COMPOSTING FAQs

by Amy Henderson

Food scraps and yard waste all decompose over time, no matter whether they are in the town dump, in your back yard or in a composting facility. It is a natural process. The work of breaking down organic material is done by microorganisms (bacteria and fungi), worms, other small animals, snails, slugs, insects, spiders.

This process happens without help from humans, but human management speeds up the process. The human role is to choose the place, supply the materials, and add a little light labor. Nature takes care of the rest.

The MassDEP estimates of 25-26% of the average household waste stream, after recycling, consists of food scraps and other organic, compostable material.

by Amy Henderson

There are multiple benefits to composting, but the main two are:

Providing nutrients to the soil that enable the soil to store carbon, act as a sponge for water and grow healthy plants. Compost contains both nitrogen and phosphorous, two nutrients that are often obtained from synthetic fertilizers. One ton of compost saves 100 kg of CO2 from the production and use of synthetic nitrogen and phosphorous containing fertilizers. (BioCycle).

Diverting food waste from the trash stream prevents creation of methane (a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon) in the case of landfills or more carbon where municipal trash is burned in an incinerator. It is estimated that for every 1 ton of compost produced and used, 0.5 tons of CO2 can be sequestered in healthy soil. (BioCycle).

by Jim Bauer

Food waste accounts for 40% of total residential waste. By removing it from the waste stream, we accomplish three very important things:

We keep this waste from being taken to either a) a landfill where it sits for decades, all the while releasing methane gas, which is more damaging to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, or b) to a commercial trash incinerator where it is burned up, releasing carbon into the atmosphere.

We return 100% of food waste, with all of its nutrients, back to the soil so that it once again becomes more food and more carbon-sequestering plants. This farm-to-table-to-farm cycle is the only truly zero waste, “virtuous cycle” we have. Everything becomes useful and beneficial again. Nothing is lost.

We save the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in trash disposal “tipping fees”, which are based on the weight of the waste that is collected and disposed of. Instead of spending money on trash, we can spend it on education, roads, fire prevention, etc.

by Amy Henderson

The City of Beverly website lists three vendors which provide curbside pick up of household compost waste. Go here to view your options.

Black Earth Compost is one of the curbside compost pick up services available to Beverly residents and is the most widely used (almost 1400 Beverly households subscribe to their service). Picking up an average of 6.3 tons of Beverly compost/week, Black Earth Compost saves the City of Beverly money on trash fees. Those savings are passed back to the households in the form of a quarterly rebate of $5.00 on your water and sewer bill. Additionally, in the spring, participating households receive a coupon for a free bag of Black Earth Compost that can be redeemed at a local garden or hardware store.

by Jim Bauer

Visit the City of Beverly website to see what curbside options and incentives are currently available for residents.

Use a proper counter-top compost collection bin with a closing lid with air filters (2-3 gallon; search online for “countertop compost bins”).

Use small compostable bags to line the counter-top bin (available from Black Earth Compost, among other places; they look and feel like plastic, but they are not).

When the countertop bin is full, seal and transfer the filled liner bag to your large compost container with the locking lid

Keep your large compost bin on a back porch or in a garage if possible

Throw some newspaper/cardboard/old pizza boxes at the base of your bin to collect moisture

Put your compost out for collection EVERY WEEK, whether it is full or even just partially full.

by Jim Bauer

Many more things than anyone typically imagines. With curbside collection, you can compost everything from orange peels to animal hair, bacon fat to soiled pizza boxes, melon rinds to meat and bones, kale stems to paper bags, cooking grease to compostable plates and utensils. The list is long and impressive.

by Jim Bauer

We encourage people to use backyard composting if they have the proper setting for it. Using the curbside collection program, however, allows you to compost a much greater variety of things, and guarantees that 100% of your food waste will be properly composted by a professional composting facility. Backyard composting is terrific, and if you do it correctly, you will get all the results (finished compost) of your hard work. It does, however, have limitations and present challenges that not all people are ready or willing to meet.

There are many fewer organic things you can put into a backyard composting bin than can be composted by a professional facility (see the list of what can and cannot be composted, comparing backyard and professional composting).

Proper techniques must be used for backyard composting to actually work. It’s necessary to provide and maintain the right combinations and mixtures of organic material that provide the appropriate blend of carbon, nitrogen, water and oxygen.

