Thank you to Portland Metro! They've just agreed to donate four compost bins for our Garden Project, for our gardens in Washington and Clackamas counties. This will be a great addition to our project, giving us a place for garden waste for now, and eventually, a place for the cafeterias to compost all their kitchen scraps.
Everyone should compost! When vegetable scraps decompose anaerobically (ie: buried without oxygen in a landfill) they release methane, which is one of the leading greenhouse gases. On the other hand, when your vegetable scraps decompose in an aerated compost pile, they don't release greenhouse gases, they just turn into rich organic material that does wonders for the overall health of your soil, and therefore, your garden. Try it out! Even if you haven't started a garden yet, you can create a compost pile in your yard- just pile up all your kitchen waste somewhere in your yard closest to that neighbor you don't like (just kidding! aerated compost doesn't smell bad either, especially if you compost using a worm bin). Just make sure you leave out the meats, grease, and oils- these don't decompose as well and can attract pests such as rodents.
Composting can be as simple as piling up kitchen scraps in a bin and letting nature runs its course, or it can become quite an art & science of balancing carbon, nitrogen, and other micronutrients and cultivating an entire microbial universe. For more tips on the different methods of compost, for starting a compost bin, or where to get one, you can check out Metro's composting guide at:
http://www.metro-region.org/index.cfm/go/by.web/id=553
No comments:
Post a Comment