Compost Exchange Helps Eco-Friendly Residents Find Balance

You might share some eggs or a cup of flour with neighbors from time to time, but now two Rye organizations want residents to start sharing items like bags of leaves, egg shells and banana peels.

Sound strange? Not if you have a compost!

The Rye Neighborhood Compost Exchange was started to help residents get in touch with one another so they can share composting ingredients and ideas, explained Melissa Grieco, co-president of the Environmental Advocacy Group of Rye (EAGR.)

"Many of us avid composters are often confronted with the dilemma of not having enough of a specific compost ingredient or too much of another," Grieco said. "In order to address this common dilemma, we have created this exchange."

EAGR has joined with the Committee to Save the Bird Homestead (CSBH) to encourage residents to share their composting materials and to start a compost if they haven't already.

Anne Stillman, President of CSBH, said that the effort could "possibly reduce trash pickup if a lot of people were to compost their green kitchen waste."

The idea for an internet-based exchange, Stillman said, came from Carolyn Cunningham, a former Rye councilwoman who is currently a board member of the Federated Conservationists of Westchester County.

Cunningham, a long-time Rye resident, said "when my kids were little, I wondered what kind of world they were going to inherit," but over the years, she's been both discouraged and inspired by the changes she's seen around town, she said.

Although Cunningham is disheartened when she sees SUVs rolling around Rye, she views the formation of organizations like EAGR and the new compost exchange as a positive sign that residents want to help create a more sustainable community.

The Westchester County Department of Environmental Facilities estimates that composting can reduce household waste production by 30 percent, thus reducing the amount of trash pickup needed each week.

Stillman said that the county is selling the Earth Machine, a composting bin that is self-aerating, for $60 at five of its parks offices. The closest location to Rye is Glen Island Park in New Rochelle. 

But you don't necessarily have to buy the Earth Machine to start a successful compost. And don't worry, it's more simple--and far less smelly--than you may think.

Stillman explained that composts consists of brown and green materials, ideally layered in a ratio of 60 percent to 40 percent, respectively.

Dried leaves and newspapers printed with soy-based ink make for good brown material, and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds and grass clippings are ideal green materials.

It's also possible to start a compost indoors if you don't have space for an outdoor bin.

However, while outdoor composts welcome the worms that turn waste into nitrogen-rich fertilizer, an indoor compost needs worms from another source.

Ann Marie Cunningham, Executive Director of the Science Friday Initiative who also presented information at a composting workshop at the Bird Homestead earlier this year, said that when she started an indoor compost in her apartment with "Worm Condo," a ventilated box the size of a file bin, her waste was immediately cut in half.

She ordered red wriggler worms from the Lower East Side Ecology Center for her compost and while she noted that "worms are sensitive and it takes some time for them to adjust," they'll typically start eating the waste you put in the compost within a few days.

As for the smell, Cunningham said "it has that deep organic smell that you get when you get off the plane in Florida."

Cunningham will again visit the Bird Homestead on August 28 for a workshop on harvesting compost. But for residents who want to learn more about composting before then, Stillman said that the community is welcome to visit the Bird Homestead's community garden and compost.

"We hope that people who become part of [the exchange] will be composting themselves, but they don't have to be," she said. "All of these things help make Rye more sustainable and I think that's a goal everybody shares."

To join the Rye Neighborhood Compost Exchange and Forum, visit the Facebook page.