Composting 101

Author: Morgan Curless

It’s Spring and gardens all over are popping up. We love the beautiful flowers and fresh produce that come from our garden, however, it's key we ensure that the soil used is nutrient-dense enough to grow bountiful products. Compost soil is an amazing way to minimize food waste, while also adding a variety of nutrients needed into the soil. 
 
What Can be composted:

• Pizza Boxes
• Coffee grounds and filters
• Paper products
• All food scraps including meat, bones, and dairy

 
All of these items can be broken down and used for soil.  Composting can be done directly in the back yard and turned daily to promote breakdown. Composting has not only growing benefits, but also earthly benefits. Typically, waste is sent to a landfill when not composted. During decomposition in the landfill a toxic gas, methane, is released into the air. Composting is a biological process that does not release methane, reducing the toxicity in the air we breathe. Composting is an excellent way to improve the quality of our garden, while also improving our environment.
 
Each time I cut the top off of a carrot or dump my coffee grounds into the trash I consider the possibility of composting, and potential for my waste to become something more than just trash. I currently live on the second floor of an apartment complex and have no way to build a compost pile, nor the time to maintain it even if I did. There was once very little one could do with their compostable waste in this type of living situation. Now, there are multiple solutions from community gardens to services like CompostNow, that offers composting services. 

We can’t help but geek out over the idea of nutrient-cycling and replenishing lost nutrients back into the soil. Composting our waste products is a great way to not only reduce our carbon foot print, but also ensure the nutrient profile is maximized in the produce we are feeding ourselves and our families.

---