In honor of Earth Day, I wanted to share more about something we’ve been doing for about a year now: Composting. We compost at home and our son has become very excited about it. Getting the whole family on board will help create Earth-conscious kids and future generations! Read on to show you how you can make Composting with kids IN THE CITY a reality!
First, let’s talk about what composting is. Composting is a natural process of recycling organic material such as leaves and vegetable scraps into a rich soil fertilizer. So you take all your veggie scraps and they get recycled to become FOOD for living things like trees and plants. Pretty cool, right?
You may think (I used to!) that composting is something that can only be done if you have a big backyard, or you live in the suburbs. Thankfully, NYC is slowly jumping on the composting bandwagon (Bill de Blasio is a huge proponent of composting, and it is part of NYC’s Zero Waste plan).
Today, even if you live in a city like NYC, you can compost! I had been interested in starting a composting bin of my own to put in the backyard, but I never really got around to it so I was ecstatic to find out that my local park, Astoria Heights Park, was going to be a compost drop-off point. I later discovered that there are many compost drop-off points all over the city, namely at parks and some libraries.
If you live in NYC and want to compost, it’s easy!
The first thing you should do is found out where your closest (or more convenient) compost drop off location is. Here is a list
Second, find a receptacle that you can use to put the scraps (a paper bag works well and can also be composted, but a plastic one does not work, and actually harms the environment) you can also use a Tupperware bin and put it in the freezer in between drop-offs.
Finally, engage your kids in the process! They will love it! My son knows where to put his banana peels and after we are done peeling veggies, he opens the freezer to put them in (we put ours in our freezer until drop-off).
Wondering what you can compost and what you can’t?
I’ve got you covered!
See below!
If you have a backyard and are interested in creating your own compost bin, check out this great tutorial!
If there is no composting drop-off in your area, you may consider setting one up! That’s what happened in our local park, and volunteers manage it every week. We have even partnered with a local school to manage it.
It’s important to teach our kids to love Mother Earth and to engage them in fun ways. MY son loves coming with me to the composting station when we volunteer!
What ways do you engage your kids in taking care of Earth? Share below!
