Shouts on social media have been fierce since the state began enforcing food waste to be kept away from trash destined for the landfill. But here’s a confession from a long-time composter: Putting food waste in a separate kitchen container is a feel-good no-brainer. , because it is such an undeniable way of making the global a better place.
You see, our landfills are filling up and biological matter, such as kitchen waste and lawn waste, accounts for about 50% of the “waste” from the state’s landfills, according to CalRecycle, the state’s recycling agency. turn landfills into the third largest methane in California.
All that biological matter that creates disorder in our landfills is a misunderstood asset that can easily be transformed into fertilizer: the miraculous soil amendment that rebuilds our depleted soils while nourishing our plants. All we have to do is scrape our dishes into a fertilizer. cube instead of the trash.
“About 40 to 50 percent of the waste we collect on the sidewalk is compostable,” said Michael Martinez, founder of LACompost. “We want to avoid seeing food ‘waste’ as waste and redefine our vocabulary to see it as a resource, anything that wants to be remodeled and reinvested in the soil. “
That’s the purpose of the component of Senate Bill 1383 that went into effect Jan. 1, which requires local jurisdictions to create a way for families to separate food and lawn waste from landfill trash and use it to create compost, mulch or biofuels. The state has left implementation of the law to California’s more than 400 local governments, and each jurisdiction develops its own regulations on how to care for food waste (about a quarter already have systems in place, according to CalRecycle spokeswoman Maria West).
The aim is to divert 75% of biological waste from landfills by 2025, an ambitious task given that some jurisdictions have yet to establish their programmes.
So here’s a proposal: sorting our food waste is a win-win scenario for everyone who loves to breathe and eat, so even if your jurisdiction is still designing your program, why start practicing right now by installing a composter?
If you have a garden, you can easily start a compost pile. Send the pieces you don’t need to include, such as bones or moldy cheese, to waste repair professionals and use the rest of your family’s food waste to create wonderful loose soil amendments. for your garden. No court?No problem!Consider a small area option like bokashi or vermicomposting or connect with a co-op that does it for you.
1. Resealable boxes are essential for separating food waste. There are a plethora of compost buckets for $25 to $50, many beautiful enough to place on your kitchen counter. It has an airtight lid to prevent odors and deter pests and be large enough to hold a few days of debris (most jurisdictions now offer loose or cheap containers).
2. Garden forks are a must for flipping compost piles, a must-take to keep aerated ingredients and pests at bay. (A shovel will work in a pinch. )
3. ‘Green’ fabrics with a high nitrogen content to start the decomposition of a compost pile. Lynn Fang, a soil specialist and composting representative from Los Angeles, recommends having a clever amount of those fabrics on hand for microbes to do their homework of breaking down tissues. These come with grass trimmings (well combined with other fabrics so they don’t compact), coffee grounds, brewery residues (the remaining beans from brewing), and old manure (left in the sun for at least 3 weeks) from cows, horses, and chickens not treated with steroids, antibiotics, or other chemicals.
Untreated wood chips are useful carbonaceous or “brown” ingredients, smart at absorbing odors, keeping the pile aerated and covering freshly added food waste, Fang said. shipping in chipdrop. com. (Note: a delivery can come with up to 20 meters of wood shavings, an amount that can cover a hallway seamlessly, so reach out to your neighbors and friends to share. The site also allows you to network with other people who need chips or have them to share. ) Other “brown” features come with crushed cardboard, dried leaves, straw or hay, all of which combine well with other pieces so they don’t compact and obstruct air circulation.
5. Space -preferably shaded- to install a container, glass or compost pile.
In the useful, but surely not mandatory, category is a compost thermometer to track the internal temperature of your compost (which is a must if you’re looking for hot composting).
Compost requires 4 main ingredients: water, oxygen, nitrogen, from “green” elements such as fruit and vegetable clippings, grass clippings, tea leaves and eggshells, and carbon, from “brown” elements such as dead leaves, crushed newspapers and sawdust. (untreated wood). A compost pile deserves to be wet, like a pressed sponge, but not dripping, and the more you turn it over and give it oxygen, the faster microbes can break down the fabrics into a chocolate brown soil. amendment for its soil. You don’t want to flip it over at all, but it will take much longer for all the fabrics to break down.
Commands here are for occasional composters, who will use meat, dairy, or cooked food. These pieces can be composted in hot piles, Fang says, but require more effort and diligence.
Here are Fang’s recommendations for a fundamental compost pile through layers of various ingredients:
1. Start with a 3- to 6-inch layer of untreated wood chips or small damaged branches on the back of a container or just on the floor. This will absorb odors and cause air to circulate.
2. Add a 3-inch layer of nitrogenous elements, such as vegetable trimmings and eggshells.
3. Add a 1-inch layer of a top nitrogen activator, such as manure, brewing waste, or ground coffee. If you use grass clippings, be sure to combine them with other pieces so that they compact.
4. Add a 3-inch layer of brown or carbonic ingredients, such as wood shavings, newspaper or crushed cardboard, straw or hay, pine needles or dried leaves (well combined with other ingredients so they do not stick).
5. Water those layers well so that the pile is wet, and if you have enough ingredients, repeat the same layering process, watering again to make sure all the ingredients are wet.
6. Flip the battery every month by forcing the ingredients from the back of the battery to the top. When loading food scraps, cover them with wood chips or other brown curtains to absorb odors and deter pests, but check that a balance between vegetables and golds and make sure the pile remains moist. If the pile dries too much, decomposition slows down and is more likely to attract ants and other parasites. Add more vegetables and water, and turn. If the battery starts to smell bad or gets too wet, load more brown charcoal and combine well.
7. Once you have filled a container, let it “cook” for a few months (returning it every month will speed up the process) and start a moment in a container or pile nearby so that you have a position to load your Food Waste.
If you check it every month, the fertilizer will be ready in 3 to 6 months. The finished fertilizer has a delicious earthy smell and a dark brown color like ground coffee. You shouldn’t recognize the ingredients, however, if you find giant pieces, just put them in the new pile to break them down further.
Use your compost as a soil amendment, mixing it into your flower beds or containers. Or spread it a few inches thick under plants as a type of fertilizer mulch that will nourish its roots as it breaks down as it cools and enriches the soil. LACompost suggests a 1/2-inch compost-like dressing for high-food-value vegetables like tomatoes. Even lawns can benefit from a thin layer (1/2 inch) of compost raked on top.
Compost can also be added to water (LACompost recommends between 2 and 4 cups of bulk compost consistent with five gallons of water) and left in “infusion” for 24 to 48 hours. The resulting “tea” can be used to fertilize plants as they are watered. It can also be used as a foliar spray to feed the plants with their leaves.
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