Composting; A Subpar Attempt in Suburban America

Compost, in most of America, is a farfetched-radical-granola-mom hobby that only those who would be willing to abandon western civilization and go live on a deserted island while living off the earth and singing kumbaya before every meal would even consider. Growing up in the liberal, northern town that we have fortunately been blessed with, composting wasn’t all that odd. We both had several friends who composted and, besides that, were pretty normal. Only 5% of American food waste makes it to compost instead to landfills and after taking a survey of 100 students in our junior class we estimate that about 31% of Montclairians compost. A recent study by the National Waste & Recycling Association found that 67% of Americans would be willing to compost food waste if it was more convenient to do so and if they knew what it really entailed.

This is an example of a type of compost 

The answer is simple, composting is an easy way to recycle expired foods and old plants in order to add nutrients back into the environment. We, as in our first period AP Biology class, have decided to join the 67% of Americans and start our own compost in Rand Park.  Admittedly, neither of us would probably start our own compost if it weren’t for this project but the last week has been an exhilarating experience. Our compost section is located underneath a tree, the location was chosen for its convenient proximity to the dead tulips we were going to compost. You’ll learn later that this was part of the number of mistakes we made in the 44 minute period.  As many Americans could probably relate, we had no idea how to begin our pile so we just piled the dead tulips on top of each other under the designated tree. With hindsight, that was probably not the best tactic but half of being an expert composter is trying, so clearly we are already halfway there.

 

Famous people aren’t always smart but sometimes they say intelligent things and the epitome of fame, Shia LaBeouf, once said “You can prepare all you want, but if you never roll the dice you'll never be successful.” Clearly, our failure stemmed from the fact we ignored Shia and didn’t do any research into composting before we began. Our hope is that you will find humor and lesson in our compost attempt, along with the inspiration to start your own. We wish you all the luck in your future composting endeavors.
If you want to learn how to compost correctly read Cristi's next article!

Noa and Cristi (us) Adding to Our Compost Pile :)

- Noa and Cristi