While making your morning coffee, you might fuss about cleaning the filter and pot, silently cursing the tiny little beads of ground coffee sashaying into your fingernails and cuticles, and sprinkling themselves all over the counter. Such a hassle and for what? All for a cup of jo, thats remnants will eventually just end up in landfill. Sighing, you might stir that same cup of coffee, while you nibble over a banana and the morning paper. Picking up the banana peel and coffee grounds you go to slam them into your trash can because: BE GONE morning breakfast brats! But, wait! You can help save the world with just one simple change of how you view those brats. That change is compost.The environmental benefits of composting are absolutely unprecedented and what most people do not know is how quick, easy and simply it is to set up, even if you live in a big city.
Compost enriches soilsCompost has the ability to help regenerate "bad" soil! Composting greatly encourages the production of beneficial "micro-organisms" (things we might consider bad, such as bacteria and fungi) which break down organic matter and produce humus. Humus—"a rich nutrient-filled material"—increases the nutrient content in soils and helps soils retain moisture. Compost has also been studies and proven to aid in suppressing plant diseases and pests, reduce/ eliminate the demand for chemical fertilizers which makes the food we grow and eat 10x healthier!
Compost helps cleanup contaminated soilThis is a big one! One of the few ways on earth for this to be done naturally, the composting process has been shown to eat up odors and treat "semivolatile and volatile organic compounds (VOCs)" which inclue heating fuels, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and explosives. Composting also binds heavy metals and keeps them from seeping into water supplies. According the environmental protection agency: "The compost process degrades and, in some cases, completely eliminates wood preservatives, pesticides, and both chlorinated and nonchlorinated hydrocarbons in contaminated soil." That's right, you read it correctly, ELIMINATES PESTICIDES!
Using compost offers economic benefitsWho wants to save some money, honey? Organic compost can significantly lower the demand for water, fertilizer, and potentially harmful pesticides. It is a low-cost alternative to traditional, lethal landfill cover and artificial soil. Composting also aids in extending municipal landfill life by diverting organic materials from landfills and provides "a less costly alternative to conventional methods of remediating (cleaning) contaminated soil."
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