Composting

This image provided by Bokashi Living shows kitchen scraps being added to a bokashi composting bucket. (bokashiliving.com via AP)

Got a bucket? Speed up the composting process with bokashi

It’s no secret that the key to healthy plants is healthy soil, and the best way to improve soil is by incorporating compost, which can take up to a year to make.

A display of pumpkins prepared for Halloween welcomes visitors at the Denver Zoo Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022, in Denver. Forecasters predict that the warm weather will remain in place over the intermountain West through the week ahead. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Pumpkins can be composted, donated to farms, fed to wildlife

This Sept. 20, 2022, image provided by Jessica Damiano shows beet greens, left, and Romaine lettuce grown indoors from kitchen scraps. (Jessica Damiano via AP)

Regrow vegetables from kitchen scraps on a sunny windowsill

Festivalgoers use the free solar charging station at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival on Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Manchester, Tenn. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP)

Bonnaroo, a leader in green fests, faces climate change risk

Joy Klineberg tosses an onion peel into container to be used for composting while preparing a family meal at her home in Davis, Calif., Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021. In January 2022, new rules take effect in California requiring people to recycle their food waste to be combusted or turned into energy. Davis already requires residents to recycle their food waste into the yard waste bin instead of the trash. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

California pushes composting to lower food waste emissions

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Composting companies battle contamination as programs expand

DENVER (AP) — Clinton Sander is done with contaminated compost.

On a recent morning, he sifted through long piles of waste from Denver and Boulder at a facility in Keenesburg operated by A1 Organics, the state’s largest compost recycler.

In this Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021, photo, Seth Viddal, who co-owns The Natural Funeral, stands behind a nearly completed human body composting vessel in Arvada, Colo. On Sept. 7, Colorado became the second state after Washington to allow human body composting, and Oregon will allow the practice beginning next July. The vessel will be packed with wood chips and straw and will be able to compost a body in six months. About the size of a standard grave, the rectangular insulated wooden box is lined with waterproof roofing material and packed with wood chips and straw. Two large spool wheels on either end allow it to be rolled across the floor, providing the oxygenation, agitation and absorption required for a body to compost. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)

Body composting a ‘green’ alternative to burial, cremation

A Colorado company is hoping to usher in a new and more environmentally friendly era of mortuary science that includes the natural organic reduction of human remains.

New Hampshire adopts new solid waste reduction goal

New Hampshire has a new goal of reducing waste sent to landfills by 25% by 2030.

The goal is included in a bill signed into law last week. Sen.

Oregon Gov. Brown signs human composting bill

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has signed a bill passed by the Legislature legalizing human composting.

Pandemic cancels annual WVa Christmas tree recycling event

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — An annual Christmas tree recycling event in West Virginia has been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Colorado recycling drops, and state is working to fix that

DENVER (AP) — Colorado is wasting more and recycling less.

From 2018 to 2019, the state’s recycling rate dropped to 15.9 percent from 17.2 percent, far below the national average of 35 percent, according to an annual report released by Eco-Cycle and the Colorado Public Interest Research Group.

Massachusetts communities share $3.2M in recycling grants

BOSTON (AP) — Communities across Massachusetts are sharing $3.2 million in grant funding that will help them maximize their recycling, composting and waste reduction programs.

FILE - In this April 19, 2019, file photo, Katrina Spade, the founder and CEO of Recompose, a company that hopes to use composting as an alternative to burying or cremating human remains, poses for a photo in a cemetery in Seattle, as she displays a sample of compost material left from the decomposition of a cow using a combination of wood chips, alfalfa and straw. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)

Human composting could become an option in California

LOS ANGELES (RNS) — For Sarah Chavez, it’s important her death reflect the beliefs and values that guided her in life.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, center, turns to talk with Katrina Spade, upper left, the founder and CEO of Recompose, a company that hopes to use composting as an alternative to burying or cremating human remains, Tuesday, May 21, 2019, at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash., before signing a bill into law that allows licensed facilities to offer "natural organic reduction," which turns a body, mixed with substances such as wood chips and straw, into soil in a span of several weeks. The law makes Washington the first state in the U.S. to approve composting as an alternative to burying or cremating human remains. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Washington is 1st state to allow composting of human bodies

SEATTLE (AP) — Ashes to ashes, guts to dirt.

