With spring sprung, we thought it was timely to discuss another way to reduce your waste and rethink about the circular nature of things with composting. This article is courtesy of master composter, Tom Shelley.
Composting is the ultimate sustainable action. This is true for many reasons. In one process the individual can reduce waste generation, reduce energy consumption used in the transportation and processing of wastes, reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions, reduce the cost of trash removal, prepares a high-quality soil amendment with multiple benefits, and provide ample opportunities for education and public service.
Food scraps and carbon-based materials (dead leaves, shredded paper, straw) used to make compost are not "waste"--they are resources. Filling up landfills with these materials is now generally believed to be a "waste" of these valuable resources. Instead, these sources of future soil nutrients are removed from the waste stream and processed naturally into compost. This process at the individual level is essentially free, the only real investment being the time it takes to set up and maintain a compost system and process the inputs-the food scraps and the "browns."
Staggering amounts of energy are expended in processing our wastes. These sinks included the pick up and transportation of wastes to processing facilities (fossil fuels), the processing of wastes at massive public works (electricity and fossil fuels), and the transportation of the processed wastes to landfills (more fossil fuels). Other energy sinks are the transportation of the workers who drive the trucks hauling our trash and the workers at the processing facilities, sewage treatment plants and the landfills to an from work each day. Then there is energy used in the the maintenance and construction of the waste processing stations and landfills. Not to mention the energy used to make the trucks and the gas and diesel used in the trucks and the concrete and steel used to make waste processing stations and the sewage treatment plants. And the energy used to transport the gas and diesel to the trucks and transport the concrete and steel to the waste processing station or landfill construction site, ad nauseum.
All of the energy intensive processes in the above paragraph generate enormous quantities of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. Home composting can reduce the average household's waste stream by 30-40 percent. Restaurants and other food processing business can see similar or even higher levels of waste reduction when their food scraps, compostable dinnerware and other materials are taken by a commercial composter. In this instance, a significant reduction in greenhouse gases may be achieved. The composting process it self produces some carbon dioxide, but when food scraps are landfilled and buried they decompose anaerobically to produce methane. Methane is over 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than is carbon dioxide. Most of the methane generated in landfills is not collected or flared off; it is vented to the atmosphere increasing the greenhouse gas effects many times over those of the home compost pile. In fact, the US EPA states that methane from landfills made up 23 percent of the human-related methane emissions in 2006.
Of the many good reasons for composting most of us want the great soil amendment generated as compost. Compost adds nutrients and beneficial organisms to the soil, builds up soil structure and helps retain moisture in the soil along with other benefits. Composting is one component of a natural process of nutrient cycling-growing food and retuning the nutrients in food scraps back to the soil. Growing some of our own food is rewarding in and of itself for many of us. Given the escalating, interrelated costs of both fuel and food, raising some of our own food may soon become a necessity for many of us. Composting allows us to maintain soil health and fertility while limiting the cost of home food production to that of seeds, our time involved and maybe the cost of water on a dry day. (See "Banking on Gardening,"by Marian Burros, The New York Times, June 11, 2008.)
Composting can also provide previously hidden social benefits. Neighbors can engage in cooperative waste reduction, composting and gardening projects and develop bonds that will help us all get through what are probably harder times ahead. School children are being increasingly exposed to the concept of composting and are learning about composting at school. They then take this information back to their parents and encourage home composting. They will grow up knowing about waste reduction techniques useful to them as adults. Many school science projects can come from exploring composting. Elementary age students in particular are fascinated by the myriad decomposing organisms found in compost. This interest makes a great addition to the bioscience curriculum. In some cases the social and educational aspects of composting may outweigh the nutrient value of the compost itself!
Those of us who start composting at home will also be looking at other aspects of a sustainable lifestyle. Recycling, energy use reduction, lest intensive motorized transport and other actions go hand-in-hand with composting and will enable us to have a better quality of life in the energy-challenged times ahead.
Tom Shelley is a Master Composter working to develop neighborhood composting programs. Do you have additional composting ideas you'd like to share? I want to hear them! Email us at
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