|
||||||||||||
|
Rot
The fifth R, Rot, refers to composting, a great way to recycle yard and kitchen wastes. (For specific information about
composting at Stanford, please click here.) Composting is the decomposition
of organic material (like plant remains) to make an earthy, dark, crumbly substance that is excellent for enriching garden
or houseplant soil. After a plant or animal dies, bacteria begin to break down the remains. Various types of bacteria thrive
in environments with specific conditions. In order to speed up the natural decomposition process, home composters
manipulate the environment in a compost pile to attract bacteria that will reduce the pile with greatest speed.
Today the use of composting to turn organic wastes into a valuable resource is expanding rapidly in the United States, as landfill space becomes scarce and expensive and people become more aware of the impacts they have on the environment. Composting is a great way to recycle yard and kitchen wastes, which make up about 30% of the waste stream in the US, and the process is an important step in reducing the volume of garbage sent to landfills for disposal. Not only does it keep material out of the landfill, but when applied to your lawn or garden, compost increases the health of your soil by holding the nutrients that were stored in the decaying organic matter in a form that is easily absorbed by plant roots.
How to Compost Composting Systems Compost Ingredients and Materials to Avoid Composting Resource List FAQ A great resource for all kinds of composting including vermi-composting and compost toilets: A fun, unintimidating site on the composting process with lots of bright colors. It reminds me of fun science books I had when I was younger: A composting troubleshooting guide: Another -- everything you ever needed/wanted to know -- about composting site. The format isn’t great, as all of the information is contained on one long page, but the content is great and includes a good list of compostables and troubleshooting tips: A step-by-step composting tutorial in presentation form: A brief explanation of how and why the composting process works, followed by an explanation of its benefits:
|
It's easy to learn how to compost. Composting can even be done, cleanly and unobtrusively, indoors in apartment buildings
and condominiums! If you have a large yard, you might prefer the ease of composting in a three-bin system out by the
back fence. Apartment and condominium residents can get into the act with indoor "vermicomposting"--using earthworms
to recycle kitchen wastes (offices can even recycle coffee grounds and tea bags with vermicomposting).