Composting


One way to keep your waste out of the landfill is composting. You can compost most of your food and waste items that you can't recycle. Also, you can recycle most of your items that you can't compost. In the end, if you recycle and compost, then you will have a very small amount of waste going to the dump.

What is composting?

Composting is basically where organic materials decompose, forming something quite similar to soil. However, this material is not soil, it's compost! Compost has lots and lots of nutrients that make your plants naturally grow bigger and better. During decomposition, your wastes rot into compost with the help of many things, including earthworms, insects, and fungi. It might sound very creepy, but all these things want to do is eat your waste and make it something that you can use. Many of them, especially earthworms, are essential to your plants well being! Without earthworms, it is much more difficult for plants to grow, because earthworms dig tunnels that help bring air to plants. By creating a compost pile, you give these worms a home, and lots of food for them, which they will turn into nutrients for your plants!
What can you compost?

You can compost most organic matter, including the following:

Of course, that's not even close to the end of the list, but those are the many things your compost will end up containing. Be creative and add whatever seems like it will rot! Don't add glass, plastic, Styrofoam, or other synthetic materials -- they take many years to rot and won't be very good for your compost. They are definitely best recycled. Very large dead branches and pieces of wood also take awhile to rot since they are so large, so if you want to speed up the process cut or break them into smaller pieces. The smaller something is, the faster it will rot.
How do I start?

Although most people go out and buy a specific compost bin, it's really not necessary, although it can help. All you really need to do is find a spot in your backyard that you don't need for much else and dump your waste there. Make sure you keep it moist -- if it's getting very dry just pour some extra water from something over it. Also, to speed up the process, you can take a shovel and turn over the pile every now and then. A healthy compost pile will be very hot in the middle and may very well be steaming. It should not stink AT ALL! It will smell like dirt. Over time it the waste will decompose. When it's ready, it will be very dark and have a kind of grainy texture like big pieces of sand, but soft like soil. Once it reaches this stage, or even something pretty close, it's ready to be put around your plants. Just put it wherever you see bare soil on the surface surrounding your plants, kind of like fertilizer. The exact technique you use with it really doesn't matter, as long as it's near your plants.
What to be wary of

I used to live in Oregon, and there we never had a single problem with pests in our compost. Now I live in the Tornado Alley section of America, where there is still a very interesting variety of animals, including many pests. We've had to be extra careful about our compost to make sure we don't have any invasions. So far we've been very successful. If you live in an area with lots of pests, just use a little more caution when adding items to your compost. Here's what you may want to cut out:

Basically, just try to avoid kitchen wastes that are soft, along with seeds.