The Compost Post
Posted by Robert Rapier on September 7, 2007 - 10:00am
Topic: Environment/Sustainability
Tags: composting, environment, global warming [list all tags]
"We stand, in most places on earth, only six inches from desolation, for that is the thickness of the topsoil layer upon which the entire life of the planet depends." R. Neil Sampson in Farmland or Wasteland: A Time to Choose
One of my interests, dating back 25 years to when I was a member of my local FFA land judging team, is soil conservation. I have long been interested in things like terra preta and composting because of their ability to build topsoil. But I never thought much about how difficult it can be to build up topsoil until I read Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy - Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars
While I would eventually like to get some experience with producing terra preta, earlier this year I got a flyer from Waste Aware Scotland for discounted composters. So, I bought one, and started to experiment. I wish I had done so years ago, because it has really been a fascinating exercise.
My 330 Liter ecoMax
I got the larger 330 L (87 gallon) model shown above and started dumping all things cellulosic into it. There is quite a little tropical ecosystem inside the composter. Even when it is cold outside, the waste is always steaming. And not only has it attracted numerous earthworms, but there are beetles, slugs, and lots of insects I haven't been able to identify. Besides being an interesting science experiment, there are major environmental benefits from composting. According to the most recent newsletter from Waste Aware Scotland:
• It reduces waste sent to landfill
Scotland produces 900,000 tonnes of organic waste a year. That’s enough to fill Hampden Stadium more than 18 times. We could divert a large amount of organic waste from landfill by using it for home composting.
• Reduce global warming
Organic waste sent to landfill cannot decompose properly because it doesn’t have access to air. As a result, it produces methane, which is a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.
• Your garden benefits
Compost improves soil, so plants in your garden become healthier and more pest and disease resistant. They will produce better fruit and vegetables and more beautiful blooms.
As I explained to my daughter, who recently told me she wants to become more environmentally responsible, there are two ways in which composting combats global warming. The first is the reduction of anaerobic digestion, which results in methane production as explained above. Because methane is such a potent greenhouse gas, this is not something you want occurring in an open landfill. But the second benefit is that home composting reduces the mass of material that would be transported (via fossil fuels) to the landfill. So home composting is much more environmentally responsible than throwing your waste in the trash.
So, what can you compost? Again, referring back to the newsletter:
Kitchen waste:
✔ Fruit scraps and vegetable peelings
✔ Tea leaves/bags and coffee grounds
✔ Egg shells
✔ Paper items which can include scrunched up cardboard, egg boxes, toilet roll tubes, vacuum cleaner bags, cereal boxes and paper towelsGarden waste:
✔ Cut flowers
✔ Garden and house plants
✔ Grass cuttings
✔ Young annual weeds
✔ Shredded twigs
✔ Hedge trimmings
✔ Straw and hay
✔ Wood chippings and sawdust
✔ Hamster or other pet bedding
If you start to segregate your garbage, you will find that these items make up a substantial portion of what would normally go to the landfill.
Inside My Composter - Yuck
In the picture above, the composter contains about 30 gallons of composting material. But I have filled it to the top at least 10 times and haven't taken anything out of it. In other words, that 30 gallons of material was originally around 1,000 gallons. It is amazing how much the volume is reduced as it decomposes. But that also goes to show how much material it takes to produce an inch of topsoil.
So get yourself a composter
Arkansawyer
Making dirt. Take the most inhospitable environment that you control, say a gravel driveway, and turn it into a garden.
"But I have filled it to the top at least 10 times and haven't taken anything out of it."
Take some out!
This stuff is incredibly good for growing things. Compost both fertilizes (thus decreasing our need for petroleum derived fertilizers) and holds moisture in the soil (which decreases our need to pump water).
And no one has to burn fuel hauling stuff around and burying it.
(I do get your point about how little space composting can take. Thanks for the post.)
A former FFA member eh .
I wonder if the current high school FFA members study composting and soil building.
My Chapter seems to be interested only in Livestock Competition as if plants did not even exist.
