What We Should or Shouldn’t Put Into Our Compost Bins – the Ecologist

That the esteemed publication, “The Ecologist” has now provided guidance on what we should or shouldn’t put into our compost bins as we are told in the article to which we link below, surely shows just how far the humble compost bin has risen in importance. As natural resources become scarcer, this trend will no doubt continue. That anyone would talk of an ultimate guide for composting and what we should or shouldn’t put into our compost binss, is something quite amazing. I know that at www.compost.me.uk we tend to “wax lyrical” about compost to extent that is pushing the boundaries of ridiculous, and we are a little bit “touched”, surely such a description coming from a learned magazine like “The Ecologist” is surprising in the very least? Nevertheless, dispelling compost myths is a subject close to our hearts and their article an interetsing one.

How to Make and Use Compost – The Ultimate Guide The Ecologist This goes some way to dispel many of the domestic myths about what we should or shouldn’t put into our compost bins. If that isn’t enough to make the most hardened waste generator think twice, then Scott goes on to suggest we can all compost, …

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Here is a quotation from the original article to give you a flavour of what “the Ecologist” has to say about this guide:

Packed with useful advice, Nicky Scott’s ultimate guide to compost is essential reading for professional and amateur gardeners alike, says Mark Newton

Our dinner plates often contain leftovers, and pretty much everything we don’t manage to consume can be turned to compost. To be precise, as Nicky Scott explains in How to Make and Use Compost – The Ultimate Guide, pretty much ‘anything that once lived’ can be turned into compost. This goes some way to dispel many of the domestic myths about what we should or shouldn’t put into our compost bins. If that isn’t enough to make the most hardened waste generator think twice, then Scott goes on to suggest we can all compost, be it in a small balcony flat or allotment or even a school or community garden. There is simply no good reason for dodging the compost bin.

For a small volume, How to Make and Use Compost contains a large amount of information; not only about creating and using compost, but also why we ought to make it in the first place. Though it doesn’t go into the obvious moral arguments, the book does cover the many benefits to gardeners and smallholders. Not only does compost make soil healthier, by adding life to it in the form of micro-organisms; it also changes the structure of the soil. This also leads to less need for extra water, fertilisers and pesticides. It gets surprisingly technical, too; comprehensively explaining the process of composting – and more importantly – how to do it properly. ‘Once you really take on board that composting is a living, dynamic, natural process then I think you stop thinking of your heap as a kind of dustbin and more as the living, breathing entity that it actually is – a bit like a pet really!’

Scott’s simple, core mantra of Air, Water, Food and Warmth drives home the point that the compost heap is a living system, and for each of these core elements, we’re shown just what can help bring benefits to the compost heap. For example, to help with Air, Scott suggests using twigs from hedge clippings, prunings, wood chippings, shreddings, dry plant stems and straw, which open up the ‘denser, wetter materials and allow air through’. There is more biological rigour, of course, such as the differences between a hot compost system and a cold one, getting the mix right, as well as adding ‘carbon-rich’ browns and ‘nitrogen-rich’ greens. And for each level of complexity there are examples of what you should be adding in order to achieve the desired change in quality.

A chapter is dedicated to choosing the right system, be that simply compositing uncooked fruit and vegetable peelings and so on, to dealing with any cooked food waste. There is a wide range of composters available, too, including the small ‘Dalek’ style bins and beehive composters to a complex Bokashi system and even a wormery. Scott doesn’t just identify them but also explains the costs and benefits of each, as well as how much space you’ll need to start each of the systems.

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Listed below are some other websites with related information about this Compost topic:

Mexico grower plans greenhouses in Ariz. - USATODAY.com
Scottish meat body relaxes waste compost rules ...
End of Waste Criteria - Biodegradable Waste Working Document ...
Digestate & Compost in Agriculture - WRAP
Community gardens: A year-long series wraps up - latimes.com

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