How to Compost in the City

Just because you live in the city doesn't mean you can't compost your green waste. Composting is an excellent way to recycle and reuse green material instead of throwing it in your trashcan where it will needlessly fill your local landfill. Why throw away old newspaper, cardboard, and kitchen scraps when you can recycle it into rich soil, perfect for your potted houseplants and urban garden? In this urbanite's green living guide, we'll show you how to compost in the city.

Composting in the City: A Green Living Guide for Urban Dwellers
Composting can take a long time, but we'll let you in on a little secret that will speed up the city composting process: Worms. That's right, vermicomposting (composting with worms) is the new trend in urban composting that helps you keep your composting project small and speeds up the time it takes to compost your old newspapers into nutrient-rich compost.

What You Need to Compost in the City.
You need an aerated container, shredded newspapers, wet green waste (such as fruit peelings and kitchen scraps) and worms! The worms will eat your green waste and newspapers, turning it all into compost that doesn't stink-perfect for urban dwellers in apartments and condos!

Why You Should Compost with Worms.
Worm composting is becoming more and more popular, especially with people who live in the city and want a small, self-contained composter that takes up a minimum amount of space in their apartment and won't smell like regular compost. City Farmer, a website for those who want green living but live in the city, says that the "great advantage of worm composting is that this can be done indoors...It also provides apartment dwellers with a means of composting. In a nutshell, worm compost is made in a container filled with moistened bedding and redworms. Add your food waste for a period of time, and the worms and micro-organisms will eventually convert the entire contents into rich compost" (source).

Not only is vermicomposting, or vermiculture, good for your city composting project, but it's also great for the environment. Green Living Magazine calls worm composting a "solution for pollution," saying that "vermiculture is extremely versatile and can be done on a large or small scale, all year round. It holds tremendous possibilities for the planet: eliminating smelly garbage dumps worldwide, drastically reducing the need for landfill sites, and creating mega-tons of great compost for restoring depleted topsoil across the globe" (source).

Why worm composting is perfect for city people.
Worm composting is the ideal way to compost in the city. Urbanites will appreciate the odor-less compost that's faster than conventional compost and very, very low-maintenance. All you need to do once your urban worm composting project is running is throw your green waste and newspapers into the bin. The worms will do the rest of the work, turning your paper and green waste into rich compost that you can use with your houseplants.