Why Should I Compost?
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If you’re interested in reducing your waste, you know that food in the trash is something you’re going to need to deal with. A study in 2018 found that food waste made up 34% of kerbside rubbish collections. Imagine slashing your average weekly rubbish by a third! But why should you care?
Landfill versus Compost
One of the biggest misconceptions about throwing any food scraps into your general rubbish is that it’s okay because what you're throwing away is biodegradable. Apple cores are designed by nature to break down so it doesn’t matter that they’re going into landfill. Yes and no. There are some good reasons as to why you don’t want food waste being added to your local landfill.
The Science
When food scraps break down they need oxygen to decay properly. If they are stacked in a landfill, they don’t get this precious oxygen and instead release methane gas as they decompose. That means even more greenhouse gases entering our atmosphere. And the scraps don't turn into a nutrient rich product that's going to help grow more food.
It’s the Circle Of Life
Waste is technically a human term. Food scraps decompose into something that is good for the environment and that help grow the next cycle of crops to eat. It’s just us halting that process. Instead, we often need to add fertilisers to the soil to get the nutrient balance right so that we can grow more food. So by creating compost with your food scraps you can also reduce the dependence on fertilisers.
What Are My Options?
So you’re sold on the idea and need to know where to begin. There are a few options:
Collection
Some cities or communities will have a collection service where your food scraps are picked up separately to your usual rubbish. Otherwise, you may be able to organise for a company to collect from you. I live in an apartment building and we have one bin down in the basement which we can all feed into and it’s collected by a local waste business.
Bokashi
This technically isn’t composting (it’s a fermentation process, not decomposition) but it will pickle your food scraps. You can then dig them into your garden or compost. So it’s not quite the same as composting as there is still that final step.
Worm Farm
Setting up your own and digging into a handful of worms is a throwback to a simpler time for most of us. Okay, so the worms kinda freaked me out when I did this but I did get over that and loved popping outside to feed them. I liked this option when I was flatting as I could move it as it’s not exposed to the earth underneath. I got my kit here.
Compost
This is probably the ultimate system where you can create food for your garden and avoid sending all those food scraps to landfill. You need to keep the right balance of products going in, but it’s not hard to maintain.
Final Note
Are you keen to get started? I’d love to know if you’re already composting or ready to go. Which option are you going to choose?
One final tip from me: pop a small bucket in the bottom of your fridge to collect your scraps. It’ll stop it from smelling, rotting or gathering fruit flies. Then you can add it to your compost once it’s full.