Our story It began in a foreign country in Western Europe. It was the summer of 2018. We made a move and later, another decision that would change our lives f o r e v e r. The city was Berlin. The year was 2017, in the … Read more...
The beginner’s guide to composting at home
Composting is a vital step that we all take to reduce the current garbage crisis. In other words: roll up your sleeves!
Composting is an option to manage food waste. It is the process by which organic material is decomposed in order to provide nutrients and fuel to enrich the
There have been different studies on the efficiency of household composting. One of these found that on average, composting saved 125 kg of waste per person per year. (The link of this research can be found at the end of this post.) If you do not trash your organic waste, your garbage doesn’t fill up so easily as well.
Let’s get back to those harmful greenhouse gases, which appears when food decomposes in a landfill. As it is underground, which means that it doesn’t have any access to oxygen. It undergoes a process called anaerobic decomposition. This releases methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. The better and less harmful is when organic matter decomposes above ground in compost. Since it has access to oxygen, it undergoes aerobic decomposition, which doesn’t generate methane.
All you need to know on composting
If you choose to compost, the process is quite simple, but there are some guidelines to know.
You can compost eggshells, nutshells, teabags, coffee grounds, fruits, vegetables, and other plant matter.
You cannot compost dairy products, grease, oils, bones, and meat scraps.
If you are composting at home:
- Select a dry shady spot in your yard to keep your compost.
- Mix food scraps with plant materials such as dead leaves or branches.
- Add water to your compost pile as needed to encourage decomposition.
- Turn over your compost pile regularly to mix the top additions into the base of the pile.
Composting at a small apartment, the cold method
If you have limited space in your apartment, which is common in big cities, you might think that composting is not for you. Luckily there are two easy ways to compost indoors.
The simple way is called vermicomposting, which is managed by the help of worms to break down the organic matter.
The idea is simple:
You need a bin with a lid, filled with soil and some red wiggler worms. Now, your organic matter is ready to dump in there. The worms will do the work to break down your garbage into something called castings, which are extremely rich in nutrients. Then you can transplant your castings into potted plants or a small garden. At the end of the post, you can find a link, which describes vermicomposting in full-depth.
Composting in the backyard, the cold method
This method of composting for people is for those who live in the suburbs, in the countryside or just happen to have a backyard. The low-maintenance composting is the so-called cold method. It requires an enclosed area or an unused spot where you dump all available leaves, yard waste, and grass into the pile. Now, wait six months to two years, then continuously more stuff to it, and turn it around a bit with a rake or a shovel. You’re done, it will eventually decompose.
This is what the gardeners in our area are kindly doing, though I do not think that people actually turn the piles around.
The hot method of composting
The hot method is for those, who do not want to wait around but rather do some muscle work. For this method, the right type of “starter” material is needed. That involves an equal balance of ingredients that are carbon-rich and nitrogen-rich.
Things like paper, twigs, and leaves are rich in carbon, while grass, coffee and, tea grounds, fruit, and vegetables are rich in nitrogen. The proper mixture is key – you should have far more carbon than nitrogen. Once you have enough material to create a pile that is at least 1 by 1 meter, start adding the organic matter in. When carbon and nitrogen are mixed, the microorganisms inside will begin their work immediately and the mixture will keep heating up at first, but after about a month, it will cool down and finish the composting at about half that temperature. It takes a few month’s time, but the process will yield nutrient-rich soil that you can use throughout your garden.
The fact is if you are composting at home or bringing your food scraps elsewhere to be composted, you are benefiting the environment with minimal effort.
If you happen to keep a home garden, you will soon see the benefit as your soil quality improves and your plants and universe thank you!
Tips for writing this post came from Maximumyield.com and Popsci.com
Read more: How about organic waste?
What about organic waste?
As you probably noticed, I didn’t tackle the organic waste subject in my previous post. From several ways how to manage your biowaste, with our little tips below, you can easily find yours!
In a short period of time, we got used to collecting organic waste. When we’re doing the first garbage disposal after moving in, we couldn’t find a bin for, what I like to call – alive trash. As it seems, our property managers haven’t invested in disposing of green waste. Therefore we are left to our own devices – to throw all alive waste in the same bin as garbage or? Yeah, what else is there really?
There are basically two options, to compost or scatter the scraps back to nature. If you throw your organic waste in the garbage, it will travel to the landfill. From there, it will start to create methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, which harms our environment.
