Digging into Composting

Eastham library visitors get literal feel for home composting at Eastham Climate Action & Recycling Committee workshop.

"If food waste were a county, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, after the United States and China ... we can't get to our net zero targets 2050 without addressing food waste..."

- Olav Hegland

Eastham Climate Action Committee

What is home composting?

Home composting offers a "Do It Yourself" approach to managing food waste. While it might seem intimidating at first, the Eastham Climate Action Committee's workshop showed a variety of options that make it straightforward to compost at home.  These include basic methods like open-pile bins, and vemriculture as well as purchased system like electric composting.

Why does composting matter?

Eastham Climate Action Committee member Olev Hegland says as much as 30 percent of the waste stream contains food, and that and this food waste produces methane gas which is simnifically more potent as a greenhouse gas than C02. Composting removes food from the waste stream, thus preventing it from producing methane gas.  At the same time it also creates a nutrient rich end product for the soil.

What other composting options are available?

If people cannot compost at home, the Town of Eastham now offers drop off composting at the transfer station. Food waste goes into a separate bin and ends up at a Commerical off-Cape composting facility. While this doesn't produce local soil nutrients, it does remove food from the waste stream and methane gas from the waste cycle.