Providence Chemist Breaks Down Urban Composting

By Sarah Puschmann / ecoRI News contributor

PROVIDENCE — On a recent Thursday afternoon, Michael Bradlee manned his composting stand at the Armory Farmers Market on the city’s West Side. His goal: to spread the word about the virtues of urban composting.

“It’s not necessarily a great day to stand around and talk about composting but this is the time of year to think about it,” he said, acknowledging both the brisk wind and the leaves blanketing the ground. “This is Leaf-tober.”

A research chemist and composting enthusiast, Bradlee has cultivated a clear method of easing the compost-shy into his world: speak slowly and use analogies. Soil is simply “finely broken-down old mountains;” cold composting, a nearly-no-maintenance method that entails layering food scraps on top of mulch, is lasagna-style; hot composting — the kind he recommends for city dwellers — is no more challenging than simple cooking.