Composting! Everyone should be doing it..... properly!

The future of compost looks promising - but can that really be composted?

The act of adding converted organic nutrients to crops has been in existence since the Stone Age. Composting is a simple and sustainable act that transforms organic waste into a beneficial and functional product, and is currently more important than ever to reduce our methane emissions.

Compost has many positive uses, such as restoring and improving the health of soil, and perhaps most importantly, by converting organic matter into soil it not only reduces waste but gives it new and sustaining life, which makes it a more beneficial circular economy than other forms of recycling

Reducing waste is an ongoing issue, landfill being a major part of this continued problem. Landfill creates space and economic issues, and it is well known that toxins and leachate have long been pollutants wherever landfill exists.

How landfills leach out pollution to our water.

Why is it important now?

It has been reported that an alarming 60% of waste in curb side bins in Australia consist of organic material, resulting in large amounts of greenhouse gasses being emitted from the organic material when it starts to decay in the anaerobic environment inside the landfills. This decay then releases methane -a greenhouse gas which is 25 times stronger than carbon dioxide. Although methane remains in the atmosphere for a shorter period than Co2 its impact on global warming is 86 times higher therefore reducing methane is crucial to combating warming effects.

Many councils have already implemented trials of organic material collection from large apartment complexes. The Inner West Council in Sydney, Australia particularly have been promoting ‘the compost revolution’ – a scheme designed specifically for residents to have their own worm farm or compost bin. A study done in Brisbane found that ‘home composting’ can lower Greenhouse gas emissions through both lowering transportation and processing and also ‘on site’ emissions. Nevertheless, not everyone is in the position to not only have a compost bin, but to also have suitable use for it.

Not everyone has the ability to have a backyard compost, more councils like the Inner West and Randwick must step up and offer composting as a curbside option.

Many community gardens have composting facilities, but again, they can only take so much. It is now the Government and council’s responsibility to provide a composting service just as they do landfill and recycling. The Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water NSW concludes that composting on a large scale will significantly lower GHG’s, and has a myriad of environmental benefits such as reducing chemical fertilisers, improves soil carbon levels, will be low cost once implemented, and will create a circular economy in agricultural production.

But there is new compostable packaging right?

Although composting is a buzz word of recent times, there are however some misconceptions that ‘compostable materials’ are better for the environment. We have all seen the replacement of plastic straws with compostable ones for example, but what happens when that compostable straw makes its way to landfill? Reports state that as landfills are anaerobic, the materials are not able to ‘compost’, they either remain or degrade anaerobically – releasing methane. One further problem reported is that compostable dishware needs commercial composting facilities to break down, however there are limited facilities in place which will accept these products. One positive side to these items however is that they are made from plant derived materials, so less fossil fuels are used.

What else can be done?

It is clear that composting should be quickly implemented by all states (and countries), although understandably space and cost play an important part. Yet, if we divert less waste from landfills, space reserved for that purpose could surely be devoted to composting.

In the meantime, Sharewaste is a great site to literally share your waste < https://sharewaste.com/> and community gardens near you can be easily found through your local council website – happy composting!