When my neighbor called out my compost bin, I finally fixed my food waste system

Dakota Ramirez · 2026-09-07T13:10:05.590451+00:00

Ive been composting in my backyard in Austin for about 2 years now and thought I had it dialed in. Last month my neighbor saw me tossing in citrus peels and told me I was basically inviting fruit flies and making the pile too acidic. She was right, I had been ignoring the brown to green ratio for weeks because I was lazy about saving cardboard. I switched to chopping scraps smaller and now I keep a paper bag next to the bin so I grab a handful of shredded mail every time I add food. The pile stopped smelling and actually started breaking down faster, like half the time it used to take. I also moved the bin further from my back door which sounds dumb but it made a huge difference. Has anyone else had a neighbor or friend point out something obvious about their setup that you just refused to see for months?

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When my neighbor called out my compost bin, I finally fixed my food waste system | Climate Action - Rigidtalk