Tips for Recycling Dirt and Soil

Soil can be a rich place to throw away a lot of food waste produced in our homes. It can also process leaves (and other backyard waste) typically burned in the fall season. Instead of trucking your soil out to the landfill, why not make it richer for gardening by creating a compost pile of your own? Composting is a great way to recycle your soil by making it richer and more usable.
More than half of the trash a family throws away each year, about 1,200 pounds, is organic waste that can be composted to enhance soil’s productivity. When this material is brought to the landfill, it is mixed with inorganic, toxic compounds including plastic, battery acid, styrofoam, heavy metals and detergents.
Trucking your food waste to the landfill not only consumes serious energy, but soil also takes up about one-third of the landfill’s space. By composting your organic waste instead, you are putting it to use rather than to waste.
Our soil needs some love. Already a victim of erosion and overuse, it’s longing for the carbon, nitrogen and other organic compounds it craves. Instead of going to the garden store to buy soil where you want to grow a garden, trees and other plants, why not add texture and life to your soil by composting what is already right in your own backyard, your organic material?
Beyond this, our produce has already traveled quite a distance to make it to our table. We can prevent adding more miles to our coffee grinds, banana peels and old greens by putting them to use in our own yards.
Also, compost helps dilute any toxic material in our soil (pesticides, lead and even mercury). Why not try starting your own compost pile? It’s free, sustainable and easy.

By: Saud Bin Muammar
http://earth911.com/recycling/garden/dirt/tips-for-recycling-dirt-and-soil/