For those interested in food production, be it home gardening or farming, you’re bound to hear about soil. In nature, soil is created when what was once living returns to the earth, decomposes, and adds its nutrients back into the earth. This cycle is interrupted by modern-day living, which removes our organic materials, tosses them in a mix of styrofoam containers and plastic garbage bags, and places them in a landfill, where an anaerobic environment causes greenhouse gases and other pollutants to emit pollution into our soil, earth, and air. “Food waste in landfills is 58% of the methane output,” explains Andy Rozendaal of Michigan’s Eighth Day Farm. “To put it in [a food waste] perspective, 3.4 million acres of land, which is one-third the total agricultural land used to grow food, is wasted.”
“We cannot continue with the system of throwing things away and not caring about the end [result].”
Luis Chen, Wormies Vermicompost
But it doesn’t have to be this way; for those interested in cutting out their personal contribution to food waste, there is a solution. Composting is the act of taking banana peels, coffee grounds, and other organic waste and creating a soil amendment that enriches gardens, fields, and more. Luckily for those in West Michigan, residential composting services take the dirty work of turning your trash into treasure.
West Michigan Residential Composting Services
For those in Holland, urban regenerative growers Eighth Day Farm allow home kitchens to fill five-gallon buckets with food scraps created by making meals (perhaps with produce from one of their CSA shares). Organicycle, now primarily a commercial compost operation, still keeps residential services available within Grand Rapids city limits, and assists municipalities with food scrap dropoff sites, such as East Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, and Ottawa County.
Wormie’s Vermicompost, based in Kent County, has discovered that the business of compost is sustainable on more than one front. Starting in a hatchback car in 2017, this operation gained its first 20 customers in one week, which quickly ballooned to 150 households and 25 businesses. Now, they operate in several West Michigan townships, as well as offering drop-off services at two Grand Rapids urban farms. Their vermicompost utilizes the help of worms to create a finished compost in 12-14 months, some of which is returned to their customers every 8 pickups.
How to Start a Home Compost Routine
Step one is to sign up for a composting service. Step two? Incorporate this new habit into the home kitchen routine. That usually entails keeping a compost container in the kitchen, where food waste is easily accessible. Households will then add their trimmings, eggshells, coffee grounds, and old leftovers to this container. Then, many will keep their larger bucket from their composting service in the garage, away from both noses and pests. The composting service comes to collect on the pre-arranged schedule.
“Like all behavior-changing habits, don’t go all in on the initial start-up,” says Organicycle General Manager Dan Tietema. “Start out small. Learn what products are compostable and what are not, and then work your way up.” This means that, at a minimum, learn what your composting service takes. Wormie’s doesn’t take compostable containers simply because of the manpower needed to ensure that all containers received are actually biodegradable. Sticking to food scraps makes their operation possible.
Waste Not, Wherever You Are
For those outside of these West Michigan service areas, it’s still possible to become a composter. Composting can happen in small operations in backyards, and libraries and public gardens often host classes to learn the basics. In fact, Rozendaal suggests that this way is even better for the environment because there isn’t a big truck scheduled to drive to your location to collect.
To learn more about the personal makeup of food and other waste in individual households, Rozendaal has a great idea. “I would recommend a family do a trash audit. For a set period of time, take the garbage on a tarp on the garage floor and evaluate what is getting thrown away,” he suggests. “Is the item recyclable? Can it be composted? Are there items or packaging that can be eliminated through purchasing food a different way (like at your local farmers market)? As you learn about your trash, you might be surprised at how little needs to go to the landfill.”
Ready to get started? To find a compost service near you, use our Find Food and Farms Directory!