This effort must continue through the winter, when proper maintenance and turning of the compost bin/pile is more difficult.

Preventing vermin from getting into your compost is an enormous challenge with no perfect solution. Neighbors may complain.

by Amy Henderson

Step 1: Designate a compost area in your yard and buy or build your compost bin: According to ecocycle.org, you will need an area in your yard that is approximately one cubic yard (3'x3'x3'). Size is important for the proper temperature. Piles that are too small cannot hold enough heat for effective microbial activity, and piles too large (more than 5 feet cubed) do not allow for enough air to reach microbes in the center of the pile.

Step 2: Add yard waste and food scraps and mix: Mix three parts “brown” (dry leaves, small twigs, straw, etc.) with one part “green” (grass clippings, kitchen scraps, etc.). Too much “brown” (carbon) and the decomposition will slow down. Too much “green” may cause unpleasant odors. If you plan on using your compost in a vegetable garden, try to avoid adding scraps that have herbicides, insecticides, or other unhealthy chemicals.

Step 3: Keep it damp: Water your compost to keep it moist like a wrung-out sponge.

Step 4: Keep it aerated: Compost needs air. Turning the compost will help it break down and will prevent it from smelling unpleasant.

Step 5: Use your compost: When it is ready your compost should look and smell like rich soil. Use finished compost to feed your garden, flowers, potted plants and lawn.

by Jim Bauer

If you find one bin is not enough for your weekly food waste, you can always purchase an additional bin. Black Earth Compost will pick up more than one bin at your address without any additional charge. The more compost, the better! It must, however, be your own food waste. This is not an opportunity for neighbors to “piggy-back” on your curbside collection account. They will need to establish their own curbside collection account.

by Amy Henderson

If you have a backyard compost area set up, there are certain food items you do not want to add to your compost (shells, bones, cooked food, meat, grease, peanut butter, dairy) because you will attract animals. If you use the green bin provided by Black Earth Compost and latch the lid properly, you should not have an issue with animals even when you add those items mentioned above. The green bins are of a much thicker, heavier plastic than the average garbage container and require strength and hand coordination to open.

The Beverly Waste Reduction Committee has only received 2 complaints about animals getting into the green bins in the 5+ years they have been used in Beverly to collect compost. That being said, sprinkling chili powder on the lid and/or using a lid lock utility strap (obtainable through Amazon) are recommendations from Black Earth Compost to deal with clever or determined critters.

by Amy Henderson

Setting aside a container to collect food scraps is no more gross than scraping those same food scraps into your garbage. Arguably, it is less “gross and smelly” because you are more likely to take your compost outside more often than you take out the trash. I personally use a compostable liner for my kitchen countertop bin and paper bags for my outside bin as I compost through the curbside program with Black Earth Compost (Black Earth Compost also sells liners for the outside bins). Generally, my countertop bin does not smell (however, I do take out fish skin and lobster shells same day), nor do I have a problem with fruit flies. Wrapping food scraps in newspaper (like a burrito) also works.

During the hottest summer months you may find that your outdoor bin starts to smell as some of the food scraps decompose. Black Earth Compost recommends always using a liner (paper bag or their compostable liners), rinsing your bin out after pick up and sprinkling a little bit of baking soda at the bottom. For foods with strong smells, you can always pop them in the freezer until collection day.

by Amy Henderson

I use my compost everywhere; I top up my raised vegetable beds and my husband adds it around his perennials. Black Earth Compost sells compost in bulk and will deliver as much compost to your house as you wish.

Also, new in Fall, 2021, Black Earth Compost is offering “sifted” compost to apply to lawns and around trees before putting your yard “to bed” before winter.

by Amy Henderson

Finished compost is like a rich brown chocolate cake. There shouldn’t be any large “unfinished” objects in it.

by Amy Henderson

Only yard waste is allowed at Standley Street. Food scraps are not permitted.

by Amy Henderson

When food and other organic material goes into municipal waste stream instead of being composted, we are missing out on an opportunity to recycle the nutrients in the food back into the soil.

Additionally, when food and other organic material decompose in a landfill, methane is created. Methane contributes to global warming and is 80x as potent as carbon dioxide over the first 20 years. If municipal trash heads off to the incinerator (as it does in Beverly), not only does Beverly have to pay to dispose of the extra tonnage (and food scraps are the heaviest percentage, by weight of the average household’s trash), but the incinerator is also contributing to global warming.