Why is compost the ultimate form of recycling? For 4 simple reasons.
Composting is the natural process of turning organic material into a dark, rich, productive soil amendment that every garden loves and longs for. It is an effective and cost efficient way of maintaining any garden, adding nutrients and soil microbes to the earth that aid plant development. You can use anything, from leaves and vegetable scraps to pet waste and soiled paper napkins, making for enhanced soil that your plants and flowers will thrive from.
But what makes compost the most effective form of recycling?
1. Reduces Waste - Instead of throwing, try growing! Composting uses what already exists and turns it into something beautiful, reducing the amount of waste that each of us sends to already overwhelmed landfills. Between 25% to 50% of what we throw away could actually be composted at home. Most of that waste releases methane gas, contributing greatly to global warming.
If every household composted, not only would everyone have rich, fertile soil, but they would have cheaper water bills and cheaper maintenance costs to their garden. With everyone living an environmentally friendly lifestyle there would be an undoubtedly significant reduction of waste and landfills across the globe. What better way of ensuring a better future for the next generation.
2. Reuses Waste - By reusing what seems like waste, you are in turn making for happy plants and better tasting fruits and vegetables. Things that can be reused include plant trimmings, banana peels, cardboard, coffee grounds, egg shells, grass clippings, newspaper, vegetable scraps and pet poo. Every person's trash is every garden's treasure.
Of course, not everything can be composted in the one place. Pet waste, for instance, should be composted separately as it can only be used on ornamental plants and flowers rather than anything you might like to eat later. (Link to Bokashi/EnsoPet instructions on what and how to compost).
3. Recycles Waste - When we compost, we are recycling in the best possible way. Rather than go through any heavy processing, composting involves the simple act of gathering fruit and vegetable scraps, yard and pet waste, so that they can become food for plants. Compost contains macro and micro nutrients that are near impossible to create without the natural process, and slowly release those nutrients in an environmentally sound way.
4. Compost! - Composting encourages healthy root systems (decreasing runoff), reduces the need for chemicals or synthetic fertilizers, is safe for people and pets, is cost effective, keeps soil moist and healthy, and optimizes pH levels. Additionally, it not only slows the filling of landfills, but it stops the need for transporting these heavy wastes, saving energy and fuel and thus reducing carbon emissions. It is, essentially, nature's way of recycling at its best.
To find out more about composting your household and pet waste contact Bokashi Composting Australia.