And Organic is a no no.
Arkansawyer
Like 4H, the FFA will have to be overhauled.
WAG-I bet both started during the Depression.
The original inspiration for the organization began after the Smith-Hughes National Vocational Education Act of 1917 established vocational agriculture courses. Virginia's Future Farmers clubs for boys in agriculture led to the establishment of a national organization, The Future Farmers of America in 1928
Blacks and probably people of color were not allowed until 1965.
The NFA was formed in 1935 for African-American boys interested in agriculture.
Females were not allowed until 1969
It was and primarly is about rich white landowners showing off their livestock. IMHO
It tries to do other things to preserve their funding.
I was an FFA member also
Hopefully things will change
Arkansawyer
Thank you very much. I agree.
BTW-All of those dates sync with Major SocioEconomic Events.
1917-US enters WWI
1928-Real Estate Bubble Implosions nationwide.
1928-JSTOR: Grain Growers' Co-operation in Western Canada.
It was based on articles written for the Grain Growers' Guide by Mr. J. T. Hull, ... The price of wheat slumped heavily between June and August 1928, ...
links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0013-0133(192903)39%3A153%3C116%3AGGCIWC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-S - Similar pages
JSTOR: Shall We Change Our Grain Marketing System?
1928. Pre- sumably free. Grain Dealers' National Association Bulletin No. ... Reviews 401 immense supplies of grain on the market does not break the price. ...
links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1071-1031(192807)10%3A3%3C400%3ASWCOGM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-0 - Similar pages
by Vladimir Popov - 1990 - 352 pages
In 1926/27 and 1927/28 the planned procurement prices barely covered the cost price of the grain. It's true that in 1928/29 prices were an average of 23 ...
books.google.com/books?isbn=1850432139..
1965-Civil Rights Act
1969-Viet Nam
The FFA was/is a reaction to these events.
Anyone here have those green organics bins for city pickup?
At my city place, I use it for the *stinky* stuff (meat, diapers, etc). But, I have two others(same type and size) that I fill up with green compostable organics.
I then take them to my country place and compost them there.
Hate to see this stuff in a land fill.
Are you at all worried about the pigments on the paper in your bin? A lot of purists won't use colored paper.
Arkansawyer
If you're at that point in composting,
colored print(CP) should be far down the list.
EX. problems with plastic far outweigh the CP issue.
http://science.reddit.com/info/2mteq/comments
if you are so inclined... :) we appreciate it!
I've two of those actually. They work quite well. It's amazing the quantity of garbage it actually takes to fill it. It can be like 6 months with stuff going in and in and in and the next time you see it it's still on the same level (and no, it doesn't flow down). It just gets more and more thin and "composted".
Arkansawyer
Treat it like a Starter yeast mixture.
And an easy way to get rid of kitchen slop.
Earthworms particularly are great at helping compost into very excellent soil. There are units devoted specifically to earthworm based composting.
And yeah, it takes much work to make soil.
Now if you could take your largest volume of compost ready material and use it, you could produce much more. But noooo... we human beings are one of the few land based mammals that craps and pisses in our drinking water supply flushing good material out to sea. Local laws and regulations won't let you do this, Robert, but you might want to at least read The Humanure Handbook to see what else can be done.
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Dr. Albert Bartlett
Into the Grey Zone
For a number of years we had three fruit lugs (stacked one on top of the other) lined with plastic for worm beds in our kitchen. We rotated green waste between them. There was no smell and the worms took care of everything.
We finally had to get rid of them when we couldn't keep our cats from digging in them.
We switched to outside composters called Green Cones (no longer sold) that do a fine job. We can't put kitchen waste in our compost piles because the ravens and other animals dig it our and make a mess.
Todd
Terra Preta in Mendocino County, CA
FWIW, I'll be doing a presentation about my work on terra preta for the Long Valley Garden Club (Laytonville, CA) some time this year. If you might be interested in attending email me (detzel at mcn dot org) and I'll let you know when something is finalized.
