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| Composting
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Composting is an easy way for
you to reduce waste and turn it into something
beneficial for your plants, as well as the
environment. According to the EPA, yard
trimmings and food residuals together constitute
26 percent of the U.S. municipal solid waste
stream. All of that waste could be turned into
something beneficial through the process of
composting.
Compost improves your soil by releasing
essential nutrients, and helping it retain
water. By improving your soil, composting can
reduce or even eliminate the need for chemical
fertilizers that are harmful for the
environment. Composting can also amend
contaminated soils by removing solids, oils,
grease, heavy metals, volatile organic chemicals
and other hazardous waste. Compost has the
ability to prevent pollutants in stormwater
runoff from reaching surface water resources.
Compost has also been shown to prevent erosion
and silting on embankments parallel to creeks,
lakes, and rivers, and prevents erosion and turf
loss on roadsides, hillsides, playing fields,
and golf courses.
The organic wastes used for composting may be
food leftovers, plant materials, wood fibres,
paper etc. The “soft green” materials, such as
grass clippings and food leftovers, are the
nitrogen part of the mixture. The “hard brown”
materials like cardboard, or bark are the
carbons. These C:N ratios are important because
the tiny decomposers need about 1 part of
nitrogen for every 30 parts of carbon in the
organic material. If the ratio is greater than
30:1, nitrogen will be lacking and materials
will decompose more slowly. |
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Materials to Compost |
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Browns = High Carbon |
Greens = High
Nitrogen |
Ashes, wood
Bark
Cardboard, shredded
Corn stalks
Fruit waste
Leaves
Newspaper, shredded
Peanut shells
Peat moss
Pine needles
Sawdust
Stems and twigs, shredded
Straw
Vegetable stalks, Alfalfa |
Algae
Clover
Coffee grounds
Food waste Garden waste Grass clippings
Hay
Hedge clippings
Hops, used
Manures
Seaweed
Vegetable scraps
Weeds*
*Avoid weeds
that have gone to seed, as seeds may
survive all but the hottest compost
piles. |
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