Hey Ya’ll Chloe here, (RO’s new Green Director).

Anyone who knows me is well aware of my passion for compost. I’m the annoying person who will come to your house and ask why you don’t. My last tattoo was literally the words “Compost” in a Heavy Metal font and its even on my dating profile 🤣…anyways

So why so diligent on compost? What’s with the obsession?

Well for starters, about a third of the food that is produced in the world ends up in landfills. Our landfills are already overflowing, the cool thing is there are other places for this food waste to go!

We’ve all heard about the planet warming and gases being emitted right? And I know we have all noticed out of place or extreme weather the past years.

Food waste is typically wet, and (hopefully) natural and can be stinky right? So what causes that stink? These items were once living. These living organisms need to break down.

Imagine a body decomposing..

The problem with food waste going in the trash (landfill) is that it produces heat and it creates gas. This then adds more heat and gas to our planet (as well as adding to your personal carbon footprint). Food waste in landfills creates methane gas which is more harmful towards global warming than carbon dioxide (about 25% more!)

So lets do our best to eliminate food waste!

The benefits of compost are plentiful. Why wouldn’t you want the soil for your plants to be filled with nutrients? The broken down elements from lets say, a banana peel will turn into a fine powdery substance containing those nutrients that the banana peel had in them (yes you can eat them). Just like vitamins help us thrive this living soil is so beneficial for plants. Think of the grown food that you eat, would you rather it come from depleted soil or thriving soil? We know the process of watering plants and roots being in soil, when the plant is growing and eating it sucks up what is around it (so symbolic for another day). Compost also helps keep soil moist which is important for those in more drought prone areas.

And you don’t need a big bin like we have (more below and on instagram, shot out to Exaco for the Aerobin 400!).

At home, community & industrial compost

You can get an at home kitchen counter composter, you can freeze your scraps (this literally stops the decomposition process.. like Austin Powers) and bring to a drop off site (think a community garden, farmers market), some cities (thankfully) have at home curbside pickup! I screamed when a public bin was placed across the street from my home in Brooklyn, and have taken people on field trips to visit it. These larger scale compost programs even allow you to put in cooked foods, bread, meat and so forth (which some at home composters may want to avoid due to unwanted critters).

I have even collected my fruit and veggie scraps and brought them to the woods to do their thing or get eaten up by the animals who call it home. Basically, the only OK litter is like that of throwing an apple core out of your car (cough) window or the greens of your carrot to your pet rabbit..which then turns into manure (yes you can use it just like that of a cow as fertilizer).

I just feel that its a simple thing that we can all do to make a difference. And I love the concept and practice of discarded/used things being used again. (more on this later as well… ie thrifting and art pieces!)

WHAT TO COMPOST

*of course this is dependent on the method but in general.

We want a mix of Carbon (C) and Nitrogen (N). Think of a sandwich.

Nitrogen is the fresh/wet items. and Carbon is the dried material. So think of Carbon being the bread and Nitrogen being whatever you fill the sandwich with.

DO COMPOST!

-Fruit & Vegetable Scraps (N)

-Fresh plant cuttings, leaves, weeds, flowers, grass (N)

-Coffee Grounds (again, this helps with the smell also) (N)

-Dried Leaves (C)

-Coffee Filters & tea bags (C)

-Egg Shells (C)

-Hair (yes! yours or your pets) (C)

– Shredded Paper, raw cardboard (unwaxed an not containing inks) (C)

-Sawdust (C)

DON’T COMPOST 😐

Bones, Cat Litter, Chicken, Diapers, Diseased Plants, Dog or Cat Feces, Meat, Oils & Fats, Peanut Butter, Salad Dressing, Dairy.

In terms of volume, lets come back to the sandwich. The bread (Carbon) is the base, so we want a good amount of bread to hold everything together. Then with the toppings inside (Nitrogen) a little bit goes a long way by providing the protein/nutrients with less girth. So, you want more carbon than nitrogen, and it is recommended to layer these, mix em around every so often AND if you live in a dryer climate than we do here in South Florida add some water (mustard) occasionally as well. Throwing some worms in will help speed up the process as well, they just love it! We hope to get into some vermiculture as well (which is composting with worms specifically).

HUGE thanks to Exaco for the donation of the Aerobin 400 which was quick and simple to install. (Check out the @rainbowoasiiis instagram for a video of the installation process).

The Aerobin 400 is super cool because it has a base at the bottom which collects the compost tea which is the liquid version of compost, which can be mixed with water and used as a nutrient rich fertilizer for your plants. It also has a lung in the middle of the bin which helps aerate the matter, kind of how a fire needs oxygen to stay alight. If you would like your very own Aerobin 400, you can purchase one at Costco.com .

We will keep you posted in the next months when our bin starts producing compost for our garden :)*If you want to learn more about vermiculture check out wormcompostinghq!

PS! If done properly compost should not produce foul odors or attract rodents, which is a common myth. SO enough with the excuses! Get to it ❤

Volunteer at the Garden with us!