How To Compost
A great way to get the most out of your waste is to compost. If you have a garden this is incredibly easy, but don't be discouraged if you don't. I will address composting in gardens, on balconies and inside homes if you're an apartment dweller. With or without a garden, composting is very easy if you start right.
In this I'll teach you:
the materials you'll need when you start composting
how composting works
how to balance your compost
what you can compost
what you cannot compost
how to start off your composting bin for indoor and outdoor composting
What you will need
First thing to do is find a good container. In certain European countries it may be possible to get a proper garden composting container for free if your constituency is actively encouraging waste reduction, so do look that up. If this is not possible then here are your options:
If you have a garden you can buy big containers from diy shops or amazon that are purposefully meant to withstand the outdoors.
They will normally have a lid at the top, a small hole in the lid or some on the sides of the bin, and a flap at the bottom that can be opened to collect the best compost. The flap isn't an obligatory figure but the lid is. With bins, you generally need to be able to open and close them...
I do think you will get more variety from a diy shop but I do understand that right now this might not be possible. So this is an outdoor compost bin from Amazon. I am personally not the biggest fan of the way it looks, but bins aren't exactly known for being pretty and I want to give you all the options:
If you live in an apartment and are wither composting on a balcony or inside your house, I recommend you get see-through plastic boxes that can be sealed and are usually used for household supplies. If you buy this, drill some holes in the sides of the box so that things can aerate. This is very important!
If you're in the UK, you can get them from Rymans, diy shops (I think) and, of course, Amazon.
Choose a box that has some height, so that you don't run out of room too quickly or just buy two boxes if you go through a lot of organic matter!
Another option is to make your own, there are lots of tutorials on Youtube if you're looking for a cool new project!
This next item is optional but highly recommended. You will not want to place your food scraps in your compost bin every time you prepare food, especially not if it's an outdoor bin. You will need a small, kitchen version that you differentiate from your recycling and incinerator bin. Food bins are often small and green, with a little lid you lift up but they can be much nicer than that. Here is one that I like which you can get from amazon under this sweet little link!
You will also need soil. This can be earth from a herb bed that has been well mixed or soil from a bag. You can use a little manure when starting off, but not too much.
Finally you will need some worms, slugs and other creatures that assist with decomposition. Please keep children under supervision. For some reason they sometimes like to eat them.
Other things you may want to use (very optional): a watering can, a spade or pitchfork, some gardening gloves.
How composting works
Composting refers to the decomposition of organic waste items into a nutrient-rich soil additive, commonly known as fertiliser.
Composting requires four things: carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and water.
Carbon, which is released by brown/dry matter, works to heat up the compost pile and give it energy
Nitrogen, which is released by green/wet matter, reproduces more organisms which oxidise the carbon
Oxygen oxidises the carbon, which produces aerobic decomposition
Water keeps everything active as long as it is used sparingly
I will explain what I mean by brown and green matter, and how to balance these elements in the next segment.
There are many advantages to compost:
it's one of the greenest things you can do, especially since landfills are filling up and you're reducing the amount that goes into it!
speaking of which, when waste goes into landfill methane is released into the atmosphere, whereas in a compost heap the carbon is not released into the air, it is absorbed by the soil and put to good use.
compost is a great natural fertiliser, because the soil is full of nutrients that can help plants grow and stay disease-free.
it is a much better alternative to using chemical fertilisers, because it does not contain petroleum.
contrary to popular belief, composting is very clean and doesn't attract vermin or nasty smells if you don't throw any old thing into it
composting is easy, will likely save you money on gardening supplies in the long run and your bins can look quite cool now that there are so many to choose from!
How to balance your compost
There are a couple of snags that people hit when they start trying to compost: the first is that they say it smells bad or are worried it will, the second is that it simply does not work for them.
If a compost heap is well balanced and has been well looked after, it shouldn't smell bad at all and the soil at the bottom of the heap should look like healthy earth.
How do we balance our four main elements?
Ensuring oxygenation is the easiest one. For this, you need holes in either your plastic box or your garden bin.
When adding water, do so sparingly. I recommend watering whenever you add new matter so that you moisten the layer.
