As the county’s population continues to grow, residents grapple with some serious issues. Nearly 6,000 tons of trash rumble down county roads to the landfill six days a week. Land disturbance for road expansions and new buildings causes widespread soil erosion. Home and business owners struggle to grow lawns and landscape plants on construction damaged soil.
Fortunately, we can mitigate all of these problems with one simple process: backyard composting.
What is composting?
Composting is a natural process that turns organic waste like food scraps and yard trimmings into a valuable product that many of us buy in bags at the garden center. With just a bit of help from us, a variety of organisms – some that we can see and some that we can’t – consume and digest plant-based materials in the compost pile. Over time, this aerobic, odorless process significantly reduces the original volume of material. What remains is an organically-rich residual that can literally save earth.
Top 3 ways compost saves earth
Home composting keeps waste out of landfills. As a nation, we create 200 million tons of trash each year. According to Environmental Protection Agency estimates, 20-30 percent of the trash we send to landfills is compostable organic material. If we composted grass clippings, vegetable peels, leaves from landscape trees, and the like at home, we could keep 40 to 60 million tons of waste off the roads and out of landfills every year. Reducing the volume of material going into landfills helps to extend their usable life and delays the need to open new landfills. Better yet, finished compost is a valuable soil amendment.
Compost reduces erosion. Land disturbance creates bare soil that wind and rain readily carry away. Soil loss from construction is 100 times greater per acre than soil loss from crop production. Eroding soil from construction sites is a major source of sediment pollution in streams. Applying a blanket of compost to bare soil, however, dramatically reduces erosion. The rich, organic matter of compost absorbs water from rainfall, stopping 50-80 percent of runoff.
Compost improves damaged soil. Many of us are trying to grow lawns and landscape plants in eroded, compacted soil that completely lacks an organically-rich layer of topsoil. Left to nature alone, replacing
an inch of lost topsoil takes 100 years or more. We can speed up that process, however, by working compost into the top few inches of soil. Compost restores missing organic matter and improves soil structure, creating pore spaces to let water flow into the soil to reach plant roots. It reintroduces living organisms that release nitrogen and improve fertility. Soil organisms like earthworms, ants, and beetles tunnel through soil to relieve compaction. This opens avenues for air, water, and root movement, all of which are critical for healthy plants.
How do I start composting?
Starting a compost pile can be as easy as raking up fallen leaves. The basic recipe for compost is:
- Dead leaves and other brown stuff (two-thirds of volume)
- Vegetable scraps, fruit peels, and other green stuff (one-third of volume)
- Water to keep moist
Layer materials in a pile or bin that’s at least 3-feet long by 3-feet wide by 3-feet high. Locate the pile in a shady spot, if possible, to help retain moisture. Once the bin is full, stop adding new material. Every 2-3 weeks, turn the pile to add air, bringing matter from the middle of the pile out to the edges and stirring edge material into the middle. Add water as necessary to keep materials moist, but not wet.
The microorganisms, earthworms, and beetles that digest plant matter work year-round. They need moisture to stay hydrated and move around, but too much water drowns them. After a few weeks, when you can’t tell a banana peel from a leaf, work the finished compost into garden beds or apply as a topdressing to lawn areas.