I've been playing with terra preta for about three years. My presentation will include historic information, current research by others, what I've been doing and charcoal making.
I'm always glad to have visitors at my home to see what I've been doing and I'd throw in a short presentation if you don't know much about terra preta. Just email me at the above addy and we can set something up.
Todd
I don't know about your neck of the woods, but most municipalities in the US don't have laws specifically forbidding the composting of one's own manure, indeed it's completely off the radar screens of most city officials. (It's not forbidden, but doesn't fit into the approved list of waste disposal systems...funny how we think of our crap as "waste" when it's a key ingredient to long-term soil viability... hardly what I'd describe as waste.) So, legally speaking, it's really it's a grey area. I think if you are discreet and don't go advertising what you're doing all over town, you'll be left alone. It's worked for me. And if you do it right, it increases the efficacy of your compost to an insane degree.
From the aforementioned Humanure Handbook:
http://www.weblife.org/humanure/chapter8_9.html
Everywhere I go on the net only tries to scare you away from using human or dog poop in composting, claiming it brings dangerous parasites into the mix and most amateur composting doesn't get the temperature high enough to kill the bad bugs.
I look in my composter, and I don't think the temperature is very high at all, so I don't put the dog poop in there. But it seems a waste to just dump it into the woodsy part of my property.
the temperature high enough to kill the bad bugs.
Yes, BUT the 'bad bugs' ARE the food for fungi/worms/other things in a worm bin. Testing of 'bad bugs' from a vermipost system shows reduction to almost 0.
So it can be done.
We've been using the humanure system for a couple years now (our friends and us refer to "Saint Jenkins" to describe the author of the "Humanure Handbook."
You can build a compost bin from three pallets for a couple bucks, and a composting toilet system for $50.
We use ground up, sifted mulch from the transfer station (ground up yard wastes, almost entirely carbon) which we get for $15 a truck load. Then we use it as "kitty litter" for the 5 gallon bucket beneath the potty lid, scooping mulch to cover what we do.
No smells, no flies, no visual problems.
Then the buckets are dumped into the compost heap, covered with a half food of straw, and in a couple weeks there is nothing that resembles human feces.
The problem with most compost heaps is that there is plenty of carbon, but rarely enough nitrogen. You need 30:1, carbon to nitrogen. Humanure is mostly nitrogen, so it turbocharges the compost and gets it cooking.
There are conceivably two problems with humanure composting. One is aesthetic, one is health.
The health problem is solved rapidly through thermophilic composting, where the heat from the composting reaction gets the mass above 117 degrees F, and kills all mesothermic bacteria (which includes all pathogens) in a few hours. Thermophilic bacteria then take over, digest the compost, and when it cools down is recolonized by all the micro flora and fauna that inhabit top soils. Perhaps 10,000 species or so, including bacteria, fungi, insects, nematodes, earthworms, etc etc etc.
Aesthetically, one can dig through the compost after a few weeks and find nothing objectionable visually. But, depending on the climate, you'll want to let the compost heap fill up, then cap it off, keep it moist, and let it set for six months to a year. At the end of that period, you'll find the most incredible looking, wonderful smelling compost you can possibly imagine. Guaranteed pathogen free. (as Jenkins shows, quoting extensively from various scientific studies, the longest lived pathogen is ascaris, roundworm eggs, which are killed off by thermophilic temperatures in a few hours. But if somehow it doesn't heat up, the time alone will kill them off.
Besides, the primary source for roundworms is not humans; it is dogs. And dog feces is ubiquitous everywhere, and is rarely disposed of properly.
I would highly recommend "the humanure handbook," even if you never intend to do it. The chapters on composting make everything else ever written redundant or irrelevant.
I have heard that dog and cat 'poop' from animals fed commercial dog and cat food (virtually all) is high in heavy metal residues. Haven't corroborated this factoid anywhere. Heard it from a friend who ran a kennel and constructed a special septic tank to get rid of the dog poop.
