Why Compost?

• Up to 10% of a household's greenhouse gas emissions come from wasted food

• The most important thing you can do is to buy only what you need and eat leftovers.

• Food scraps and yard waste together currently make up between 30 to 50% of what we throw away, and could be composted instead

• Transporting the material to the town's incinerator or a dump uses fuel that produces harmful emissions, and costs the town more in fees

• Composting can cut methane emissions from landfills and methane is much worse than CO2

• Composting creates a rich fertilizer and a healthy environment for vegetation and soil-based critters

• You can compost at home or use a service - either way, it's a really easy way to help the environment

Ways to Compost

The main ways to compost in Hopkinton

• Home Backyard Composting - there's passive and active composting. 

  • In passive composting, the main purpose is to reduce emissions. Put your scraps into a container or pile to biodegrade: you might start by collecting them in the kitchen, then take them to a large, outdoor pile/container and let them biodegrade. By turning the scraps in the pile or container, you also reduce methane produced during the degradation.

  • In active composting, the main purpose is to create a rich soil additive, and emissions are reduced too. Check out "Get Started in 5 Easy Steps".

  • See what you can compost at home in the list below.

• Composting Service - Black Earth Compost serves Hopkinton

  • Currently, the town has an incentive where the bin and a pack of starter liners are free! The pickup service is as low as $4.42 a week. The more Hopkinton residences sign up with the Black Earth Compost service, the cheaper rate will be

  • Allows troublesome items that home composting can't handle like bones and pasta and grease - here's a complete list of compostable items

  • Can be used by anyone without a suitable home composting location like at apartments or condos with HOAs that prevent it

  • Get a free bag of BE compost every year!

  • Can be used by businesses and other organizations

  • Black Earth has options to pick up other items for their customers too: textiles, leaves, compostable cutlery (like you might have for a big event), and more is coming. These have an additional fee.

  • If you are looking for an alternative or a place serving towns that Black Earth doesn't, check out City Compost. They also will provide containers for events and a community bin, plus will pick up yard waste.

• Indoors with an Electric Countertop Composting Bin - this option is good for people who can't compost in other ways. (Lomi is a model you may have heard of.) Food scraps go in the bin, you run it, and the composter essentially dehydrates and reduces the volume of the scraps, which you then put into your garbage. Some models say they produce a compost product, though the cycle to create the compost takes longer and the result may not be very good compost because it lacks the microbes that provide the valuable nutrients for plants. An electric composter still reduces emissions because the amount/weight of trash being transported is reduced and gasses are not emitted during the composting. It takes a little energy to run the composter but far less than the emissions from transporting the waste and the landfill decomposition or incinerator.

  • This article discusses the option.

• Indoors with Vermicomposting - it's faster than an outdoor pile, and produces compost faster, though it's a bit complicatded and can turn some people off. Here are some resources if you want to try it:

  • Urban Work Company article on composting compared to vermicomposting

  • A How To Guide from Oregon State University

• Community Composter - Find a Composter - as of now, this isn't available in Hopkinton

Resources

• United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

• National Resources Defense Council (NRDC)

• Cornell University's Waste Management Institute has a detailed guide to composting, plus a lot more resources on their website.