One of the easiest actions to implement to create lasting environmental change is composting, and learning the importance of composting really changed my thoughts on waste. In fact, it’s multi-faceted ability to tackle the entire waste cycle, as well as positively impacting the environment, is the very reason it is becoming available in more cities across the globe. In the United States, the top composting city is San Francisco, which diverts nearly 80% of its waste from landfills for either composting or recycling. So why aren’t more people composting? Even those with community composting or city-implemented programs can sometimes find it hard to start composting.
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Table of Contents
What is Composting?
To put it simply, composting is a natural process whereby organic matter is broken down by microorganisms to create a soil rich in nutrients. The end product of typically referred to as “compost” and is utilized to enrich the soil of plants, vegetables, herbs, shrubs, and trees. The entire process is something akin to magic and really puts into perspective just how awe-inspiring nature can be.
Benefits of Composting
The entire process of composting is cyclic in nature, from food scraps to enriched soil back to healthy plants that can feed or nurture our bodies. The positive impact is not only environmental in nature, but also personal. When we started composting, the homeowner benefits became apparent:
1. We created less waste
Like a lot less. Eliminating food waste from our trash resulted in no more mountains of trash bags out to the road on “trash-day” every week. Now, we have one or two bags every month. This does not save me money personally since my rural area has bulk pickup, but I do have city friends who have to pay per trash bag. Based on the amount of waste my food scraps amounted to, composting would save some of my city friends nearly 75% of their annual waste-management bill.
2. We realized more than food could be composted
Random things that actually take up a lot of space in our trash like: cardboard packaging, our wine corks, the napkins my mother insisted upon using when she visited the house. Some of our junk mail even gets shredded and composted as well.
3. Our plants are healthier
With their invigorated health, our plants have been able to weather not being watered when we take a random vacation mid-summer. We also did not externally fertile our plants in our no-dig garden this year (full-disclosure: we meant to and we have organic, plant-based fertilizers we use, but we just ended up super busy this summer and we were unable to make time for it) and they THRIVED.
4. We no longer have to burn our branches, sticks, and brush
We have a lot of older trees on our property and every year we used to have to spend several days collecting, piling, and ultimately burning the branches, twigs, and sticks that fell throughout the winter. I mean there would be several piles just scattered throughout our yard until we could clean them up. Now, we just pile them until the temperatures are warm enough and shred what we can to add to our compost bin and leave the rest for the toads and frogs, and everything else that needs it.
5. Extreme Satisfaction
It is immensely satisfying (I swear you will smile so big!) when you throw your food waste into this large pile (think banana peels, apple cores, rosemary stems, etc.) and walk away. Only to come back in six or so months to this beautiful pile of dark, rich soil with no banana peels in sight.
Environmental Importance of Compost
Environmentally, the impact of composting is seemingly even greater; composting is important because it can:
1. Reduce new greenhouse gas emissions
Organic matter that is deposited in landfills does not have the proper environment to foster the growth of the necessary microorganisms to break down the food waste, so the organic matter creates methane as it is slowly broken down. Methane is a harmful greenhouse gas, that is far more infamous than carbon dioxide. Methane is thought to produce up to 80x the warming power of carbon dioxide and is massively contributing to global warming and subsequently global climate change. By reducing the organic matter in landfills, we can reduce the amount of methane emitted.
2. Promote the uptake of carbon dioxide through plants
The enriched soil creates healthier plants, aiding in reducing the amount of carbon dioxide (a harmful greenhouse gas contributing to climate change) in the atmosphere.
3. Improve soil health
The improved soil health, helps create healthier plants, reduce soil loss/erosion, and increase the water storage capacity of the soil (fantastic for drought-ridden areas).
Why isn’t everyone composting?
All the great environmental and personal benefits, why aren’t more people composting?? It’s hecking confusing, that’s why! It took me owning my own home with land and YEARS (yes: years) of research before I jumped on the compost train. Every article, how-to blog, and infographic I read was confusing me with all these things I thought I had to do/know before implementing a compost system.
There was confusion and information overload regarding the type of compost container I needed, the brown/green ratios that were important, the temperature of the compost, and how to keep it aerated.
I thought composting was going to end up like one of my high school science experiments: daily temperature checks, precise measurements of exact food matter–and I was not ready to add that stress to my daily plate. When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down everything in March 2020, the boyfriend no longer had to commute to work and I no longer had to fly to a different city every night. We decided that we should just go for it and haven’t looked back since. We’ve done some things wrong, some right, and just about everywhere in between and now I’m sharing all the secrets I’ve learned to simplify the process with you!
