When Akron native Ben McMillan lived in Los Angeles, he reduced the waste of the taco truck he owned to two things – plastic film and food scraps.
McMillan would then take the food scraps to a local compositing site, where they would be turned into fertilizer, along with other organic material like paper or grass clippings.
“Composting is just using Mother Nature to naturally decompose organic material,” McMillan said.
McMillan was so interested in the process that when he moved home to Akron, he started his own composting business, Rubber City Reuse.
The composted fertilizer, made from food waste from Akron residents and businesses, is what gardeners often refer to as “black gold” because of the benefits it provides to soil. Compost can help soil retain moisture, attract beneficial organisms and reduce the potential for erosion.
The composting process dates back 12,000 years, according to National Geographic. Scottish farmers would convert compost heaps into plots and plant their seeds directly in them.
“It’s an old process that we have been doing for years,” McMillan said. “But as consumer tastes change, and we got into the disposable this and the single-use that, we moved away from composting.”
In 2018, 146.1 million tons of municipal solid waste ended up in landfills in the United States, with plastics accounting for 18% and food waste 24%.
When organic material like food waste breaks down, it produces methane, a colorless, odorless gas that contributes to global warming. Methane is one of the leading producers of greenhouse gases, making up 16% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Composting lowers the amount of methane produced, as the bacteria is exposed to oxygen.
And an estimated 58% of the methane released into the atmosphere at municipal solid waste landfills comes from food waste. Composting helps redirect food waste from landfills and cycles it back into the local ecosystem.
“We really need to start to understand that this is a local resource that we want to actually keep local,” McMillan said.
What does the composting process look like?
At the Rubber City Reuse composting facility, located at 1745 Martin Road in Mogadore, composting is done through an aerobic process, meaning it requires oxygen. Collected organic materials are piled about 10 feet high in a 15-by-15-foot space and left to decompose. Over the course of three to four months, naturally occurring bacteria works to decompose the waste until it is mature enough. Regularly, the pile is turned over using a tractor, allowing oxygen to reach all parts of the pile.
In addition to oxygen, heat is a vital element of the process. Bacteria production can cause the compost piles to reach temperatures between 130 and 180 degrees Fahrenheit at their core, even in the winter months.
Once the compost is dark brown and crumbly, McMillan takes a portion of the finished product and adds it to the next compost pile – the already present bacteria helps to jumpstart the next decomposition.
McMillan compared composting to the process of making kombucha, a fermented tea drink that relies on a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast, known as a SCOBY. Chunks of the SCOBY can be propagated to continue making new batches of kombucha over time.
“We want that original bacteria, number one, to keep having little bacteria babies because they’ll keep getting stronger and stronger and more efficient at what they do,” McMillan said.
How to compost in Akron
Akron residents looking to simply collect food scraps and waste and send them off can sign up for a composting membership with Rubber City Reuse or Let’s Grow Akron.
Let’s Grow Akron uses the finished compost in their community gardens, creating a “closed-loop cycle,” said Executive Director Lisa Nunn. Some of the gardens are located in vacant lots where houses may have been torn down and the land filled with dirt, so the soil is depleted or not very nutrient-dense.
“What we’re trying to do is feed the microbes that live in the soil,” Nunn said. “You definitely have to build soil in urban areas, regenerate soil in urban areas, to be able to grow food and for the plants to be as productive as possible.”
Those wanting to start composting at home can use an aerobic composting process like that at Rubber City Reuse. To start, would-be composters need a dedicated space or bin to compost in. The Environmental Protection Agency recommends residents use a bin to avoid rodents but says a pile alone works well for composting leaves and grass clippings.
The basic steps are simple: add your scraps to the pile and turn it over once a week. But the ingredients you include in your compost can affect the end result.
The key to successful compost production is to include a mix of “greens” and “browns” in an at-home compost pile. Brown material like paper, cardboard, dry leaves, or branches provide carbon, while green materials like food waste or grass clippings provide nitrogen.
The proper balance of carbon-rich materials (browns) and nitrogen-rich materials (greens) can also eliminate odors associated with the process. A mix of 30% greens and 70% browns will give the bacteria the nutrients it needs to decompose properly.
In addition to food waste and plant material, uncoated paper, shredded newspapers, tea bags and coffee grounds can all be composted. Plastic, glass, metal and styrofoam should not be added to a compost pile.
When composting at home, it is important to avoid dairy, meat and bones. Your compost pile won’t get hot enough to kill off the bad bacteria viruses, such as Salmonella and E. coli, McMillan said. These materials also have the potential to attract pests.
The composting process is complete when the pile is dark brown and crumbly, with no recognizable materials in the pile and no foul odors. It can take two weeks or two years, depending on what’s in your compost, how big your pile is and how often you turn it. A few months is most typical.
The compost can then be used as mulch, added to soil for gardening or mixed in with potting soil for plants.
Rubber City Reuse partners with the “Better Bin” app, which allows users to search a database for whether an item is compostable.
