Winter Composting

Q. I have been saving kitchen scraps in plastic bags, piling them up and waiting until spring to put them on my compost heap. There is some decomposition on warm days. Is there a better way to compost in winter?

A. First, and Very Important.  RING invites neighbors to put compostables into the compost, but Please don't put Any Plastic - No Plastic Bags - into our composters.  Some neighbors throw plastic bags with compost over the fence all winter.  We can't deal with that and throw them in the garbage. 

Winter Composting Science:
The organisms that turn kitchen scraps into fluffy, odorless compost need plenty of oxygen and carbon (from things like straw and dry leaves). Neither element is plentiful in those bags, so when their contents decompose you get smelly, slimy mush.

The mush will retain many nutrients and can be composted in spring, but by then it will be pretty unpleasant stuff, and not as many of the organisms will be able to use it. For both these reasons, to say nothing of the exercise, the better way to compost in the winter is to shovel a path to the pile and keep on adding the kitchen scraps as you do during the summer.

Nothing much will happen until spring, but everything will be in place for a fast-forward as soon as the weather warms.