Starting a Compost Bin: 10 Things Standing in Your Way
1. Instant Gratification
If you go into this expecting to have this amazing, enriched soil next week, you might be a little disappointed.
It can take upwards of six months (if everything correctly aligns!) for your pile to fully breakdown. Even if it’s starting to look like the beautiful soil you were expecting, chances are it’s probably not finished quite yet
2. Diseased Plants and Weeds
Throwing these into your pile can potentially spread the disease and/or weeds to the plants you use the soil for in the future.
For the first year of composting, we had a crappy garden year with a lot of squash bugs. And their eggs were on EVERYTHING. So we did not compost those for fear that our pile would basically breed more squash bugs.
There’s a caveat to this one: you CAN compost diseased plants and/or weeds, IF your compost pile gets hot enough (130F) to kill off the diseased plant and/or weed seeds. It’s best to start your composting adventure by avoiding these materials in the beginning and slowly adding them once you have more experience.
3. Incorrect Materials
Some materials are not recommended to be composted in a home compost system. These include cheese, dairy, and any meat products, mainly because they attract animals. Since the Boyfriend still eats meat on occasion, sometimes a little bit of meat or cheese will end up in our bin. It degrades just like the rest of the food waste. I’m not an expert, but it definitely can be done.
4. Lack of Oxygen
The microorganisms need oxygen to do their job. They can survive with limited oxygen, but they do need some in order to survive and breakdown the organic matter.
Adding oxygen to your pile is as simple as:
- Starting with several inches of sticks from around your yard and dried brown leaves can help give your pile enough oxygen
- Turning the compost pile at regular intervals. This can be done by having more than one compost pile. When the first gets full, flip it into a second one and let it keep composting. Then you can begin filling the first again while the second bin continues to breakdown.
5. Your Senses
Your eyes and nose will be the biggest helpers in starting off your compost pile. If something is off with your pile, you’ll see or smell it right away. If your pile is starting to attract bugs or is starting to smell, chances are you just need to add some more brown waste.
6. Moisture Content
There is such a thing as too much or too little moisture for your compost bin. Much like oxygen, the microorganisms need the right amount of water to survive.
If your compost is too dry, the microorganisms won’t be able to break down your food waste. You can solve this by adding additional food waste, veggie scraps, or just spraying it with the hose.
If your compost is too wet, it creates an anaerobic (non-oxygenated) environment, and the microorganisms will be unable to continue to thrive.
7. Incorrect Brown/Green Balance
The typical ratio is 3 part brown to 1 part green. Brown being dried, crinkly organic matter (brown leaves, dried flower stalks, dried grass clippings, shredded paper/cardboard) and the green being almost anything from your kitchen (including food waste, vegetable scraps, and coffee grounds).
I honestly have no idea the ratio of our compost. I throw in all of our food waste, and then when it looks too wet I add some brown waste–mostly shredded cardboard so that we are reducing our waste even more.
8. Incorrect Location
While location is not the most important thing to think about, your compost pile should be some place that is convenient for you. The more inconveniently you place your pile, the less likely you are to keep placing your food waste in the pile.
Personally, I like to have one in the sun off my back porch. In the Northeast, it can get really cold and we compost all year round. So I don’t have to walk through any snow to dump our kitchen scraps in that container and then sun keeps the pile from freezing (most of the time)! Keeping your pile in the sun though, is just my personal preference.
9. Making it too Complicated
You 100% DO NOT NEED to buy any worms, fancy containers, thermometers, pitchforks, classes, fancy starters, books, or special ingredients. Throw your food waste in a pile and then throw some dried/brown leaves or cardboard on it and watch that shit become beautiful.
We do have a “fancy container” that we started with after all those YEARS of research and it doesn’t do any better of a job than our huge garden pile that we created this year. In fact, it’s hard to mix the food waste after awhile and it is VERY DIFFICULT to get the compost out of the container. But it could be useful for those that want to contain the mess, or don’t have extra yard space to spare.
10. You!
Not starting today is the only thing standing in your way. Go do it! When you make dinner tonight, save your veggie scraps and just start! Somewhere down the line when you smell something funny, or have the mental bandwidth to learn more, come back to this post and pick one thing to work on.
For now, just start saving those food scraps and throw them in a compost pile.
Starting from the bottom, slowly work your way up the list and you’ll be well on your way to discovering the importance of composting and creating some of the most amazing garden soil/compost you’ve ever seen. PLUS you’ll be doing more than one small thing to treasure our planet.
