I know, not the cleanest sounding title. I won’t lie, composting is pretty disgusting in a lot of ways, but it’s such a good way to send less waste to landfill. Today, I’m going to talk about what composting is, why it’s such a good idea and how I compost at home.
Most things that you would put into compost such as fruit and veg, will decompose on their own, but composting speeds up this process. Composting relies on microorganisms, which need to be in the right environment in order to work. This environment needs to be warm, moist, and full of nutrients and oxygen. The first stage sees mesophilic microorganisms beginning to break down anything that is biodegradable, during which the compost heats up to about 40 degrees C. These mesophilic microorganisms are then replaced by thermophilic microorganisms in stage two, which thrive in the high temperatures, and break everything down into even smaller pieces. Thermophilic microorganisms are particularly good at breaking down fats, proteins and complex carbohydrates. The third stage sees the mesophilic microorganisms return and break down everything that’s left into compost, which we can then use on our gardens.
According to the RHS, there are several key factors to making good compost. Obviously you first need something to put your compost in, such as a compost bin (which is what we use). This should be stored somewhere where there is not a dramatic change in temperature, as this can affect the composting process. The mixture cannot be too much of one thing and too little of another. They suggest a mix of ’25 and 50 percent soft green materials’ with the rest being brown materials. So, soft green materials are grass, kitchen waste, weeds etc. and brown materials are things like dead leaves, cardboard and straw. They also suggest turning the heap often to provide oxygen, which is very important for stage two. You can buy accelerators and activators which you can add to compost if you don’t have enough green or brown materials. Obviously, not everyone has the space to accommodate a big compost bin. If you’re in a flat, or have no garden, then there are still options. There are smaller bins you can purchase, and there are community groups that will take your waste to use for compost for allotments and things like that, so it’s worth having a look if you are not able to use it yourself.
In practice, this is really very easy. We have a large compost bin in our garden, and a little round bin in the kitchen which we use to collect kitchen waste. When this bin gets full, I take it outside and dump it into the compost bin, with any brown materials that we have, and I add a litre of water which is mixed with an activator. I then mix the compost around a bit with a spade, and just leave it. We won’t have any usable compost for months or even years, but it feels a lot better than putting it in landfill. At the moment, our green bins are not being collected as often as they normally are, so it’s great to be able to put our waste somewhere else to put less pressure on the waste collection system. It’s also a pretty easy thing to keep up with, once you’ve got the set up right.
Thank you for reading, and I hope this was interesting for you (or at least more interesting than the title sounded).
Sources:
RHS: https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=444
Moral Fibres: https://moralfibres.co.uk/how-to-compost-in-a-flat/
Live Science: https://www.livescience.com/63559-composting.html
Waste Makes Waste 