Meet the Composter: Anu and family

Anu and family

Anu Soundararajan lives in Malvern with her husband, Anand, and two sons, Siddharth (13) and Rishabh (9). The family of four enjoys hanging out together, whether watching movies, playing board games or visiting new places. They lived in Massachusetts prior to moving to Pennsylvania in 2019. 

Both Anu and Anand work in IT and have busy careers. In addition, Anu is an amateur photographer and one of her favorite activities is taking long walks with her camera.

Back to Earth Compost Crew is not the family’s first experience with composting. While living in Massachusetts, they had their own composting processes: a tumbling composter as well as lazy backyard composting. They are committed to composting for several reasons. According to Anu, “decomposing food emits toxic gases when it is part of the landfill and by separating wet waste from dry, we can prevent that.” Another benefit of waste segregation is that it allows the family to go bagless with their dry waste, which they consider another eco-win! Since they separate their waste, the family no longer uses trash bags in their home, which has helped them to reduce their plastic consumption significantly. 

Anu and her family aspire to be zero wasters. They have been working towards being a waste-free home for the last seven years. “We are not completely there yet, but have made significant strides in living sustainably.” says Anu.  The family buys in bulk, carries reusable produce bags for groceries to avoid plastic baggies, takes containers to restaurants to bring leftover food home, carries their own straws and silverware,  washes in cold water, makes their own snacks to the extent possible, uses compostable items in the kitchen and bath, and always tries to buy local.

They do their best to avoid buying anything that is not packaged sustainably. Anu explains, “This can be challenging at times, especially with children, when we have to forego certain items. It has been an educational and eye-opening journey for all of us. We can live with a lot less than we think we need.”

Anu loves the saying: think global, act local. She says, “all we have to do is start small with changing to a sustainable lifestyle. Pick one thing you would like to change and if you need help, take cues from other people living sustainably. The Internet is a wonderful resource for this. I am also happy to help out with anyone who has a question about sustainable living.”

The family’s favorite thing about Back to Earth Compost Crew is the mission to enable homeowners to participate in composting even when they are unable to do so in their own homes. Anu finds Back to Earth Compost Crew to be reliable, always prompt and efficient with service. She also loves the newsletter and the attempt to keep customers engaged and involved in composting. Anu appreciates Back to Earth’s commitment towards helping build a more sustainable community. 

Back to Earth Compost Crew is happy to have Anu and her family in our composting community!