Gov. Jay Inslee signed legislation Tuesday making Washington the first state to approve composting as an alternative to burying or cremating human remains.

Washington is 1st state to allow composting of human bodies

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has approved a law making his state the first to approve composting as an alternative to burying or cremating human remains.

5 easy ways to be sustainable in the garden

CORVALLIS, Oregon — As the gardening season gets started in earnest, you may want to think about how you can be kinder on the environment — and your wallet, too.

In undated this artist's rendition provided by Recompose, a Recompose site, where people can opt to have their remains composted, is shown. The process would use wood chips, alfalfa and straw, with natural decomposition accelerated when the body is placed in a temperature and moisture-controlled vessel that is rotated. The end result is about a cubic yard of soil per person. Washington is set to become the first state to allow a burial alternative known as "natural organic reduction," turning a body into soil in a matter of weeks. (Recompose via AP)

Back to Earth: Washington set to allow ‘human composting’

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Washington appears set to become the first state to allow a burial alternative known as “natural organic reduction” — an accelerated decomposition process that turns bodies into soil within weeks.

This illustration provided by the United States Environmental Protection Agency shows the EPA's food recovery hierarchy pyramid. The EPA has issued the hierarchy to help consumers. It’s a upside-down pyramid ranking possible solutions for food waste. (United States Environmental Protection Agency via AP)

Is your kitchen-sink disposal environmentally friendly?

If you’re trying to be more eco-friendly at home, should you use your kitchen garbage disposal?

It depends.

Compostable ‘bioplastics’ make inroads with consumers

Looking for an eco-friendly alternative to traditional plastics — especially single-use items like bags, straws and picnic tableware — many supermarkets and vendors are offering an array of compostable alternatives made from plant fibers or starches.

Fox Chapel awarded $350,000 for recycling efforts

Fox Chapel will get a boost to its recycling and leaf collection programs thanks to a $350,000 grant through the state Department of Environmental Protection.

This undated photo shows compost bins in New Paltz, N.Y. A good compost bin makes easy work of adding ingredients or removing compost and also fends off scavengesr and retains heat and moisture. (Lee Reich via AP)

Autumn’s a good time for making compost, and a bin is key

Garden cleanup, lawn mowing and falling leaves all provide materials that make autumn a good time of year for composting.

An eco-lodge in Georgia hosts hikers (and composting worms)

As we climbed Frosty Mountain, each step brought us farther from Georgias warm spring landscape of budding azalea trees and blooming daffodils.

Composting 101

Bring up the topic of composting and you will get no shortage of opinions. Gardeners call it black gold. Recyclers see it as good for the earth.

Squeezing the most out of small outdoor spaces

As herb and vegetable gardens, composting and other aspects of green living become more popular, many people with limited outdoor space are looking for ways to squeeze the most out of it.

Moloaa in line for new green waste facility

MOLOAA — Brandon Miranda received the green light to open a green waste facility in Moloaa.

He owns a Kilauea-based landscaping company, the Miranda Group Inc., which has its own green waste site.

County’'s recycling system generates big bucks, but old conveyors need replacing

TOWN OF PACIFIC – Greg Kaminski stood by a gently rolling hill of recyclable trash that was, not long ago, a mountain.

Conservation Commission hoping to expand composting at Greenwich schools

GREENWICH — Mia Madeiros and Jack Magill, cafeteria rangers on detail at the Hamilton Avenue Elementary School, walked around their lunchroom keeping their eyes on their fellow student’s trays.