How to Start Composting at Home
In 2008 the Environmental Protection Agency reported that 23 percent of all garbage headed to the landfill was made up of yard waste and kitchen scraps. By composting our leaves, tree trimmings and food waste we can do our part to keep less garbage out of the city dump. The main concerns about household composting center around attracting vermin or the smell of rotting garbage in the backyard. However, done properly, you shouldn't have a problem with either of these. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Purchase or create your compost bin. Bins can come in all shapes and sizes: from the fancy bins with an electric motor that regularly rotates the compost to a homemade enclosed fence of discarded wooden pallets and chicken wire. Some people will bury their compost straight into the yard and others will simply start building a pile.
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Mix yard clippings in with food waste. Composting is the act of worms, insects and airborne microbes feeding on waste products and turning it into rich soil. The billions of microbes, such as bacteria, require air in order to do their work. Keeping a pile of leaves and grass mixed in with kitchen scraps will provide pockets of air that allow the microbes to do their work. If you don't have these materials readily available, you can purchase a hay bale at a feed store and mix this in occasionally.
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Keep a small bucket with a lid in your kitchen to deposit food scraps. If the bucket is in the kitchen, you will be more likely to use it. Once it's full, take it outside to the larger bin.
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Compost vegetable, fruit and grain waste but stay away from meat, dairy and vegetable oils. Meat scraps, cheese, butter and cooking grease will take much longer to break down and they will attract animals to your pile. Good food waste includes coffee grounds and filters, eggshells and tea bags along with vegetable and fruit scraps.
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Add paper scraps and other non-organic materials to your pile occasionally. Keeping a good mix of wet and dry materials in your compost pile will provide enough moisture to break down the wastes but not turn the pile so wet as to keep air from getting in. These materials include small cardboard rolls, newspaper, dryer lint and even scraps of wool and cotton.
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Turn your compost at least once every two weeks. This aerates the pile and gives you a chance to see how it is faring and if it needs more dry material added to it. If your compost starts to give off a fairly strong odor and the material is slimy, you need to add in dry leaves, hay or other dry organic matter to offset the moisture content.
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Tips & Warnings
Do not introduce pet wastes into your compost pile. These could contain harmful bacteria and viruses that you don't want to put back into your soil.
