Down to earth: The real dirt on composting

Anne Mazar/DAILY NEWS CORRESPONDENT

Photo: Jessie Mazar of Mendon uses a "compost crank," a helpful tool for mixing compost piles.

By Anne Mazar
GateHouse News Service

If you don't like to waste anything and enjoy a good bargain, then composting is for you.
It is a fascinating process -- turning yard debris and kitchen scraps into a dark, rich substance that can be used to fertilize your garden soil, lawn and house plants. Plus, it's free.

An astounding 20 percent to 30 percent of household waste comes from the yard and kitchen. It can be satisfying to foster this natural process by recycling your waste in a compost pile and keeping unnecessary waste out of our stressed landfills.

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Compost happens

A single home compost bin can divert about 600 pounds of waste from the landfill every year. And, of course, composting not only reduces the volume of organic material squandered, it is also a vital soil amendment, turning waste into an asset.

You can save money and valuable resources by avoiding the costs of landfill disposal, and you can avoid the need to buy fertilizers or other soil amendments. Keep in mind that even organic materials may not decompose in a landfill. In fact, all those grass clippings and leaves and kitchen scraps that end up in the landfill create methane (a potent greenhouse gas), and pollute groundwater. Read more>

Video: How to Build a Compost Corral

Video on How to Build a Compost Corral from P Allen Smith.
"It's hard to believe, but the average American family produces over twelve hundred pounds of organic waste in a single year. Most of it ends up in the landfills. That's a real shame when you consider it could be going to work in your garden."

Hometown: Children plant garden for food shelf in Jericho

By Lynn Monty • Free Press Staff Writer • June 24, 2009

After working as a physical education teacher for 30 years, Susan Adams of Underhill decided to retire and take up gardening. She took a Master Gardening course at the University of Vermont this winter and is sprucing up the Deborah Rawson Memorial Library with the help of Underhill ID School students. This is the first year the library will be a Master Gardening site.

The third- and fourth-graders in Tracy Walker and Pam Bloch’s classes planted a vegetable garden for the local food shelf at the library June 1. Students implemented a composting program at the school last year as a fourth grade initiative to promote leadership. They started with one composter for snack trash and have now filled four composters that will be used for the garden at the library.

“We thought it would be fun because the school is adjacent to the library and this really connects with their science unit,” Adams said.

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