#FoodWasteFriday: Tips for Successful Winter Composting
Food scraps can be composted year-round, even in snowy Central New York! That’s good news for our environment because composting reduces the amount of waste that ends up in the landfill and also reduces our impact on climate change.
Winter composting is like summer composting, but in slow motion. In the coldest weather, the process simply stalls and the food scraps freeze. Then when temperatures rise above freezing, the composting process resumes. If your winter is long like mine, the volume of food scraps is considerable and definitely worth saving.
How to compost in the winter
If your compost bin is close to your house, then you can simply dump the scraps in, just like you would during the summer.
However, if your compost pile is farther away from the house you might not feel keen to take out your scraps after every meal (it feels like I’m crossing the tundra to get to mine!). Try using a 5-gallon bucket to accumulate the scraps. You can put your bucket under the sing, in an unheated garage, or even outside, as long as the lid is on tight to avoid attracting animals. When the bucket is full I make the trek out to the compost pile, occasionally with snowshoes!
Remember to add more browns to bin each time you add greens. A warm spell without enough browns will cause the materials to ferment. In both warm and cold weather, your compost pile will do better if you layer the green and brown items.
Tips and Tricks
Stock up on brown matter in the fall. Regardless of the season, a healthy compost pile requires a good balance of both green materials (like kitchen food scraps) and brown materials (e.g. leaves, yard waste, grass, etc). Since most of what you’ll likely be adding to your compost heap during the winter will be kitchen scraps, you should prepare it for that in the fall.
Cover freshly composted material. Use those browns you stocked up on, cardboard, newspaper or snow to cover the newly added kitchen scraps.
Don’t try turning your compost pile in the winter. The pile, tumbler or bin will likely be frozen and you might end up damaging the container (or your back!). The pile is not very active in cold temperatures, so waiting until Spring is fine.
To learn more about compositing visit our Crown City Composters page, download our composting guide to learn how to start your own compost, and follow us on Facebook for the latest news, to connect with other local composter, and to share food waste and composting tips and resources!