When balancing matter that is nitrogen and carbon-rich, you will want to keep the ratio of 1/3 nitrogen to 2/3 carbon.
Nitrogen-rich matter, also referred to as green or wet matter, are generally quite colourful.
These are:
fruits and vegetables, any part of them can be composted
potatoes, do chop these up in order to ensure you don't just start growing potatoes in your compost
whole grains like rice or quinoa but no bread
beans and pulses
tea, the tea bag and its label shouldn't go in though, loose leaf tea can go in straight away
garden clippings, like freshly cut grass and freshly pulled weeds
Carbon-rich matter, also referred to as brown or dry matter, are often items people don't expect can be composted. To speed up the composting process, you should make these items as small as possible by crushing or breaking them up.
These are:
egg shells and the egg carton
nut shells
twigs that are broken into thumb-sized pieces
dried grass or hay in small quantities
dried leaves, freshly fallen leaves take a long time to decompose
sawdust
dryer lint
animal hair, perfect if you have a ragdoll cat or samoyed dog as they shed more than their body weight in fur...
compostable bags, do NOT confuse these with biodegradable bags as those bags are a massive con and will ruin your compost
paper bags
shredded paper
paper napkins and paper towels, unless they are heavily soiled
coffee grounds and the coffee filter
potting soil
herbivore manure, I wouldn't bother trying to navigate manure, it's a risky business in the composting world
Don't worry too much about this balancing thing though, you will usually have enough green matter and there are very easy ways to tell if you may need to add more dry elements.
if your compost smells a little bit (the smell is reminiscent of ammonia), add brown matter
if your compost looks very wet, add brown matter
if your compost smells a little of sulphur you can mix the pile, you should only need to do this once a fortnight
Things you should not compost
Some of these may surprise you:
anything made from yeast or wheat like bread
starchy foods with many ingredients, like bread, pretzels, crisps and (surprisingly) couscous
animal products like dairy, meat, bone, skin or shell
pet food
pet excrement, no it isn't manure
foods that are coated in fat or oil
foods that are coated in sugar, most sauces are quite sweet so I wouldn't put any saucy foods in either
heavily used tissues, the bacteria can harm the pile
recently fallen leaves
glossy or glittery paper, wrapping paper won't work unless it's made from brown paper and is very plain
biodegradable bags
compostable silverware, it needs a higher heat to actually decompose
avoid adding many very strong citrus fruits like lemons or limes, they can make your pile too acidic but don't shy away from adding some, a bit of acidity is good!
How to start off your composting bin?
If you want to give your bin the best chance of success, you'll want to prep it well but if you don't do all of this exactly,it doesn't mean your compost won't work. I know that when I try something new though, I want to be given all the relevant information and this was something I looked up when I set up my own compost bin.
Shred your larger elements like leaves, stalks or paper. Shredded paper is fantastic for compost, especially since it can't be recycled!
Add the shredded elements to the bottom of your compost. You want to put things in layers and water a little between each. If your compost bin has drainage at the bottom then you can soak the layers.
Firstly place garden elements like shredded green leaves, stalks, straw or soil.
Then you can add dry leaves or shredded paper. These are your brown matter.
Then add kitchen scraps. These are green matter.
Add more brown matter, then some manure or garden soil, then more shredded paper and finish with some soil or packet compost.
Mix the compost thoroughly, the more you mix the better. Doing this should give you the right ratio to start off with.
Then you can add some worms but you don't have to with garden compost.
If you're vermi-composting, or composting indoors most of these steps are the same: start with brown matter, then add some green and cover with brown, then finish with a little soil. Then you can add the worms. To avoid smells, cover green matter with some brown whenever you add some.
How long does it take to become compost?
There is no set time-frame really, that's like asking "how long is a piece of string". You will definitely see progress after a couple of weeks and the more care you take over your compost, the faster you will see results. You could even see results after a few months! The more large brown matter you add, the longer composting will take, hence why it's recommended to add green matter. But even if you do everything wrong, you will still see compost at some point, it just may take three years.
And that's everything you need to know about composting! This may seem like a lot of information but it really is very easy, not smelly and it's fun watching the progress every week x
Comments