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Every Little Bit Helps: Start A Composting Pile

It doesn’t take much to make changes in your community. Recently, I started watching a new channel devoted to cleaning up your environment and lessening your global footprint. There are many interesting shows and someday I hope to use their suggestions when I purchase my own home, but for now, I have to settle for some of the smaller changes I can make in my daily life.


I like plants. I always have. Living in the Northeast means having to bring plants inside in the winter months and hope they survive the winter, which right now is touch and go. However, once spring rolls around, I plan to put my plants outside again and let them enjoy their time in the sun. Until then, I’ve decided to start a small composting pile so that when the weather gets warmer, I can provide my plants with this new recycled form of nourishment.


It’s very simple, I simply searched the web for ways I can recycle my waste and found multiple websites. Going further, my city has a link on their website where I can purchase a compost bin for just $25. All of our vegetable, fruit, tea bags and coffee waste go right in the bin, and I mix it with dead leaves and soil and in a few months, I’ll have new soil for my plants.


It was so simple! One day when I mentioned what I was doing to some co-workers, they asked how they could get started, and just recently I was informed that there are several people in my office that have their own composting bins.


It’s amazing, how something so simple can catch on. Change starts from a small group of individuals until it blossoms and grows into reality.


What are some small ways you are starting change in your lives or in your community?


Written by Matthew Reid, volunteer blogger with the Literacy ‘n’ Poverty Project. A native New Yorker, Matthew now lives in Boston and works for a math curriculum development company.

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