Composting is a natural and eco-friendly method to recycle organic waste. Not only does it lower landfill waste and greenhouse gas emissions, but it can also boost soil quality by adding nutrients that allow water to penetrate more readily into the ground.

Food scraps, leaves, and grass clippings combined make an excellent plant food source! The key to this endeavor is achieving a balance between browns (dry carbon-rich materials) and greens.

1. What Can I Compost?

Composting is nature’s way of recycling organic materials into valuable soil amendments, turning waste into something beneficial to gardens, lawns, and crops. Composting involves mixing wet green waste (nitrogen-rich) with dry brown waste (carbon-rich). Over time, worms and microorganisms decompose this material, turning it into humus – providing gardens, lawns and crops with an organic fertilizer that improves texture, and aeration, reduces water runoff rates, and helps control weeds while providing essential soil nutrients.

Home composting is an effective way to reduce unnecessary waste while harnessing an invaluable resource. Lake County offers residents curbside collection of food scraps and leaf waste from residences in many communities such as North Chicago, Wilmette Village, and Palatine Township, with SWALCO offering compost stations available for rental by community groups in support of large gatherings; thus contributing to Lake County’s new initiative Recycle First Trash Last.

Start a backyard compost pile by placing several inches of chopped brush and other organic debris on the ground as a base for the pile. Next, alternate layers of green waste and brown matter until all available space has been filled up with green material; ensure an assortment of items in each layer – with more concentrated green matter at its center for better decomposition. Water and air must also be present for proper decomposition to occur effectively so turn your pile regularly for best results.

2. Where Can I Compost?

Composting at home typically involves creating a pile in their backyard or garden and placing an airtight bin over it for easy collection of compost material. It is recommended to purchase such bins from gardening stores or outdoor home stores, especially during wet weather when temperatures can increase to create potential animal and rodent odor issues in your pile.

An easy way to compost is at a community garden or market. Simply look out for large black containers containing vegetable scraps and walk up to them – drop in your food waste as you approach! Be sure to say hi and thank any volunteer(s) involved with making this compost site possible!

Check out our interactive map to quickly locate community composting sites in Lake County. This map was provided courtesy of DEC and last updated in 2019.

After your compost process, your final result should be an organic soil-like material suitable for garden beds and potted plants. Compost is an excellent natural fertilizer, improving soil texture while simultaneously increasing water absorption and retention capabilities. Furthermore, compost offers an eco-friendly alternative to landfills.

3. How Can I Compost?

At its core, composting involves layering wet organic material in a pile and waiting for microorganisms to break it down over time into humus. Modern composting involves more sophisticated processes involving alternate layers of high nitrogen (green) and high carbon (brown) materials to enhance decomposition faster, shredding large items for a quicker decomposition rate, adding water regularly as well as turning over the pile regularly to ensure proper airflow and ensure proper aeration.

Composting reduces the volume of organic waste that ends up in landfills while helping maintain healthy soils that increase food production, prevent erosion, and lower chemical fertilizer use. Compost also saves water while helping control weed growth – saving water usage as well as controlling weeds!

If you are unable to compost outdoors, an alternative solution exists in the form of indoor vermicomposting using only four items: a bin, bedding, red wigglers, and food scraps. Once contained inside a bin for indoor vermicomposting a worm bin can be created that uses red wigglers as vermicomposters that break down organic matter while producing castings used as soil amendments – this form of composting is known as “worm gardening”.

“Recycle First. Trash Last,” is the county’s new recycling campaign and encourages people to view recyclable materials as resources rather than trash, which will help increase recycling levels while decreasing landfill volumes.

4. What Can I Put in My Compost?

Compost is nature’s way of recycling, and one of the most powerful actions we can take to reduce landfill trash, address climate change, and promote healthy soil. Compost saves food scraps from ending up in landfills where they take up limited space while emitting greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide during decomposition, giving them new life to nourish gardens, vegetable, and fruit crops.

A properly constructed compost pile involves mixing brown and green materials such as leaves, paper, branches, and twigs with dry grass clippings and kitchen scraps. A general guideline suggests using two to three times as much brown material than green in your pile, covering scraps with four to eight inches of browns such as dry leaves to provide decomposers with the carbon fuel they need, while also helping reduce odor.

Avoid adding meat, fats (including butter and oil), dairy, or animal droppings to your compost because these ingredients tend to attract pests and diseases that won’t break down quickly in a small backyard compost bin. It is also best to leave out diseased plants, pet poop/urine (unless your cat/dog goes outside), perennial weeds with seeds still attached, or any species considered invasive species.

Composting isn’t an exact science, so results may differ depending on the size and location of your pile, how often you turn and aerate it, etc. Assuming you use enough materials that combine properly to form compost in about six months, it will have the texture and aroma of dark, rich soil.