How to Make Compost from Kitchen Waste

Food waste is one of the biggest problems in the U.S. and you can start doing something about it today. Repurposing food into tasty nutrients for plants is easy with a little bit of preparation. If you don’t know how to make compost from kitchen waste, it’s easy to adopt in your food routines. Reduce your carbon footprint now and get started on your composting journey.

What Is Compost?

Composting is like recycling but for organic matter. Conventional recycling processes take materials like aluminum, break them down, and transform them into something new. The goal is to extend the usefulness of these materials, reduce lifelong carbon footprints, and gain more appreciation for what humans extract from the Earth.

Gardening and agriculture take a lot from the planet despite it being a natural process. Growing enough food for the people around saps nutrients from the soil, especially when dangerous workers employ dangerous farming methods. The planet is not used to such a high degree of industrial soil and water manipulation, and compost is an age-old tactic of naturally healing soil by using the food it grew.

It restores the ground with fungi, bacteria, and other elements it needs to balance acidity, hold moisture, and support healthy growth cycles. It takes food waste out of landfills, where they do not decompose in the right environment to renourish the soil. Today, you can begin your composting journey by learning how to make compost from kitchen waste.

What Can You Use in Compost?

Before you do anything related to composting, you must know what is and isn’t OK to put in the compost pile. Putting the wrong matter in there could ruin the entire process, disrupting the development of necessary microbes. 

The general rules are to compost “browns” and “greens.” Brown waste produces carbon, and green waste makes nitrogen. Examples of each compost material include but are not limited to:

Brown Waste	Green Waste
Leaves	Grass clippings
Branches	Food scraps
Untreated paper	Coffee grounds
Egg cartons	Plant cuttings
Sawdust	Eggshells

What about things you should never put in compost? Just because something is natural or organic waste doesn’t mean it’s compatible. Avoid putting these items in compost bins:

• Meat
• Bones
• Cheese
• Oils and fats
• Pet litter and waste
• Moldy or disease-infested organic waste

How to Make Compost from Kitchen Waste in 5 Steps

Compost requires a specific composition of brown and green waste, oxygen, and water to support compost development. Recommendations typically suggest three or four parts brown to one part green, but it doesn’t have to be perfect. Add oxygen and water as needed. Other influences include temperature, moisture control, and aeration, which refers to stirring the pile or turning a tumbler to let air into more pockets.

If you don’t have the yard space, check out our recommended methods for apartment composting, which may require a little creativity to perfect — but it’s doable. 

These are the EPA-recommended steps to take if you use conventional composting methods. 

1. Do Your Research

Setting up the bin with the right recipe and ingredients requires preparation. You will learn things on the fly, but you should come in with a moderate understanding before committing. You want to get the most potential out of your scraps instead of harming nature by doing the wrong thing.

2. Choose Your Bin Setup

There are open-air compost bins or vermicomposting piles, which include worms. You can also use countertop composters, such as Pela’s Lomi. Write out a list of directions and ideal compositions for whatever setup you want to use for your kitchen waste. Typically, the area will want to have these qualities:

• Good drainage
• Easy access
• Odor control

3. Input Ingredients

Then, fill the bin with your kitchen scraps and brown waste. Here is what the EPA recommends to deliver the best environment for microbe formation and supporting the composting process:

1. Build up four to six inches of brown waste for a foundation.
2. Spread a layer of green waste. Alternate between brown and green going forward, like a cake.
3. Add some water throughout to compact and dampen the pile. 
4. Cover food with four to eight more inches of brown waste.

4. Maintain It

Most of the magic will happen without effort, but maintenance supports the processes. Decomposition requires temperature maintenance, water, and air. Take temperatures often to make sure they stay between 130° to 160° F. High temperatures are fine because they eliminate pests and pathogens.

Depending on what system you use, you may need to aerate it. For open-air or vermicompost bins, garden forks are the ideal tool to use because they won’t upturn the pile. You don’t want to fully mix it. You want to keep the layers as intact as possible, circulate the layers around to open air pockets, and encourage activity. If you use a tumbler, give it a few circulations to get the same effects. If you have worms, keep an eye out not to hurt too many of them when using tools.

You will also want to keep an eye out for odors and excess moisture. This signifies more aeration is necessary or the ratios are off.

5. Use Compost for Good

Eventually, the food scraps should disappear. Then, after a month or more, the compost cures and is ready for use. Gift it to friends with gardens or use it to grow your own food. You’d be surprised by how many community members want fresh compost for house plants and other uses. You may want to sift for items that didn’t completely break down. 

For example, eggshells may still be present, but it doesn’t mean they weren’t helpful. Use some of the existing compost bin to support the development of your next one. 

Learning How to Make Compost from Kitchen Waste the Easy Way

Composting doesn’t necessarily require expensive equipment or academic degrees — anyone can do it with any budget. It is one of the most impactful ways to reduce your individual carbon footprint and negative climate contributions. Normalizing composting is critical in today’s society, which has phased it out. Ending global hunger and appreciating the food we have requires humans to compost, healing the planet of the resources we sapped from it.