Last week I asked the question, "What has the most impact on waste reduction in a household?" (or something like that). All three people that answered, said that bringing bags and containers shopping has the most impact on waste reduction.
It is true that brining bags and containers shopping considerably reduces household waste, but, according to the US EPA, organic materials (yard waste, food waste, wood waste and paper) makes up over two-third of the US waste stream.
I wouldn't recommend trying to compost wood products in a backyard composter, but most every other organic material will decompose into an organic nutrient rich soil amendment that can be used as a fertilizer in the garden. If you already compost, high five! You probably divert about one third of your household waste, not to mention the benefits to your garden.
If you are someone who thinks composting is a good idea but just haven't made the commitment, now is a great time to start. There are many resources on composting, every municipality has some sort of booklet or information package, and if you live in the TNRD, chances are you can get your hands on a worm or backyard composter at cost (about $25).
I have read a lot about composting and there are many different styles. If you don't mind the sight, composting can be done in the open air (which makes it easier to turn) by simply creating a compost pile. I do this with my weeds and garden waste, which I am reluctant to put into my food waste bin, mainly because it would fill too quickly and I don't think my pile gets hot enough to kill any weed seeds.
I have also attempted vermicomposting (worm composting), which is great for people that live in apartments or flats that don't have space for a backyard compost. A special type of worm is used for composting, usually Red Wigglers. There is no need to turn a worm compost because the worms do all the work. Mel Anderson at All Things Organic sells worms and compost bins, but you don't need to get a fancy as the multi-tiered compost bins made for worm composting, a simple rubbermade tote will do the trick. To get started you need to put some bedding down for the worms, like dampened shredded paper or coconut coir. Then add the worms and start to feed.
I say attempted worm composting because (sadly) I have killed my worms on more than one attempt. Good ole Mel though, keeps encouraging me, because worm composting is superior to backyard composting, simply because the material breaks down so much faster in a worm compost and what you are left with is this amazingly rich nutrient rich, super fine, worm castings that any gardener would say looks like gold.
I digress yet again. How did I kill my worms? I starved them to death. The first time I lived in an apartment with two guys that were not into having the worm compost under the kitchen sink or in the closet. So I put the compost way out of the way in a back staircase that nobody used. Unfortunately, the compost was in a really inconvenient place for me too. In the winter I had to tredge through the snow and wedge the door open with a stick so I didn't get locked in the staircase. I started to feed the worms less regularly but in greater amounts, which didn't really work for the worms. One day I went out to feed the worms and had a dig around to see how there were faring and there wasn't a single worm wiggling in the pile. I felt terrible, like I killed my pet (which I had). Too embarrassed to tell Mel that I had killed my worms, I gave up worm composting.
On my second attempt (after confessing to Mel about what happened), I got more worms and was determined to make it work. After all, I had just finished organizing a bunch of worm composting workshops across the regional district and had preached about great worm composting was. Surely I could make it work. But by this time I had invested (or inherited, I can't remember) a backyard compost bin, which I found to be a little less finicky than the worms (I wasn't going to kill anything in the backyard compost bin).
By this time I had moved in with my now husband Trevor and we were renting an old house downtown. Trevor is a hippie so it wasn't hard to convince him that we should have the worm compost in the kitchen. This worked really well. I fed the worms regularly and they were happy as could be in our little kitchen. I would show them off to all our visitors and would even give a few gardener friends some castings to take home (if they were lucky). You aren't supposed to overfeed worms so whatever I thought would be too much for the worms was tossed in the backyard compost.
This system worked wonderfully, until Eli was born and we moved and I started to notice the smell of the compost in the house. It wasn't really a bad smell, more earthy, but for whatever reason, it permeated our new home much more that the one downtown. So into the garage went the compost, which was the beginning of the end for the worms (I still feel like a murderer). Because we still had the backyard compost, it was so much more convenient to throw everything into the one bin, rather than taking some compost into the garage for the worms and then tossing the rest in the backyard compost.
The moral of the story is, if you are going to compost, make sure that you put the compost bin (or pile or whatever sort of system you choose) in a convenient location that you will use. Otherwise it will just sit there collecting dust (like my worm compost in the garage). On a happy note though, I am donating the worm compost to Elianna's daycare. Kids love to play with worms, and its all about learning some important life cycles.
Recently a friend posted a link to a different type of compost system called the Green Cone that I am going to look into because with this system you can compost all kitchen waste including meat and bones, something that shouldn't be put into a backyard compost bin (mainly because of the odour attracts animals).
Do you compost? What type of system do you have? Do you have problems or concerns about composting? Have you ever tried this digested Green Cone system? What about worm composting? Please comment about your compost experiences. What are some of the challenges you face?
0 comments:
Post a Comment