Once you create compost with the help of the earthworms and some soil, you need to use the final product or take it where it is needed. But what if you do not have a garden, plants or a green thumb friend to give it to? I guess the only option is to take it back to nature, which is not so bad, right?
Taking your organic waste back to nature
This is far from the ideal option, but if you happen to have some wild nature area where you live, then why not? Do so in moderate amounts. Of course, it is not the best to take banana peels, avocado seeds and orange peels to your European forests. This is because such fruits do not grow here and therefore it conflicts with the local flora.
Maybe you’re wondering how I came across the idea to scatter food scraps in nature?
The story
We were staying in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria in the summer of 2017 hosted by a wonderful soul Andrei (name changed for privacy). Our Bulgarian friend is also vegan and into saving the planet. He has a big heart. Because he didn’t ask for money from us during our month stay at his humble abode. He is quite awake, knowledgeable and works out daily, trying to prove that when vegan, you can be as fit as an omnivore.
On garbage disposal day at his place, he asked me to take the green waste while he threw out the garbage near his home. I was left to carry the green bag quite far from his house. We were talking while walking to his training spot in the wild huge park in the middle of Sofia. I really didn’t want to interrupt, but when we were quite deep in there, I asked, “So where is the green recycling bin?”. He replied: “Just scatter the content of the bag wherever you want and trash the plastic bag in the bin”. I was, probably like you are now reading these lines – very surprised! Yes, all the green waste back to nature to do its natural thing there – decompose.
This is exactly what we are doing now in our small building without a green waste disposal unit; we gather the little waste we create in a glass jar with a lid. The jar came home from the store with pickles and now has another use and when it is full, we scatter it in a nearby large nature spot. Don’t worry, it is not a park or anything, just a woman-made dirt path, otherwise, completely wild!
Give your organic waste a chance!
The only reason we are able to do this is that we happen to live not far from nature. Also, we only create plant scraps. We do not recommend taking your meat scraps and wasted prepared food to nature! We only scatter peeled potatoes, carrots, onion skins, apple hearts, and occasional banana peels. If once in a blue moon some food that we saved happens to go to waste, it will find its final resting place there as well, but only in small quantities.
The other reason why we get away with doing this is that we are most likely the only people in this area who are doing it. Even so, I must say I have noticed that some people, who have their little summer houses in the area, have created a huge pile of garden waste, which is honestly huge and always there.
We create so little waste that it withers in just a few weeks with no harm done. It is nothing like putting your waste in Central Park, no, we would never do that or recommend you doing it!
Look outside of the box
If you like the idea of taking nature back to nature but happen to live away from natural areas or wilderness, then there is still hope. Just bring the jar of food scraps with you in your basket and scatter at a suitable place. In bigger cities, there are always opportunities around. It is important to choose areas away from human traffic. Also, it is wise to use different spots to avoid accumulation, as the gardeners in our area have created.
We are proud to save green waste going to the garbage bin. It makes us really happy contributing to the wellbeing of our planet. This is great that we were able to solve the problem of not having a green waste collection point.
We’ll see how the winter goes while doing this. At least the bin can be bigger and kept outside on the balcony in cool temperatures. I definitely will keep you updated.
… A note from Eve:
Be creative when green bins are not part of your living situation. This is another great lesson we learned on our travels in Bulgaria, from two different people on opposite sides of the country. First, discarding green matter by the Black Sea (in the wild there), and smack in the middle of the bricky capital city, Sofia.
Learning that it is okay to bring organic waste to nature was so important. We have been made to feel that it would be considered littering, but then again – look at our world. There are millions who live on human waste in landfills, trying to survive.
To return nature back to itself seems obvious. Still, it will take some time to get used to it. We have been heavily indoctrinated to follow rules and to do things are you are instructed to do even if it makes no moral sense. I would rather the food be poked at by animals than to join our discarded goods in landfills. These food scraps would otherwise sit in landfills, creating greenhouse gases with other materials that will never be part of the earth anyway.
Think outside of the box that modern humans create since they are often at odds with the wisdom of nature.
Want to learn to compost at home easily?
The Beginner’s Guide to Composting at Home
*UPDATE 2019
Since spring we also have organic waste bin, so we have been happy users of that. First, it took some time educating some of the people in our building, but now it finally works. People have started to use it more eagerly, which only makes us happier. As more waste is put to good use and fewer ends to a landfill.