Composting Success Has Me Shouting "I Made Earth!"
It wasn't easy, and it took me an entire year, but I did it. I made dirt!I realize that making dirt doesn't sound that exciting, but consider this: I made it by composting my garbage, specifically old fruit and vegetable scraps and newspaper.
If this still doesn't sound amazing, please also consider that I live in the middle of Chicago, where composting is not so common and, one might argue, also quite difficult.
Here's the thing. Because of rodent problems in the city, you only have two composting options:
- A worm bin - Will compost your waste very fast, but requires love and attention and a willingness to have worms in your house
- A fully-enclosed compost bin or tumbler - Requires exact proportions of different materials to avoid odors and takes a long time, most likely because the batches are too small and the compost isn't getting enough air
So here's the point of my story:
If you live in the suburbs or in a small town, you don't need an enclosed bin to prevent rodents. You can basically throw all of your organic waste into a pile and wait for it to turn into dirt.
Don't believe me? Here are some resources to learn more:
Composting Information from the EPA
Composting for the Homeowner, from the University of Illinois
Compost Guide - Composting Fundamentals
p.s. I know there are a lot of people in the suburbs who already compost. Kudos to you! Maybe you can train your neighbors?
Comments
That's my job. Thanks for making it easier on me!
- God
The leaves is what gets me in Chicago, people just leave them all winter and then in the spring their is just black sludge everywhere.
Guess what one of the main reasons is for that?
Plastic.
Even the Chevy volt and a lot of other green cars are switching from glass to plastic, from paneling and other material to plastics, even lighter forms of plastic. PP for instance, which is in your door panels, dash board, etc. are lighter than water. PC which is replacing glass for sun roofs, mirrors, headlamps, etc. is lighter than glass, Nylon PC/ABS and ABS is lighter than Aluminum and steel. All grills and many other "chrome" items such as grills on cars are PC/ABS which is chrome plated and lighter than steel. This allows cars to be more fuel efficient and thus greener.
By the way, all the materials I mentioned are items that I can recycle.
Plastic is sometimes the solution.
If one truly wanted to be green they would sell their car, live with the Amish and go vegetarian. Cars/transportation and our diets contribute more to global warming and have more negative impacts on the earth, environment and humanity than fruit peels and plastic and as pointed out, sometimes things like plastic are the solution, not the cause.
It certainly doesn't hurt to compost or not buy shampoo bottles or trash bags but in the long run, there are far more damaging things out there than a shampoo bottle that can be recycled.
Great blog - just found the link from NPR. I write for a site called findingDulcinea and we have some good gardening resources there, including info on composting: http://www.findingdulcinea.com/guides.topic__ss_categories_ss_homes_ss_gardening.html. This is a cool story, too, about people returning to gardening when food prices got so high...I'm sure this is in the current economy, too: http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/environment/May-June-08/Americans-Going-Back-to-the-Garden-.html
Karli
P.S. Here are a couple tips for beginners. Don't think about it so much. Just make sure you have some brown stuff and some green stuff, and you table scraps (no meats or dog poop!) Stir it and water it every now and then...and presto! You have compost!
Do you throw you chicken poop and feathers in the compost? It's great for it!
I discovered your blog recently and I am very impressed by what you are doing! I guess the German gave you some ideas in that matter ;-) Anyway by looking at this article, I was thinking that you should show/picture us what you actually have as trash, I mean in your dust bin. Because I guess if you do compost, recycle paper and glas, there must not be much...
Cheers from Köln
Nhu-Ly
seems to be a lot of potentially beneficial effects of it. you can use the bokashi as a feed for birds, the liquid produced is good for septic tanks and can be used as a plant spray (diluted) and the food waste composts into some great soil.
Good to know a lot of people are into this. I don't think it's fairly common in my neighborhood though.