Free Compost at Harrison Township

Summary of post
Few things in life are free... and this is one of them. The 'compost give-away program' available all year provides free leaf compost for the lucky folks at Harrison Township, PA.

An open secret
I was skimming through the Harrison Township Recycling Calendar, noting the recycling days, when I saw this notice 'Compost Give-Away Program: Free leaf compost... Please come ... and help yourself'. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is big on recycling, according to the news release from www.state.pa.us, "..reycling a record 4.86 million tons of municipal waste, saving consumers and industries nearly $263 million in waste disposal costs and providing businesses with materials valued at $577 million". This free leaf compost is the end result of all the bagged leaf and garden residues left out by Harrison Township folks for curbside pickup.

Home composting
Composting is the way to go to reduce pressure on landfills, lessen organic matter leachate from landfills into our rivers, and return valuable nutrients to our soils. Instead of spending money buying compost, I compost household vegetable scraps and other garden residues. Composting at home is simple and doesn't take a lot of time. There are plenty of guides on composting techniques out there, but the recipe that has worked well for me follows a 3:2:1 ratio. I use 3 parts of dry carbon-rich matter (e.g., dry leaves) to 2 parts of nitrogen-rich matter (e.g., animal poop) to 1 part of good soil or ripe compost as a starter. I layer these ingredients one of top of the other, making several layers and eventually get to a 1 x 1 x 1 m pile. The idea behind composting is to provide the best possible environment for the aerobic decomposers (bacteria and fungi) to do their thing. With the base 'food' available to these little guys, a correct ratio of oxygen to moisture (water just enough to keep moist), you'll have compost in 3 - 6 months. The colder it is, the slower the process. Turning the pile helps to aerate and mix all the good stuff together.

Harrison Township Free Composting Service
While veggie scraps and some garden residues go down well in a home compost pile, other organic materials such as branches and woody stuff would take years to rot. It's nice if you have a wood chipper or shredder, but most people don't. This is where the municipal services come in very handy. You can bundle with string all the branches with diameters of 4" and smaller, and leave 'em bundles curbside according to calendar. If you don't feel like making compost, you can give all your leaves and garden residues up for this composting service. They even provide special paper bags for you to fill up with leaves, at a nominal price.

Dig in!
I've helped myself to two truckloads of this free compost so far (Spencer is unloading a truckload in the pic below). It is dark, rich, crumbly, smells earthy, and is loaded with earthworms. We estimate that this compost would have cost over $500 if we had gone to a garden center to buy it.

The best things in life are free!




xo Gracie