A few months ago a group of us at the Coldwell Banker home office volunteered at the Community Food Bank of NJ, packing up boxes of nonperishable food items to be given to those in need. During that experience, I was surprised how much food had to be discarded — but for very good reasons. I was recalling this moment recently when I came across a WSJ article highlighting the amount of food waste Americans contribute to our landfills. According to EndHunger.org, we throw away 263 million pounds of food a day!

With Earth Day coming up, why not think about how to lessen the amount of food waste your household contributes to the landfill by starting to compost? Need some tips on composting? Check these resources out:

1. How to Build a Compost Pile for Dummies. This composting video is a great introduction (a bit dated but does the trick in showing you the basics).
2. Do’s and Don’ts. This article by TreeHugger.com provides you with great advice on what to compost and what NOT to compost. Bonus content in this article is recommendations on composting bins you can build or purchase.
3. What to Buy. According to Google Shopping ratings the following all received 4.5 stars and cost under $110:
   1. Forest City Models and Patterns Yimby Tumbler Composter (30 gallon)
   2. The Earth Machine (80 gallon)
   3. FreeGarden EARTH (82 gallon)