Composting: Turning Trash into Treasure
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Issue: There are three environmental issues that you can begin to address right now from your own home: soil health, carbon sequestration, and your health. How? Through composting your kitchen and lawn trimmings!Healthy soil provides healthy food, and our soils are being depleted – turned to unproductive dirt – by the non-regenerative and extractive effects of agriculture and manufacturing. But we can help.
Composting allows organic materials to return to a state that can nourish the earth, creating “black gold” – a nutrient rich, natural fertilizer that allows the microbiome in the soil to thrive, balance and support life. It is like turning trash into treasure! |
Why should we care? Composting is a simple way in which we can all be part of healing earth and ourselves. 95% of food we eat is dependent on soil for life, and there is mounting evidence that the nutrient density of our food is diminishing as soil is less nutrient rich. This contributes to obesity, as more food volume is needed to get the same level of essential nutrients from food.
In composting we set the conditions for microorganisms to decompose our kitchen scraps, paper, and lawn trimmings into food for the soil. It is healthy for plants, and it keeps these items away from landfills where they emit methane – a gas over 20 times worse than CO2 for increasing greenhouse gases. Once you set up a system, composting doesn’t take a lot of time and can be done in ways that fit your housing type and available space.
In composting we set the conditions for microorganisms to decompose our kitchen scraps, paper, and lawn trimmings into food for the soil. It is healthy for plants, and it keeps these items away from landfills where they emit methane – a gas over 20 times worse than CO2 for increasing greenhouse gases. Once you set up a system, composting doesn’t take a lot of time and can be done in ways that fit your housing type and available space.
View our "Composting: Turning Trash into Treasure" Zoom Discussion" from Thursday, June 11.
What can we do now? If each of us moves the needle a little, the results can be huge. We all eat, and we can all enrich the earth and lower our impact. How?
First learn how composting works and then decide on a method that works for you. This article from the Food Revolution Network is very helpful: https://foodrevolution.org/blog/home-composting-secrets
Here is one option for a common outdoor design. No yard, no problem – there are options for most settings.
First learn how composting works and then decide on a method that works for you. This article from the Food Revolution Network is very helpful: https://foodrevolution.org/blog/home-composting-secrets
Here is one option for a common outdoor design. No yard, no problem – there are options for most settings.
Second, learn what to include, in what proportions, and what to exclude. Here’s a handy chart from Food Revolution Network:
Most pesticides will break down in a compost bin. In the heat of a bin, most toxins decay into simple molecules and some form bonds with other compounds by absorption.
Two notable exceptions are clopyralid and aminopyralid – two synthetic pesticides used in commercial lawn treatments. Do not use grass clippings and yard waste from golf courses or lawns treated with these toxins. Better yet, have a conversation with the lawn service about using safer alternatives!
Two notable exceptions are clopyralid and aminopyralid – two synthetic pesticides used in commercial lawn treatments. Do not use grass clippings and yard waste from golf courses or lawns treated with these toxins. Better yet, have a conversation with the lawn service about using safer alternatives!
Technically, some items like meat scraps would biodegrade over time in a bin. It is suggested that you not do this because they draw pests and create odors. Rinse egg shells thoroughly before composting for the same reason.
To Consider More Deeply. Save your compostable table scraps for one week. Use a bucket with a tight lid, because they may get odorous (which doesn’t happen with a functioning compost bin). Notice the volume. Imagine this expanded to a month, then a year and consider the impact if everyone took part in composting. (It is estimated that the average US household generates over 650 pounds of compostable material every year.)
Learn More Via YouTube Videos:
Composting for Beginners | The Dirt | Better Homes & Gardens
A Simple Outdoor Compost System
Composting for Beginners | The Dirt | Better Homes & Gardens
A Simple Outdoor Compost System
Read About It: (please use the library, order directly from a local bookstore, or use bookshop.org to support local book sellers) There are many books on the subject, and here’s one that tried and true!
The Rodale Book of Composting: Easy Methods for Every Gardener Paperback – January 15, 1992
by Grace Gershuny (Editor), Jerry Minnich (Editor)
The Rodale Book of Composting: Easy Methods for Every Gardener Paperback – January 15, 1992
by Grace Gershuny (Editor), Jerry Minnich (Editor)
Here are just a few places for you to learn more or see composting in action in our community:
~WMU has a volunteer program that allows you to work in their composting facility on Friday afternoons. You can learn the process and take some compost home for your plants!
~Bell’s Brewery has implemented a major composting component to their business model.
~Renewed Earth landscapers use windrows to compost huge volumes of leaves
~Peoples Food Co-Op manages the facility and composting at the Kalamazoo Farmer’s Market
~WMU has a volunteer program that allows you to work in their composting facility on Friday afternoons. You can learn the process and take some compost home for your plants!
~Bell’s Brewery has implemented a major composting component to their business model.
~Renewed Earth landscapers use windrows to compost huge volumes of leaves
~Peoples Food Co-Op manages the facility and composting at the Kalamazoo Farmer’s Market