Below is a list of 32 reasons to compost, borrowed from the book Compost Everything, by David the Good, a master gardener. These 32 reasons are all listed in just the first few pages of the book, but if you have some land around your house and are interested in composting at home, we highly recommend picking up the book and reading it all, it’s a quick read at just 136 pages. We’ve listed the 32 reasons with some of his deeper explanations, and added some notes of our own in parentheses. Enjoy!

1. Composting saves money. When you compost, you potentially save money on water, fertilizer, and trash service.
2. Composting releases your inner fairy godmother. Mice into horses, pumpkins into carriages, and kitchen scraps into black gold!
3. Compost makes your plants happier. Gardeners like happy plants… and plants that get compost are definitely happy.
4. Composting reduces household waste. Composting keeps your food waste out of the waste stream. You can compost paper, cardboard, and anything organic. That means fewer bags of trash and less smell from your trash cans.
5. Composting saves fuel. Imagine how much gas could be saved if everyone quit chucking their food and yard “waste” and started composting instead. (Circle Compost note: letting us haul your scraps by bike is also a great solution!)
6. Composting keeps you from throwing away fertility. Throwing away potential soil fertility is an utter waste, yet people do it all the time.
7. Compost made at home saves energy. Homemade compost keeps you from traveling (which consumes energy) to buy factory-made fertilizer (which takes energy to produce) made from mined minerals (which take energy to mine), which are then packaged (which also requires energy and additional materials – usually plastic). If you’re already gardening organically, making compost also keeps you from traveling to buy organic amendments, which still require collecting, bagging, and packaging (Circle Compost note: we pick up your food waste by bike, make it into compost, then bring you 5 – 10 gallons of finished compost per year with your membership, and we bring it to you in reusable buckets we can take back from you and reuse again!)
8. Composting is enjoyable. Whether you make layers or just throw it in a pile to rot, creating compost is fun. Think of it as a big rotten food fight.
9. Compost made at home (or made by Circle Compost!) is safer than compost purchased at a store. Purchased compost can contain almost anything from pesticides and herbicides to weed seeds to heavy metals.
10. Compost builds soil. This goes without saying, but it’s still a wonderful thing.
11. Compost saves water. Adding compost to your soil significantly increases water retention, which means you’ll have to water less.
12. Compost feeds the microorganisms in your soil.
13. Compost makes your crops taste better. You can literally taste the difference between vegetables grown in poor soil and vegetables grown in nutrient-rich soil.
14. Compost acts like a slow-release fertilizer. Many gardeners feed plants with a blast of chemical fertilization that rapidly leaches through the soil and beyond the root zone, upsetting the soil web in the process. Compost instead provides a slow, gentle flow of nutrition to your plants.
15. Compost feeds the worms in your soil.
16. Composting keeps organic matter out of the water supply. Letting nitrogen-rich organic matter lie around increases the risk of contaminating water supplies…. Composting allows for the healthy breakdown of “waste” materials before they end up in the wrong place.
17. Compost feeds the fungi in your soil.
18. Compost improves clay. There’s nothing like some good organic matter to moderate a heavy clay soil. Cracked, rocky, hard clay can be turned into loamy soil with repeated additions of compost.
19. Compost improves sand. Sand is loose and lets water and nutrients run through. Compost helps it hold on to the good stuff for a lot longer.
20. Composting gives you gardening “street credibility.” Seriously, man. You don’t compost? What kind of gardener are you?
21. Compost can fight erosion.
22. Compost increases the nutrients in your vegetables.
23. Composting keeps fertility on your property. When you throw away leaves, food scraps, and other organic matter, you are throwing away minerals you should be keeping on your homestead. (Circle Compost note: though we take away your leaves, food scraps, and other organic matter, we give you back finished compost, so you get the best of both worlds!)
24. Composting regains some of the money you lose on food. Did your toddler mangle his plate of peas … then walk away? Composting that failed meal means you regain a little of the energy you lost buying and preparing it.
25. Composting turns liabilities into assets.
26. Composting binds up toxins. Studies have shown that some toxic substances can be rendered inert when they’re composted and thereby incorporated into complex molecules.
27. (Circle Compost note: in the book, this one is of a religious nature, so we’re omitting it … you’ll have to get the book to check this one out).
28. Composting is recycling. If you like recycling but don’t compost, what’s wrong with you? (Circle Compost makes it easy for anyone to compost – we give you a bucket and empty it out by bike trailer weekly or every other week!)
29. Compost destroys pathogens and fights plant disease. Compost is like yogurt. It’s full of active cultures that will fight disease in your plants and the soil….
30. Compost loosens soil. Roots need space in the soil and some air to breathe. Compost loosens and opens the ground, letting in some much-needed air.
31. Compost replaces fertilizer. This is one less thing you need to buy!
32. And one last reason: compost is easy to make! (Circle Compost note: it’s easy to make when you have a lot of space! If you live in the city and don’t have the space, let us do it for you, just click here to sign up for service! If you have a lot of space to compost and want to do it yourself, that’s awesome! Check out Compost Everything, by David the Good, and feel free to contact us for some tips!)