18 / matters magazine / home&garden 2018 Turning Spoil into Soil How exciting are carrot shavings, apple peels or the green tops of organic strawberries? You might be surprised. BY MALIA RULON HERMAN W h e n J a v a B r a d - ley told h i s w i f e t h a t he wanted to start composting, she thought he had lost his marbles. Having grown up in New York City, Michelle Bradley came from an urban existence of apartments and city parks. For her, collecting table scraps and turning them into nutrient-rich soil sounded like a one-way ticket to a nuisance plagued by mice, bugs and nasty smells. But Java, an elementary school teacher at the eco-friendly Philips Academy Charter School in Newark, managed to persuade Michelle to give it a try, and soon they began composting the food by- products from their own apartment using a black plastic bin that had been donated to the Maplewood community garden. They would make the rounds of their neighbors and collect food scraps. And much to her surprise, Michelle found that composting wasn’t smelly – and didn’t attract bugs. Fast-forward to the present: Java, Michelle and their three boys moved into their first house. Java took composting classes and became a certified compost operator. Envisioning a multi-town effort to collect organic waste and compost it all in their new back yard using an army of massive steel tum- blers, the couple founded Java’s Compost, which has grown from their single-bin home operation into a service that for a modest price helps other house- holders recycle their food waste back to the earth that grew it. Unfortunately, onerous New Jersey food waste regulations squashed their dream of collecting food waste from customers and composting it in one centralized location. But Java continued to be fascinated by composting, and by the cycle in which food becomes waste be- comes soil becomes food. “The exciting thing to me about composting is that all you’re doing is trying to create an envi- ronment where this material is being allowed to compost like it would compost anyway,” Java says. “There’s actually a whole new life cycle that comes forth. To me, that’s pretty remarkable.” The solution: Java’s Compost: For a start-up cost of $498, the company will provide a Swedish-made closed bin compost tumbler that is durable, insulat- ed and pest proof. It comes in three sizes, depending on the size of one’s family and the amount of waste generated. Also included is a five-gallon bucket to collect food scraps, as well as a smaller counter top container. The tumbler stays in the back yard. In