We have a compost pile at our home in Chilmark, with its advantages (healthier soil) and disadvantages (varmints). I hate throwing away all that material that could be composted.

Thank you for your informative article on July 15 headline “Composting on the Coast.” I am very happy to hear of this four-month pilot study, as we all need to think about doing the one other part of recycling, namely composting.

In Berkeley, Calif., we collect our green matter and food scraps and put them in large bins that are collected by the city once a week. This material is driven to a facility where it is chopped up, put in long windrows, watered, and turned every three days. In 10 weeks the sun has cooked it into compost. We pay for this in a once-a-year payment to the city, which also charges us for picking up the trash. (Recycling is done separately.) The compost is brought back to our city where the public has access to it for private gardens, the parks department uses it, and I deliver it to school and community gardens in a rented dump truck.

Perhaps something similar could be done on the Vineyard. A facility could be made on five acres in the middle of the Island, and a coalition of workers from all the six townships would be established to maintain it. Trucks would collect the prunings, grass clippings, and food scraps from homes, and deliver it to the new facility. When it has been treated properly, the compost will be ready to sell to gardeners and farmers. There would be savings by not having to cart garbage, food scraps and green matter off to the mainland, and not having to bring in compost from Vermont or Maine.

I would like to discuss this topic with others who are interested.

Beebo Rantoul Turman
Berkley, Calif. and Chilmark