Eco Friendly Tips,  Environmental Sustainable

How To Start Composting

If you always seem to have too much green waste in your home, you could get rid of it inane eco-friendly way easily by composting. You won’t need to throw away the leftover foodstuff from your home, or pile it in the garbage cans where it ends up attracting rodents and pests to your compound and smelling up the place. Composting is an easy and effective way to dispose of waste in a way that actually benefits the environment.

Which Types Of Foods Are Best To Compost?

If you want to create compost, these foods tend to be the best to use:

  • Fruits
  • Vegetables
  • Egg shells
  • Rice
  • Grains
  • Tea bags
  • Flowers
  • Coffee grounds
  • Food cooked without dairy, oil, or milk

    Are there types of foods that are not suitable for compost? Yes, there are various foods that you should not use in your compost. They include:

    • Meat
    • Fish
    • Dairy
    • Bones
    • Butter
    • Oils
    • Food cooked with oil, milk, or dairy.

    How does the process of composting look like? Below are things you can follow to create successful compost in your home.

    Steps Of Creating A Compost

    Choose The Food Scraps

    Begin by selecting the food wastes that you will use for the compost. Start with the vegetables or fruits. Here, you can use potato peelings or the top coverings of fruits. Coffee grounds and tea bags will also be very helpful. Did you wash or comb your hair? Instead of throwing away the hair that comes off during washing or combing, you can also add it to the compost materials!

    Dairy products, cooked foods, buttery foods, oily foods, and meat are not suitable for composts because they have a high potential of attracting rodents and pests.

    Store The Scraps Of Food

    Once you have selected the type of foods you will use for the composting process, you need to store them accordingly. The best place to store the compost components is in a purpose built container, so that you can add them one after another as you layer them.

    You do not need to have some expensive ceramic container to carry out the composting process however. Instead, you can use a simple item like an old milk box. As you peel your potatoes, throw the peels in the box and slowly begin the layering process. Another way of storing the scraps is by placing the waste food in the freezer or the fridge after inserting them in a bag. Storing the food in a cold environment will eliminate bad odors that could stink up your home as well as attract nasty insects into your home.

    Choose A Compost Location

    You need to survey your compound to find the part of your backyard that would make the best spot for making compost. If you have no backyard but still want to carry out the composting in your own home, you can use worms. The process of using worms as catalysts in the composting process is known as vermicomposting. Add the worms to your compost pile preferably in a sturdy container and seal it.

    Apart from worms, you can also use bacteria to hasten the composting process. Bacteria like Bokashi will come in handy during the fermenting of the food scraps. Place the food scraps together with the bacteria in a container and seal it well to ensure the bacteria does not find its way to other parts of your home.

    Layer The Compost Mix

    Ensure that you have compiled green and brown ingredients for your compost. Green ingredients include fruits, vegetable peelings, grass, and other vegetables. They are rich in nitrogen and will boost microbial growth in the compost. The brown ingredients are rich in carbon and include things like dried leaves and newspapers.

    When layering the compost, place the dry ingredients at the bottom and the green ingredients at the top of the heap.

    Aerate The Compost As You Wait

    After carefully layering the heap, you need to give the mass enough time to decompose. Decomposition largely depends on the weather. If the weather is hot, then the process may take around two months. If you live in a cold region, the process may take up to six months or an entire year for all the components to break down.

    Make sure to rotate the pile using a spade to ensure the layers below get enough moisture and aeration after every week consistently.

    How Will You Know If Your Compost Is Ready?

    A compost pile that is not ready has a bad smell, which is similar to that of smelly trash, while compost that is ready has a sweet, earthy or woody smell. Good luck and have fun!

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