying to compost, but I've loved having the service.
For me, the benefit is throwing out far less trash, getting back some soil soon for my garden, and the peace of mind that I'm not sealing up things that would naturally break down in plastic bags to sit in a landfill for ages. Not having to manage my own pile in a city backyard (with plenty of rodents) is a huge win - worth the fee for me. Maybe one day DC will offer curbside compost!
5/20/2011 9:45:30 AM EDT
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