43
Composting gains ground in Valley for recycling, gardening
YOUNGSTOWN
Valley residents who want to celebrate Earth Day today by composting will join a growing number of people who recycle food and lawn waste.
“More people are gardening, and there’s no better additive than compost to make it grow. Composting is popular, and it’s recognized as helping the Earth,” said Kim Lewis, who teaches composting workshops for the Green Team.
The Green Team is the Mahoning County recycling division.
Lewis said she’s seen a growing interest in composting locally. Compost is a mixture of decaying organic substances, such as dead leaves or kitchen scraps, that is transformed into humus, an organic part of soil, by microorganisms.
“People love to compost. People who compost use it for their gardens or recycling,” she said, adding that 24 percent of the material in landfills is food and lawn waste that could be recycled through composting.
The first step of backyard composting is getting a composting bin, which can be an old trash can with holes cut in the bottom, or designating a space in the backyard for a pile, Lewis said.
Place twigs on the bottoms and then layer “brown and green material” in the following ratio: Two parts carbon, known as brown material, and one part nitrogen, known as green material.
Brown material includes items such as dead leaves, brush and paper products. Green material includes fresh lawn clippings, coffee grounds and fruit and vegetative remains.
“Stir [the compost] three times a week, but avoid over-stirring, and water it so it has the consistency of a worn-out sponge, preferably using rain water,” Lewis said.
The compost should be ready to use in about three months, she said.
Composters do not need to add worms to their bins or pile, because “if you build it, they will come,” Lewis said.
Backyard composters should avoid putting meat, dairy, greens with salad dressing on them, lime, black walnut tree and chemically treated grass clippings in their compost, she said.
Boardman residents who want to compost, but not in their backyards, can take lawn waste to Elliott’s Garden Center at 1283 Western Reserve Road. The township recently renewed its agreement with Elliott’s and will pay the company $5,000 — the same amount as last year — for the service.
Elliott’s will accept brush under four feet in length, garden waste, grass clippings, leaves, ornamental grasses, tree trunks and pruning from trees or shrubs.
Elliott’s “cooperation with the township helps all of us remain committed to recycling and creating a green environment for our community,” said Boardman Trustee Larry Moliterno.