<div class="Section1">
<h3>Purpose<span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">The purpose of this procedure is </span>to reduce the amount of organic waste you put out on trash day by composting it along with most of your yard waste. Composting is easy, takes very little time, can be done year-round does not smell bad! You can even compost indoors and in small spaces. There are many benefits of composting to you and your community:</p>
<ul type="disc" style="margin-top: 0in;">
    <li style="" class="MsoNormal">Composting reduces the amount of waste going to landfills and incinerators. This reduces pollution and energy use associated with hauling trash, as well as the pollution and greenhouse gases emitted from landfills<a title="" name="_ftnref1" href="#_ftn1" style=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a> and incinerators<a title="" name="_ftnref2" href="#_ftn2" style=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[2]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.</li>
    <li style="" class="MsoNormal">Composting produces a high-quality, natural soil amendment for your garden. Compost improves soil structure, texture, and aeration and helps with moisture retention, among other benefits.</li>
    <li style="" class="MsoNormal">Most communities are charged by the ton for curbside trash removal. Composting will save your town money that it can use for other purposes.</li>
</ul>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: blue;"><strong>This Nugget is worth 2 points for every pound you compost.<a title="" name="_ftnref3" href="#_ftn3" style=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[3]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a></strong></span></p>
<h3>Fast Facts</h3>
<span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none;"> </span></span>
<ul>
    <li><span style="color: black;">In 2006 only 2.2% of food scraps were composted &ndash; 0.7 million tons out of 31 million tons generated.</span></li>
    <li>Many towns subsidize compost bins, making them a great deal. Apart from the bin and a pitch fork, you don&rsquo;t need any special equipment.</li>
    <li>Many towns subsidize compost bins, making them a great deal. Apart from the bin and a pitch fork, you don&rsquo;t need any special equipment.</li>
    <li><span style="color: black;">You can compost year-round.</span></li>
    <li><span style="color: black;">It&rsquo;s easy, takes very little time, and does <em>not</em></span><span style="color: black;"> smell bad!</span></li>
    <li>You can even compost indoors and in small spaces.</li>
    <li><span style="color: black;">About 30% of household waste can be composted.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
    <li><span style="color: black;">When the compost is &ldquo;fully cooked&rdquo; it looks and feels like rich soil.</span></li>
</ul>
<!--[if !supportLists]--><!--[endif]--><!--[if !supportLists]--><!--[endif]--><!--[if !supportLists]--><!--[endif]--><!--[if !supportLists]--><!--[endif]--><!--[if !supportLists]--><!--[endif]--><!--[if !supportLists]--><!--[endif]--><!--[if !supportLists]--><!--[endif]-->
<h3>What to Do<o:p></o:p></h3>
<ol type="1" start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;">
    <li style="" class="MsoNormal">Buy a compost bin. The easiest and cheapest option is to buy one through your public works department (see <em>Contacts</em><span style="font-style: normal;"> below). If you want to build your own or buy something fancier you can &ndash; see the links below in </span><em>More Info</em><span style="font-style: normal;">.<strong><o:p></o:p></strong></span></li>
    <li style="" class="MsoNormal">Set up your composter in a suitable location in your yard. Choose a spot that is easily accessible, even in the wintertime. A sunny spot will help speed the decomposition process.</li>
    <li style="" class="MsoNormal">Keep a small container in your kitchen to save food scraps in. An old Tupperware container or bowl on the counter works well, as does a small garbage can with a plastic liner and lid. There are some fancy (and pricey) scrap buckets available, but it is completely unnecessary to buy anything special for this purpose.</li>
    <li style="" class="MsoNormal">Start saving and dumping! If you have some old dried leaves lying around, put some in to form a bottom layer. See <em>Composting Tips </em><span style="font-style: normal;">and </span><em>More Info</em><span style="font-style: normal;"> below for details on how to get the compost pile started and how to keep it going.</span></li>
    <li style="" class="MsoNormal">
    <p><a style="">Weigh your compost for 1 WEEK and log the results in your      Nugget Tracking worksheet (online at Google Docs). Commit to composting      for 3 MONTHS and you'll get credit with NO further tracking. Recommit to      composting by tracking 1 WEEK per QUARTER for maximum points. <o:p></o:p></a></p>
    </li>
</ol>
<!--[if !supportAnnotations]-->
<h3>My View</h3>
<p class="MsoNormal">Don&rsquo;t worry about getting composting &ldquo;right.&rdquo; While there are entire books written about composting &ndash; and some websites can make it seem very complicated &ndash; there are actually very few hard-and-fast rules. I turn my pile once or twice a week with a pitchfork, and otherwise don&rsquo;t do much else. Other people mostly ignore their compost piles, but will occasionally jab at it with a pitchfork, especially after dumping in a lot of grass clippings (which can start to stink if it gets clumped together and doesn&rsquo;t dry out within a few days). This makes the pile take a little longer to compost than a perfectly maintained heap, but it&rsquo;s quick, easy, and it works.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Over time you will figure out what works for you and how to maintain a healthy compost pile. Also, don&rsquo;t feel guilty if you still toss some food waste in the trash or send it down the garbage disposal. You are unlikely to achieve a 100% composting rate, but you should be able to compost MOST of your kitchen waste with ease.</p>
<p>Imagine a pile of 6,000 banana peels. That is my estimate of how many we have composted over the past ten years, along with thousands of apples cores, watermelon rinds, cucumber skins, coffee grinds, and most of our other kitchen scraps. All of this waste has been diverted from the curbside. In return we get beautiful compost for our garden. <em>Ryan from Arlington, MA</em></p>
<h3>Composting Tips<o:p></o:p></h3>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black;">There is a wealth of information about composting on the internet. This set of tips is not meant to be comprehensive but serves to get you started. See <em>More Info</em></span><span style="color: black;"> below for additional resources.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<ul type="disc" style="margin-top: 0in;">
    <li style="" class="MsoNormal">In general, you don't want your pile to be too wet or too dry. Consider saving some dry leaves in the fall and keeping them in a covered trash can so you can add them to the compost if it gets too wet. If it seems very dry, you can hose it down a bit.</li>
    <li style="" class="MsoNormal">Compost needs oxygen to work. If you do not have a rotary or tumbling composter, periodically turn the pile with a pitchfork or compost aerating tool.</li>
    <li style="" class="MsoNormal">If you chop up your compost material, it will speed the decomposition process. Larger twigs/branches (larger than &frac12;-inch diameter) can take a long time to break down. These are best put out with your curbside yard waste.</li>
    <li style="" class="MsoNormal">It is good to have a mixture of green (nitrogen-rich) and brown (carbon-rich) materials in your composter.
