Residents of Little Compton recently received a mailer with information about how to recycle food waste. Food waste accounts for about 30 percent of the trash that Little Compton trucks to the state landfill. As the landfill nears capacity, fees for dumping trash will increase. One third of this trash is organic material like food scraps and compostable products. What if we composted that material instead of letting it sit at our landfill where it emits methane, a harmful greenhouse gas?

The Little Compton Garden Club strives to educate residents about the powerful impact composting can have on sparing landfill space and creating nutrient-rich compost for your garden.

If we all were to put food waste into compost bins rather than trash bins, we could create a resilient community that is less dependent on our landfill and create compost that's good for the garden. This can be easily done. Here's how:
• Keep a bowl, small bucket, or collection container on your countertop. For an "official" countertop compost bin, choose from these options: (https://www.americastestkitchen.com/equipment_reviews/2499-the-best-countertop-compost-bins). Compostable liners are available at Wilbur's Store (back-of-the-store, on the far right side).
• Buy a composting bin ($45) at the Little Compton Town Hall, pick it up at the Transfer Station, and plunk it in a corner of your back yard. Toss your countertop container-full of fruit, vegetable and grain-based food scraps into your backyard bin. 
OR
• Take your food waste to the green Black Earth Compost Bins near the electronics recycling area at the Transfer Station. This can include items that you don’t want in your backyard compost bin:
• Animal-based food scraps —meat (fat and bones), turkey carcasses, seafood shells—items that might smell and attract critters. Save them in your refrigerator or freezer.
• Cooking oil in a plastic (or non-glass) container; pour it into the compost bin.
• Dairy: cheese, yogurt, milk
• Wine-bottle corks
• Pet waste from  rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, and birds (but not dogs or cats).

A complete list of compostable items is in the mailer you received as well as at littlecomptongardenclub.org/composting-in-little-compton/
OR
If you prefer residential collection: Black Earth Composting company wants to start a route in this area for pickup every other week. They provide a small compost bin as well as a free bag of compost for your garden in the Spring! For more information, see blackearthcompost.com/composting-in/little-compton-ri-north/
The weight of wasted food/food waste adds up quickly. Case in point: If 800 families were to dispose of a 15-pound rotting Halloween pumpkin at the dump, they'd be tossing 12,000 pounds into the trash.

Next comes Thanksgiving (turkey carcasses, potato peelings, dinner scraps) and then comes Christmas (excess food and holiday goodies that people toss  into the trash to "get them out of the house").

The students at Wilbur-McMahon school put their food waste into Black Earth composting bins. Hopefully, these students are setting the example for all of us to compost food waste, return the nutrients to the soil, and be better stewards of our land.

Nancy Clark, President, Little Compton Garden Club
Lavinia Gadsden, LCGC Conservation Committee

The writers are Little Compton residents.