International Composting Awareness Week: Home Composting

Each year over half of our household garbage is made up of food and garden waste. Most of this organic waste can be recycled by composting it.

Composting converts kitchen and garden waste into dark coloured soil that is high in nutrients. Composting is the name given to a method of breaking down organic waste, usually in a container or heap (Compost bins or heaps are available from some local council). Decomposition occurs due to the action of naturally occurring bacteria and fungi. Small creatures, such as earthworms, slaters and millipedes help to complete the process.

Composting is not new. Compost has been used in crop production for over 4000 years. Artificial fertilizers only became widely available a century ago. Australia, an old and eroded continent, is suffering from land degradation.

By turning food scraps and organic garden waste into compost you can:

Improve soil quality and garden vitality by releasing the rich nutrients in the compost into your soil
Recycle valuable nutrients and reduce the use of artificial fertilisers
Prevent greenhouse gas emissions and reduces the amount of organic waste going to landfill
Improve water savings
Save your money

What to add in your compost bin:

Food scraps Vegetable and fruit scraps, vegetable oil, prunings and lawn clippings, tea bags and coffee, grounds, vacuum dust, shredded paper and cardboard, used potting mix, egg shells, flowers.

What not to add in your compost bin:

Meat and bones, dairy products, diseased plants, metals, plastic and glass, animal manures, fat, magazines, large branches, weeds that have seeds or underground stems, bread or cake, sawdust from treated timber.

Greenhouse gases

As organic waste decomposes in landfill it produces the greenhouse gases, methane and carbon dioxide. These greenhouse gases contribute to worldwide climate change. Most landfill gas is made up of 54% methane and 40% carbon dioxide. Methane is twenty four times more damaging as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Scientists predict that climate change will impact on all our lives, especially in the areas of agriculture and human health.

What happens to your Green Organics?

Organic waste from your garden is put into the compost bin which is in general collected each fortnight

The wastes are taken to a local composting facility

Contamination is removed by hand. This is a costly and dangerous process

The material is piled into large compost heaps. Water is added and the heap is turned once a week for 12 weeks

Once the compost process is complete the material is put through a screening plant, this separates all of the larger material which hasn’t broken down. This material is ground into finer material and mixed back into the composted material

The materials collected from councils green organics collections are finally developed in compost products that you can buy through local garden centres. Close the Loop and Buy It Back!

Links:

Easy Composting
Worm Farms