Then compost.
Well, that was an easy post. See you later.
What’s that? You want more? Fine. Here are some excellent reasons to start composting today.
- Food waste makes up roughly 30-40% of what goes into landfills (Americans toss out about 40% of the food they purchase – mostly residential waste: that is, from people like you and me – but that’s another story), and that organic material, smothered and deprived of oxygen, releases immense amounts of methane gas when it’s dumped in landfills.
Methane, as you’ve probably heard, is a potent greenhouse gas, up to 25 times more powerful than CO2. Landfill emissions are the third largest source of methane pollution in the US, after industrial sources (mostly from coal, natural gas, and oil production) and enteric fermentation (that’s livestock farts to you and me). Composting can keep that organic material out of the waste stream, and millions of tons of methane out of the atmosphere.
- Compost eliminates the need to purchase chemical fertilizers, which frequently contaminate groundwater, wells, and natural watercourses. Chemical fertilizer is pretty nasty stuff (a 40-pound bag of conventional fertilizer contains about 2.5 gallons of petroleum), energy-intensive to produce and environmentally disastrous to use. Chemical fertilizers are why there is a dead zone the size of New Jersey in the Gulf of Mexico.
- Compost greatly improves soil structure, preventing erosion. Erosion pours pesticide- and fertilizer-laden runoff into rivers, lakes and ponds, causing tremendous damage. (In the US, the average industrial farm loses about 3 tons of topsoil per acre annually.) By adding compost to the soil, it increases its ability to retain water (thus also cutting down on the need to water your lawn or garden), while also creating soil that is far better at supporting the root structures of plants. Flowers, lawns, and vegetables show marked improvement with the addition of compost.
“Over 46 percent of the world’s soil is experiencing significantly destroyed biological functions.” – International Soil Reference and Information Centre
- It’s easy, fun, and cheap. After minimal start-up costs, composting is an essentially free source of high-quality fertilizer. Composting can be as simple as dumping your organic waste onto a pile in the back yard, or you can get really high tech and encircle it with chicken wire. Discarded wooden pallets make good bins, or, Mr. Fancy-Pants, you can purchase a bin at any home store or online. Here’s a video showing one way to make a bin with pallets.
- Composting teaches your kids that in nature there is no such thing as waste, that everything exists in a state of growth, death, decay, and regrowth, and that sometimes what we think of as trash can become a thing of value. They might begin to view the food they eat differently, as part of a natural cycle, and encourage them to reduce their own waste.
If, like us, you don’t have a yard, you can still, like us, compost. Vermicomposting uses worms to turn organic material into soil, and a vermicomposter can fit on a terrace, in a garage, or even indoors in your kitchen or laundry room. We keep ours outside under our carport, where our little worms consume all of our kitchen waste. The ‘tea’ that comes from the extra liquid content of the vegetable waste makes a miraculous fertilizer.
Here’s a short and entertaining video on vermicomposting from TED-Ed.
I’m not going to get into the details of actually how to compost (it’s incredibly simple, really), because there are great resources out there to assist you, but I hope that I’ve provided a bit of the why you should. It’s something that you could do immediately to have a significant positive environmental impact, and it’s really satisfying to boot. So please, if I have inspired you to compost your waste, drop me a line and let me know how it’s going. I’d love to hear your stories.
Here are some good resources to get you going:
Eartheasy
wikiHow
University of Nebraska – Lincoln
Journey to Forever
The Global Compost Project
Field Notes From Fatherhood 
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Great tips! I’m recently trying to reduce the waste of my family and to explain to my kids how important this is for nature and for people. Your post is very helpful and gave me some really great ideas on this. I’m sure I’ll have a handle with this properly. Thank you for sharing!
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So dumb question… Because this is something I’ve been wanting to do but never get around to it. Sad I know.. Is it simple enough that I just have an extra trash bin and just start throwing all excess food into it outside?… I feel like I’m missing something. It can’t be that easy… 😔
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Well, yes and no. It’s not that easy, but it’s really easy. If you throw all of your organic waste into a trash bin, it will get slimy, watery, and very, very, funky. You don’t want to do that. Unless you want to do an extremely smelly science experiment. What you need to do is create an environment in which your organic waste can decompose naturally, with maximum air input. Your compost bin needs to have air flow, and needs, if it’s not a vermicompost bin, to be in contact with the ground, where it will pick up natural microbes, drain out excess liquids naturally, and decompose majestically.
If you don’t have a yard, you’ll need to look into vermicomposting, which I outline in the post. If you do have a yard, then your job couldn’t be easier. Just follow the steps outlined in the videos in the post, and you’ll be fine.
I just unloaded the last bin in my vermicomposter, and it’s gorgeous stuff. Happy composting!
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Good for you……….All in favor of composting and appreciated the article
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What an earth friendly post.
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okay thank you
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I LOVED composting when I lived in a house. It was so exciting to me how quickly my buried waste was transformed into rich soil. I also loved how the dirt clung to my shoes because it was so rich- fabulous. Such a sense of accomplishment not only from diverting waste but from participating in the carbon and nitrogen cycle.
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As mentioned in the article, you can still compost even if you live in a flat. There are ways…
Thanks for visiting and commenting!
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Do you know, if I start this year would it be ready in the spring? I live in the Midwest, the Wiki articled said you could start with brown matter (leaves) so it would be a good time to start this fall it seems…. My organic garden needs some extra fertilizing for next year.
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Absolutely. Well, probably. It depends on where in the Midwest. If you get a deep freeze for most of the winter, probably not. But get it started anyway – the sooner you start the sooner you’ll get magic fertilizer.
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My father in law is going to help us get started this weekend, fall leaves, final grass clippings, and leftover plants from our garden! I’m excited to try this.
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Hi, I really enjoyed this article and would really like to add composting to my home school curriculum. May I share the link to your blog on my page?
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Of course! Thanks for visiting, and I think adding composting to your curriculum is a great idea. Cheers!
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Wow! Thank you for this post! It looks really deeply researched and detailed. I’d love to start doing some more to reduce waste…and now that I live in a more rural area, maybe I’ll be able to do something like this. I know people in cities do compost, as well (I used to live in Portland, OR, where a lot of people are highly concerned about sustainability), so I know it’s doable. It intimidated me for quite a while, though. Maybe this is a step toward changing that. Thanks, again, for this.
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Compost away, my friend! No intimidation necessary – it’s really easy and satisfying. Thanks for visiting!
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