Most people think composting is only for serious gardeners, but it’s actually something that everyone can benefit from.  It is estimated that up to 35% of a household’s waste is made up of compostable materials, even excluding paper products.  By diverting that much material from the landfill, you save energy and reduce air and water pollution.  If you don’t have a garden to use your compost on, spread it over your lawn, give it to a gardener, or add it to any area you know to have poor soil conditions.

There are two main ways to compost, in a heap or with worms.  A compost heap can be contained in a store-bought bin, or in an open wooden box, as pictured above.  This tutorial shows you how to build your own composting bin, but it does require some woodwork.  The heap should be 75% brown materials (dead leaves, cardboard, newspapers) and 25% green material (kitchen scraps).  This succinct guide will tell you all you need to know to get started.

The other way to compost is with worms, also called vermicomposting.  This method is much faster than a compost heap and does not require a fixed proportion of materials.  The downside is that worms will mostly consume kitchen scraps, and only a little of the brown material mentioned above.  A worm composter can be made cheaply from a few plastic bins and worms can be purchased at a bait shop, or simply dug out of the earth.  If you do have a garden, the compost will do wonders for your harvest and make synthetic fertilizers completely unnecessary.