Your Guide to Composting
Composting is a vastly underrated method to being more environmentally friendly. It reduces waste in landfills, improves soil quality and saves resources. A national study found that only 28% of Americans compost right now! At first glance, composting can seem like a daunting process, but once you break it down, it’s pretty simple. In this post we’ll go through how composting works, the benefits of composting, and how you can take action.
The main benefits of composting come from a food web of microorganisms in the soil that break down the organic waste and produce “humus” through a process called aerobic respiration. This humus contains nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium which are the three main nutrients plants need in soil (this is why composting is highly encouraged in home gardens). This process can be divided into three stages: mesophilic (below 104°F), thermophilic (104°F – 149°F), and cooling. The compost pile begins at the temperature of its surroundings but naturally heats up as more and more microorganisms join the pile. Decomposition is most effective during the second stage (thermophilic bacteria) but if the pile is left unchecked, temperatures may rise above the bacteria’s maximum livable temperature of approximately 150°F and the microorganisms will die off. Maintaining a healthy environment of temperature, life, and compost ingredients is essential for an efficient pile.
Approximately 24% of our waste can be composted but organic material makes up 13% of the United States’ Municipal Solid Waste (MSW). That’s approximately 347,000 additional tons of material going into our landfills that could’ve been composted! In addition, organic waste produces methane in landfills which is a substance 2000% more potent than carbon dioxide. In addition to reducing unnecessary material in landfills, using composted waste is an alternative to spending money on chemical fertilizers which have been known to contaminate groundwater, pollute the air, and harm human health in general.
Many Massachusetts cities, including Worcester, have convenient composting programs where you can drop off most yard waste for free. In Worcerster, waste gets composted at the town’s facility and is offered to residents free of charge. If you don’t live in one of these cities or would prefer to compost at home, it’s a slightly different and more involved process. The general rules for at-home compostable items are that they don’t harm plants, spread disease, attract pests, or kill off composting organisms. This means you can compost things like fruit and vegetable scraps, egg and nut shells, coffee grounds and filters, teabags, newspaper (better if it’s shredded), cardboard, most yard waste, dryer lint, and hair/fur. You should not compost dairy products, diseased plants, fat/grease/lard, meat scraps, pet excrement, or pesticide treated yard trimmings. A full list is available at the EPA website listed below.
Once you have your compostable materials ready, it’s time to start the pile. Because it’s important for the compost to have a healthy carbon-nitrogen mix, you should separate the “browns” (carbon rich material like newspaper, egg cartons and dry leaves) and “greens” (nitrogen rich material like vegetable peels and grass clippings). In general, having a two to one or three to one ratio of browns to greens is a good idea. You should then start your compost pile with the food waste in the center and add layers of alternating browns and greens to prevent the attraction of pests and ensure a healthy nutrient balance. Once some time has passed, you should flip, rotate, or somehow move your compost pile (aeration) so that the pile doesn’t overheat like we mentioned earlier. You can continue to do this approximately once per week. If you follow all of these steps and use the right materials, you’ll have a nutrient-rich, natural fertilizer in less than a few months!
While it may take a little bit of extra work, composting helps you reduce unnecessary waste, enriches your plants, and saves you money! I hope this post gave you some new information about this amazing process, and maybe even convinced you to start a pile!
If you’d like to look deeper into composting here are the sites I used for my research:
https://home.howstuffworks.com/composting.htm
https://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/organics/homecompost/microbes
http://compost.css.cornell.edu/physics.htm
https://earth911.com/home-garden/compost-awareness-week-no-more-excuses-start-your-pile/
http://www.worcesterma.gov/trash-recycling/residential-drop-off-center
https://www.wastedive.com/news/survey-most-americans-will-compost-if-its-convenient/212981/
https://www.epa.gov/recycle/composting-home
https://homeguides.sfgate.com/composting-helps-environment-23577.html
https://www.npr.org/2020/04/07/828918397/how-to-compost-at-home
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212670812000486
https://eponline.com/Articles/2017/12/07/The-Hidden-Dangers-of-Chemical-Fertilizers.aspx?