Starting a Compost Heap

If you’re waking up today and reading blog after blog about the environment, it’s probably due to today being Blog Action Day , an experiment where bloggers unite to write about a similar topic today. It’s a great way of both bringing focus to (according to the site) 12 million blog post reads, and bring quite a few people into some new ideas they haven’t heard before. If you’re looking for one easy and cheap way to make a change in the amount of trash you generate, a compost heap is a good idea. This is something my family did all throughout my youth, but I didn’t keep it up as I left for college, thinking it would be impossible without a yard to do it in. But that’s not the case! Recently there has been a lot of talk about vermicomposting , composting with the aid of earth worms. No monumental scale is needed for this though like some items on amazon , and instead can be done with an old plastic container, a few worms, bedding, water and kitchen scraps for food . Try to make sure it fits the dimensions you’re planning on putting it of course. I’m thinking right under the sink will be a great place for this, and convenient for disposing of kitchen scraps. Just about any food waste can be added to a compost heap, except for a few special cases such as meat, milk and breads which may attract flies. The added bonus is of course you dispose of your trash in a more eco-friendly way and in addition gain very rich soil in the form of worm castings to use elsewhere. One misconception I had was that any food scraps I threw away would just decompose in a landfill somewhere. This is only partially true. In order to decompose, oxygen is required but not always available in compressed landfills. In The World Without Us (great book by the way) Alan Weisman mentioned that some newspapers from the 1930’s are occasionally pulled from landfills even today due to this. If our food can be recycled easily enough at home it seems like an easy lifestyle change to make with minimal effort. Who’s willing to give it a shot? Want to read more? How to Make Your Own Worm Compost System on WikiHow Compost Guide Vermicompost at TreeHugger Worm Composting Guide