By Annie Wolock for Federation of Greater Ann Arbor
Composting food is an easy way to take personal responsibility for helping fight climate change. It’s simple to get started, and this month, we aim to answer some of your questions. Hopefully, you’ll come away with a better understanding and some motivation to compost your food waste.
Which Communities Have Municipal Curbside Compost?
Unfortunately, there aren’t many options for composting in Washtenaw County outside of Ann Arbor’s municipal service.
If you live in the Ypsilanti area, you can sign up online at GrowingHope.net to join their compost collection service. Once you sign up, you can collect your compost and drop it off at the Ypsilanti Farmers Market. Just remember—they don’t accept meat, bones, dairy, or pet waste.
Ann Arbor residents can add food scraps directly to their compost bin for curbside pickup. Just fill your bin with food waste and leave it out on your trash day.
Ann Arbor’s Curbside Pickup Details
What Can You Compost?
- All food scraps: This means EVERYTHING.
- Including meat and bones
- Coffee grounds and paper filters
- Food-soiled paper
- CMA_W certified compostable products
What Can’t Be Composted in Ann Arbor?
- No plastic or plastic-like materials.
- BPI-certified or other ‘compostable’ materials
- Bamboo or palm leaf products
Only CMA-W-certified products and fibrous materials are accepted. Biodegradable plastic, bamboo, and palm leaf items don’t break down fast enough in the system. That means compostable (or biodegradable) plastic bags aren’t allowed, either.
What if You Don’t Have a Composting Service?
About 5% of our total waste is food waste. When food waste goes into the trash, recycle bin, or garbage disposal, it produces methane, a greenhouse gas even worse than CO2.
There aren’t many easy options if you don’t have municipal service, but the best way is to create and use your own compost pile. To learn composting basics, visit Washtenaw.org/351/Composting.
If you live in an apartment, ask your building management about setting up a community compost pile.
If you have a backyard compost pile, you probably know how to compost your food. Just remember—not to add meat, dairy, or cooking oil to your home compost. Those are fine for the Ann Arbor municipal compost bin, but your backyard composting pile doesn’t heat up enough to properly break down these items.
About the Ann Arbor Jewish Climate Circle (A2J CC)
Most Jews in the Ann Arbor area believe that climate change is an important issue—perhaps the most significant challenge of our generation. Most of us also understand that Jewish tradition calls us to improve the world for future generations.
The A2J Climate Circle is designed to bring our community together in climate action and create momentum and support.
Started by the JCRC (Jewish Community Relations Committee) of the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor, with Annie Wolock (Federation) as the leader, the A2J Climate Circle Planning Committee currently includes Ellen Abramson (Jewish Family Services), Rena Basch (Ann Arbor Reconstructionist Congregation), Mike Shriberg (Temple Beth Emeth), and Michael Simon (Beth Israel Congregation). The Planning Committee contacted local Jewish organizations to partner with A2J CC on this initiative.
All area Jewish organizations and groups, large and small, are encouraged to join us.