    <ul type="circle" style="margin-top: 0in;">
        <li style="" class="MsoNormal">Brown stuff: leaves, napkins, paper towel, woodchips, sawdust (not from chemically-treated or painted wood), corn stalks, waste paper</li>
        <li style="" class="MsoNormal">Green stuff: food waste, grass clippings, coffee grounds, egg shells<o:p></o:p></li>
    </ul>
    </li>
    <li style="" class="MsoNormal">Certain materials SHOULD NOT be composted, including meat, bones, fish, fats, dairy products, coal ash (wood ash is safe), colored paper, diseased plants, inorganic materials, pressure-treated lumber, pet droppings, and synthetic chemicals such as herbicides and pesticides. Also, weeds that have gone to seed are best left out of your composter.</li>
    <li style="" class="MsoNormal">Composting can be elevated to the realm of science and art! If you are so inclined, you'll find plenty of resources online to continue your learning. The main benefit of being more exact in your compost &quot;recipe&quot; and practices is your compost will turn to rich soil much faster. This is quite handy if you have a small compost bin and need your heap to shrink quickly to make room for new waste, or if you are an avid gardener and don't want to wait too long for the finished product. One of the easiest ways to speed composting is to aerate the pile by turning it once or twice a week.</li>
</ul>
<h3>More Info<o:p></o:p></h3>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://vegweb.com/composting/">http://vegweb.com/composting/</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.compostguide.com/">http://www.compostguide.com/</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.composting101.com/">http://www.composting101.com/</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.recyclenow.org/r_composting.html">http://www.recyclenow.org/r_composting.html</a></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;" class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]-->&nbsp;<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p>
<h3>Contacts<o:p></o:p></h3>
<ul type="disc" style="margin-top: 0in;">
    <li style="" class="MsoNormal"><strong>Arlington</strong><span style="font-weight: normal;">: Department of Public Works &ndash; 781-316-3108</span></li>
    <li style="" class="MsoNormal"><strong>Cambridge</strong><span style="font-weight: normal;">: Randi Mail, Recycling Director &ndash; <a href="mailto:rmail@cambridgema.gov">rmail@cambridgema.gov</a>, 617-349-4879 x5</span></li>
    <li style="color: black;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: windowtext;"><strong>Medford</strong></span><span style="color: windowtext;">: Department of Public Works &ndash; 781-393-2419</span><o:p></o:p></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div style=""><hr width="33%" size="1" align="left" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a title="" name="_ftn1" href="#_ftnref1" style=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="">&nbsp; </span>In a landfill, organic material is broken down over a period of years by anaerobic micro-organisms, which produce a mixture of gases that is roughly 50% methane and 50% carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>). In a composter, organic material is broken down by aerobic micro-organisms, which do not produce methane. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas &ndash; one pound of methane has about 23 times the global warming impact as one pound of carbon dioxide.</p>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="">
<p class="MsoNormal"><a title="" name="_ftn2" href="#_ftnref2" style=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[2]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <span style="">Trash from Cambridge is sent to the Waste Management Transfer Station in Somerville. Waste Management sends about 20% of this trash to incinerators and about 80% to landfills. The garbage incinerators are located in Saugus and Millbury. The landfills are in Chicopee, Grandby, Fitchburg, Gardner, and Barre as well as Rochester, NH. In Arlington, trash is collected by Waste Management, Inc. and brought to the Wheelebrator incinerator in North Andover.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn3" style="">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a title="" name="_ftn3" href="#_ftnref3" style=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style=""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[3]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a> There is large uncertainty over the net greenhouse gas benefits of composting, and the actual benefit will vary depending on how much food waste you produce, the alternative waste disposal method, and other factors. This estimate is a rough estimate for food waste only assuming that you already participate in your community's curbside yard waste program</p>
</div>
</div>
<div style="">
<div style="">&nbsp;</div>
</div>