Little Miss Sunshine asked:


As our landfills are quickly filling…we need to address the problem of landspace for waste disposal. A very high percentage of our trash is composed of materials that are biodegradable. I’m proposing a community composting plan similar to trash pick-up and recycling pick-up. The nutrient-rich soil created from the compost could be sold to farmers for fertilizer, and the profits could be used to put back into the program to lower the costs of running it. Do you think this would be a good idea?
How would I go about getting this started on a government level?

parentalobotomy asked:


Can you explain this concept? I would have guessed the backyard
compost would create an equal amount of methane.
Some experts are calling a reduction in methane a side benefit to backyard composting.

By: Chris Dailey

Garden composting has been around for hundreds if not thousands of years. Due to the exponential increase in population and the demands that a industrial civilization require in order to sustain itself, the natural processes have been set aside in regard to fertilization of our soil in an attempt to ramp up the production machine and at the same time forget how we used to simply go outside and begin to plant our garden during the planting season.

With the rise of increasing amounts of pesticides and other chemical imbalances in our industrialized food, there is a quiet movement that is growing more loudly each day that is moving toward a more naturalistic society which involves remembering how we used to create the food that we ate everyday. Here are a few tips on how you can begin to create a very rich soil for your new garden through composting the easy way.

The first thing you should know about the purpose of compost is that it is used to enhance the very structure of the soil itself. For instance, a good garden soil does not have a hard, dry consistency to it but it is loose and capable of holding enough water for the plants as well as providing an adequate exit route for excess water and drainage. Good quality compost can even be added to the most clay filled soils and improve their soil structure enough to yield high producing quality crops. Moreover, garden composting will take your average garden and make it into an extremely fruitful and profitable garden if you choose to market your excess yields.

Another important aspect of the composting process is the release of necessary nutrients such as nitrogen to the soil and many who use compost produce excellent garden soil without the need of any kind of fertilizer at all. And while you are doing this, you realize that not only are you saving money by creating compost with recycled garden waste, but you are helping the environment at the same time by not utilizing our many landfills for the organic material that we are accustomed to throwing away.

Now let’s get into how we can use space in our garden to begin the composting process so that later we can begin to mix it in and easily move into the planting process.

Most organic materials will decompose. You should use in your compost pile things such as leaves, grass clippings, and any substance that is organically based such as straw or hay. From your kitchen, you should add things such as coffee grounds, egg shells, and that any organic material such as left over vegetables that were not eaten.

If you are a contractor, you can even add a little sawdust if you believe that your nitrogen to carbon ratio will be too high. Obviously, do not add residue from pets such as dogs in that they are very capable of passing disease into your compost pile. Also do not add things such as grease or any milk products as this will attract any nearby rodent populations which will again add diseases such as Haunta virus to what you are trying to create.

Once you are in a routine of adding these materials to your pile, you will have to wait several weeks for your ingredients to reach a certain temperature. It is during this stage that any remaining disease or organisms will be eliminated because the pile can reach temperatures of 160 .

Basically, this becomes kind of a balancing act between the ingredients that you have added and the results that you wish to achieve. For instance, if you have too much carbon-based material such as paper or well aged cow manure your in your pile, your compost pile will have trouble reaching optimal temperatures in order to eliminate the bacteria that you are trying to kill. Likewise, if you walk past your pile and smell the fresh scent of ammonia, more than likely you have too much nitrogen in the pile. However, in the end, given enough time, your compost will be created.

Once the compost pile is finished, you can then begin mixing this with your soil to enrich your garden area so that your crops produce bountifully and in record time. Other possibilities are that you could use a trashcan or a structure such as a box that you could make in order to hold your compost but if all you have is a tarp that you can place over the compost so that it does not dry out, you are in business in creating the best material on earth for a successful garden venture. Either way, following this very simple system for creating your own compost will take very little time or effort and will generate high yields for you and your organic gardening family.

By: Alasdair Meldrum

What is composting? Composting is a natural process which can mean different things to different people. The term ‘composting’ is used to describe a wide range of activities, from a heap of manure at the bottom of a garden to sophisticated treatment processes for commercial wastes and is designed to reduce the quantity of organic waste sent to landfills.

Community composting sites tend to be relatively small. A typical site may process up to 200 tonnes of material a year. Commercial sites, where composting is specifically a business activity, or local authority sites set up to divert biodegradable material from landfill are much larger. With some of the larger sites processing tens of thousands of tonnes each year, materials handling equipment and systems become a necessity.

The purity of the product is very important and is graded according to its organic purity. Glass is the main product that needs to be eliminated to produce a compost that is pure enough for sale. This has caused a few problems with some main commercial composting facilities therefore rendering the compost to be used for capping material until a solution can be found.

But put simply, the microbes break down large molecules into smaller ones that they can use as food. This releases heat energy, water and carbon dioxide during the breakdown as by-products and it is this heat that causes the temperature to rise, which is why compost heaps are often warm and steamy.

Here are 5 reasons why everyone should consider composting:

1. Composting reduces the environmental impact of having to incinerate organic waste.

2. Organic material can form up to 1/3 of our weekly waste. Without composting, this goes straight to landfill. Composting minimises our landfill waste and recycles it back into our gardens.

3. Organic waste which is dumped in landfill rather than composted stagnates and produces methane and toxic run-off which contaminates soil and groundwater.

4. Composting can successfully be carried out at any level, from multi-acre commercial or municipal windrows to simple backyard bins.

5. Composting is fun, easy and very satisfying.

Composting is a fun and environmentally-friendly activity. It’s something anyone can do to make a positive contribution to helping the environment.

Albion Environmental Ltd can advise if you have any composting problems. We have experience in helping our clients achieving PAS100:2005 status.

just some chick asked:


I have a little yard behind my townhouse. I was thinking about adding a poop compost bin to deal with the poop from my 4 animals.
I’m willing to try, but I’m scared the smell would overwhelm my small yard.
Has anyone tried it and does it smell extremely horrible like I think it would?
I’m not going to use it, i have no plants…. i just don’t want it to fill up the landfills