Composting Basics: All the Skills and Tools You Need to Get Started

How to recycle household waste to make quality compost

You don’t need a science degree or a shed full of sophisticated equipment to make quality compost. What you need to get started is the know-how provided in this basic how-to book along a little elbow grease and the pile of organic materials you regularly throw away. Nature does the rest.
Whether you live in the suburbs, country, or city, whether you have a garden or not, you can recycle household waste in an environmentally friendly way and turn it into black gold: compost. You’ll learn what and how to compost, how to make or buy bins, how to build a compost pile and make compost tea, and how to compost with worms. It’s simple and easy to do, and the best part is that you’ll be saving money and helping to save the earth as well.

Eric Ebeling is an editor of the Stackpole Books How-to-Basics series.
Carl Hursh is an environmental educator and a recycling and composting consultant who teaches composting workshops. He lives in Mechanicsburg, PA.
Patti Olenick is a soil scientist and the sustainability coordinator for a large grocery store chain where she oversees the collection and composting of organics. She lives in Sunbury, PA.