Cooking: Kitchen composting the key to being green

Omaha is in no way the most environmentally friendly city in America. That would be Honolulu, HI. Omaha is, in fact, the 75th “greenest city” in America, according to WalletHub. What are we lacking? Green lifestyle choices such as composting.  

Omaha waste management does not have a built-in composting system. The city is not going to send trucks to pick up your food scraps and compost them into a usable product.  

This is a reality in many other cities. In Denver, Colo., for example, you can put any food scraps you have in a special bin just like you would with any other waste. The bins will be picked up and emptied by the city and turned into mulch that you can buy back for next to nothing.  

Unless you’re willing to move to Colorado or Oregon for this service, you should probably try to do some composting on your own. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports that 20% of what goes into landfills is food waste. Despite this high percentage, it’s very easy to compost on your own.  

There are all kinds of expensive compost bins you can buy, but they’re really a waste of money. All you need is an empty space outside, like the corner of your backyard, along with a light, washable bin, preferably with a lid, to keep inside.  

During the day, put produce scraps, coffee grounds and egg shells in the indoor bin. At least once a day, go outside and empty the bin into the assigned space in your yard. You can also put branches, grass clippings and fallen leaves in the compost pile, though these things can be picked up like any other trash. Mix up the pile a few times a year so the newly added ruffage at the top can be more easily accessed by worms and other decomposers closer to the soil.  

In a few months, the freshly turned compost should be ready for use. Use it as fertilizer by placing it in garden beds, around trees and in vegetable patches. Not only will you be helping your plants, but you’ll be helping the environment. 

Anything that you can keep from going into landfills is a positive. We’re told often to recycle plastics and metals, and, while that’s sound advice, recycling food scraps is often overlooked. It is still recycling, after all; used food scraps get recycled into usable gardening material.  

The planet is in decay. We all know this. Home composting is a simple thing that can make a large impact on your household’s carbon footprint. Not everyone can be vegan or zero-waste, but most can spare some space to let unused food decompose naturally and give their nutrients back to the Earth.