Why Backyard Composting is Better than Municipal Composting

From the Comox Valley Echo, Tuesday 5 March 2013, Ask a Pro

Question: Why is backyard composting better than municipal composting?

Answer:

1. You don’t have large diesel trucks rumbling through neighbourhoods.
2. It doesn’t require large tracks of land for processing.
3. It costs less. My Mum pays $275.52 a year for her privately-owned curbside pickup in Victoria. But a good composter (ok, like our Speedibin!) costs $199 and lasts about 30 years, under $7 per year. The town of Fredericton calculated that 3,000 backyard composters saved over $100,000 a year in waste disposal.
4. Best of all, you get rich compost for your garden and you know what’s in it.

A comprehensive study was done in North Van if you want to learn more. Both the Executive Summary and full report are in our articles page. One new composter bragged “We made only 2.5 kg of garbage in the last 2 months and almost 50 kg of compost!” Of course large scale composting is better than taking nutritive organic material to a landfill where it produces methane. And for some people, like my Mum, the curbside pickup is easy. But the ideal for the planet and pocketbook is composting right where the material is produced.