Composting is the perfect way for your family to turn food “waste” into vital nutrients that will lower your carbon footprint and reduce waste. In honor of Earth Day, April is a good time to renew your interest in sustainable practices.

What exactly is composting? It’s a manmade process, mimicking the natural process of organic matter breaking down into useful nutrients for plants. Making compost reduces waste by preventing plant materials – valuable compost ingredients – from ending up in a landfill. Once they’re in the landfill, they end up rotting and contributing to methane emissions, instead of breaking down to useful nutrients for our yards.

Making your own compost saves money. If you have plants growing at your home, chances are you amend your soil with nutrients to help your plants stay healthy. Purchasing amendments at the store can be costly. Making compost is a free, organic way of creating a constant supply of nutrients to feed your plants.

What if you don’t grow any plants to benefit from compost? Give them away! Many gardeners are happy to take finished compost or raw ingredients so that they can make compost. You’d be surprised to find out how many people are interested in your kitchen scraps.

Want to learn more about composting? Ask your student! Each kindergarten through 5th grade student in RBUSD learned the difference between “green” (fresh cut grass, vegetable and fruit scraps, coffee grounds, manure and green leaves) and “brown” (dried grass, brown leaves, dead flowers and plants, paper and eggshells) compost materials during the February LiveWell Kids garden lesson. To learn more about the LiveWell Kids garden program, go to bchd.org/LiveWellKids. To learn more about composting opportunities in Redondo Beach, visit the city website.