At first, Michelle Bradley, a West Orange mother of three, was a reluctant composter.

Her husband Java got jazzed by the process while working as a teacher at Philip's Academy Charter School in Newark, one of Michelle Obama's "Garden Schools," where the students grow food in their rooftop garden, cook it, and compost the waste.

But his wife didn’t want to try it in their apartment, afraid it would smell and take up too much space.

“I really just didn’t want to be bothered,” she said.

Now, the reluctant composter has become the enthusiastic other half of Java’s Compost, based in West Orange, which provides about a hundred homeowners there and in Montclair, Millburn, Maplewood, Chatham, West Orange and South Orange with odorless, animal-proof buckets and help making their own compost. Three months ago the company added a food waste pickup service for apartment-dwellers and businesses who can't compost themselves but want to keep their food scraps out of the waste stream. Already 80 customers are signed up for weekly or bi-monthly pickups.

“We take everything, including meat and bones and dairy, cooked and uncooked," said Michelle Bradley. "There’s no thought process at all; you don’t have to throw any food in the trash ever again.”

It was watching the documentary “Dirt, the Movie” that converted Bradley to composting, she said. She saw how nutrients stripped from the soil by modern farming methods can be replaced by compost, making produce more nutritious and our soil more productive.

What’s more, throwing food waste in landfills creates methane, a greenhouse gas that is a major contributor to climate change, she said. In Essex County, all garbage gets burned in an incinerator in Newark, causing health concerns for those who live near the facility.

“Once I saw that movie I thought, wow, I’m responsible for creating greenhouse gases by putting my food in the trash, and there’s no reason for it, it’s not that hard to compost," she says. 

Environment: It's not just you, New Jersey's air quality has been pretty bad this summer

Go green: Haworth looks to add to green-friendly ordinance by banning straws and plastic bags

Restaurants that have their food scraps picked up by Java's Compost include Joyist, a café on Valley Road that was the first in Montclair. The company is in talks with others, like Bluestone Coffee, a favorite hangout of locals, including Stephen Colbert.

Bradley said setting up the company was more complicated because of New Jersey waste disposal rules that make compost subject to the same strict regulations as solid waste. There is only one waste facility in the state that will take food scraps, and it is at capacity, so Java's compost has to be shipped to upstate New York. 

Eventually, the couple hope to compost food scraps in a small community processing facility, like those used successfully in New York City and other urban areas. 

Changing mindsets about tossing food waste in the garbage is another goal, she said.  

"Now, when you go somewhere where they don't recycle it feels weird to just throw out your can or water bottle," she says. "We want people to have that same feeling about food waste." 


Support local journalism


Read or Share this story: