My journey as an environmentalist started in college and one of the sustainable changes I was most hesitant to make was composting. I lived with roommates and did not want to stink up the entire apartment. I also didn’t love the idea of bringing worms and a DIY compost bin into our shared living quarters… I’m taking you through my journey to composting in an apartment and sharing a few things I’ve learned about compost since graduation.

Why is food waste a problem? Is composting in an apartment even worth it?

About 1/3 of the food that is produced worldwide every year is wasted. In the US and Europe individuals waste on average 210 – 250 pounds of food every year. It’s estimated that a four-person family in the US loses $1500 every year due to wasted food. Beyond the sheer amount of food being wasted, other precious resources like land, water, energy, and labor that are required to produce, collect, ship, store and dispose of food are also wasted food heads to the landfill.

Food waste isn’t just wasteful – it’s also a major environmental issue. When food decomposes in a landfill it releases methane, a greenhouse gas that is 28 times more potent than CO2. If food waste is diverted to a composting facility, though, anaerobic digesters break down the food and digest the methane instead of releasing it into the atmosphere. (I won’t overwhelm you with an insane amount of not-so-fun-facts, so if you want to learn more about food waste check out the USDA website or FAO website).

The more I learned about the environmental impact of food waste, the more conscious I became of the amount of food I was throwing away on a daily basis.

I’m all about making small, incremental changes that I know can become a habit. So over the past few months I’ve been focusing on reducing my food waste. Instead of jumping directly to having zero food waste and composting with worms in my little apartment I started with smaller steps in the right direction. I store my leafy greens and carrots in a jar with a bit of water at the bottom to keep them fresher longer. I also try to eat fresh produce within a few days of getting it. When I started going to farmer’s markets regularly this summer I would use beet greens or carrot tops to make pesto. I’ve been saving my leftover celery, carrots, and onions in my freezer to make my own veggie stock for a few months now. And my most recent recipe was making my own cinnamon banana “nice“cream with overripe bananas. It took me a few months to make these part of my regular routine, and when they became a habit, it was time for me to take the next step.

Using my freezer – composting in a shared apartment

In college I lived in an apartment with three other people. Setting up a vermicompost bin in our living room just wasn’t realistic, which meant I needed to find another outlet to dispose of my food waste instead of breaking it down in my own apartment. There wasn’t room on our shared counter space for a countertop composting bin but I did have space in our shared freezer.

So I began saving my food scraps in my freezer.

The local Target near my campus had a food waste bin (and film plastic recycling bins), so at the end of each week I would bring my frozen food waste in a compostable paper bag to Target. This relieved me of the pressure of doing the actual composting in my apartment. Vermicomposting is much more practical when you live in a bigger space (or not-as-shared space unlike college apartments) or when you have an outdoor space. Keeping it in my freezer also got rid of the smell problem. If it’s frozen it won’t start decomposing and therefore won’t start smelling. I also loved how practical this was for a variety of people. Most of us have freezers, so this doesn’t require us to go out and buy anything special like a countertop compost bucket.

In just a week I filled up enough food waste to fill the little paper bag in these photos about 3/4 of the way. It doesn’t smell, it doesn’t take up that much space in the freezer (because I’ve worked on reducing my food waste before it becomes waste), and my roommates hadn’t even noticed.

Other compost drop off options for composting in an apartment

ShareWaste is a really cool resource. Type in your zip code and ShareWaste will find people accepting compost (for worms or to feed to animals) in your area. Additionally, if you someday get your own compost pile, you can sign up to receive compost from people in your area!

There are also countertop compost technologies, like the Lomi. They are definitely cool but aren’t very practical. The Lomi is expensive, it takes up a ton of counter space, and is quite loud when it’s running. I purchased a Lomi for my first “big girl” post-grad school apartment. I used it religiously for a few weeks and then found out my apartment got a community compost bin. Now it takes up a ton of space on my countertop.

Here are some important compost-related reminders:

• Know what you can and can’t compost in your area. Most places won’t compost meat, bones or dairy products. Check with your drop-off location to ensure your batch won’t contaminate the rest of the compost.
• There aren’t always composting options where you live. I am privileged to live in a place like Los Angeles where even if there isn’t large scale infrastructure in place to collect food waste, there are some non-municipal places like Target and Whole Foods that have food waste collection bins. Do what you can with what you have.

Food waste reduction tips

For those who aren’t ready for composting in an apartment, can’t compost where they live, or just want to reduce their food waste.

Reduce your food waste in the first place. Prioritize eating the food that’s about to go bad. Buy less food, or share food with friends/roommates. Take less food in the dining hall (you can always go up to get seconds).

Freeze what you can’t eat. This week I had some carrots and celery that I wasn’t going to be able to eat before they went bad. Instead of throwing them away (or composting them) I decided to chop them up and freeze them for later. You can also do this with bread (just pop it in the toaster and hit the defrost button when you’re ready to eat it).

Get fancy with recipes. Use things like beet greens and celery greens like spinach. Use beet greens or carrot tops to make your own pesto. Save cut off ends of carrots, celery and onions to make your own veggie stock. Or use trusty ‘ole Google to search recipes for what you have leftover.

Regrow your food! This isn’t necessarily combatting food waste, but instead of letting something die I’m allowing it to continue living and producing food. I got this green onion literally 6 days ago. After I chopped it up I put it in some water, and a few days later planted it in soil. After the first 24 hours it grew an inch, and all of these green bits grew over the past 6 days. Regrowing food is a great way to save money. Plus it’s kind of fun to see how it grows in such a short amount of time!

Still too much? Be more conscious about the amount of food you throw away. Maybe you’ll notice that every week you throw away half a bag of spinach from Trader Joes. Find a roommate to split it with you, look for a smaller portioned bag, or work on incorporating spinach into more of your meals.

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