Re: parasites - Parasites and bad bugs will end up in your compost only if they're already in your body to begin with. (You are eating right and keeping yourself healthy, arent you?) Mind you, I was only referring to human manure, chances are higher that cat or dog poo will have some issues with that, unless they're on some special diet and never go outside. Anyway, it's the manure that gets the pile hot enough to kill unwanted germs in the first place - the microbes that love to eat poo and love heat get very active and the friction between their little bodies creates more heat, at least as I understand.
It's not friction, it's metabolic heat. Thermophilic bacteria like it hot, and when conditions are right, they multiply like made and generate lots of heat. But the pile has to be big enough to retain that heat, without getting compacted and losing its loft (i.e. aeration). It can be a tricky balance to hit.
Composting carnivore manure is entirely possible, but it's an advanced technique. I wouldn't try it personally, not being a master of hot composting techniques.
The other key with manure compost (human and animal) is to use them correctly: You can put almost anything on a tree, for example, and not have a problem. Don't use manure composts on your lettuce, though.
Re: "Don't use manure composts on your lettuce, though."
At my homestead I've been composting humanure (along with kitchen and garden refuse) for over five years now, following Joe Jenkins' Humanure Handbook instructions, and every spring (after one year of not adding anything to the compost pile) ALL the composted humus goes on our vegetable garden.
I'm still alive and our garden thrives quite well. However, I do not add pet manure because they are prone to parasites; although the thermophilic and time process would likely do them in. Still, there is no need to add this sort of animal manure when I've got plenty of better from the two legged creatures here.
It is not that "tricky" at all to do this right. My two alternating compost piles are housed outdoors in wood sheathed bins (~ 4' sq.), but I have them covered by wire screen doors to keep out marauding woodland critters.
Evolutionary Nature figured this composting thing out long ago. Humans are dumber than shit in recognizing how we too can use the same process to our advantage rather than our demise.
I'd be interested in seeing a picture of the product at the base door of Robert's compost bin. In my experience it is often a slimey mess and not really good compost. To get that he will need to stop adding stuff and let it age or cure. I'd use two bins, fill it during a year and then switch off to using the other while the first finishes.
But truly you're missing out on making great compost without adding humanure.
Manure (human or not) composts can safely be used on vegetable gardens. Mature manure composts are about as safe as ordinary garden soil (which isn't all that safe) and can be used with relative abandon. Fresh manure shouldn't be applied to vegetable gardens within six weeks of harvest. Not that there is a point to applying compost near harvest. We generally apply manures and composts to our garden either before planting or after harvest.
I think most people would be shocked at how much raw sewage is applied to farmland in North America. It's not a practice I necessarily endorse, but composted sewage is a different story. If it weren't for the heavy metals in the cleaning products that we pour down our drains, I'd happily apply it to my land.
jeezlouise,
The laws on your fecal material are for water quality protection. If you have to get a permit for a septic tank or local ordinances forbid out houses as most cities and towns do the you are in violation of laws by adding feces and urine to compost heaps
I live in Galveston, which is an island 2 miless out in the Gulf of Mexico, with the Galveston Bay system north of us. One hundred years ago this area had an immense oystering industry, but now at least 75% of the bay is permanently closed to oystering due to pollution. Its not the chemical plants and refineries, though. The largest source of pollution is "non-specific point souce pollution", which if you dig a little is fecal coliform bacteria from street run-off in Houston and its suburbs Most of that is from untreated animal waste from people's yards and even a large part of the beach near the Gulf gets contaminated, as do ocean beaches all over the country.
Shallow aquifers are dangerous places to get your water, as are untreated surface water from areas with much population and that includes factory farms. And frankly, I oppose any activity that adds to pollution in general. That includes coal plants without CO2 recapture and any run-off from untreated sewage. Pretending yours doesn't count doesn't make it so.
Bob Ebersole
Bob,
The septic laws are apparently meant for water quality protection but the fact remains that these regulatory laws do very little to actually stop water pollution (whether ground, surface or estuary). The moment one urinates and/or defecates in a water flush toilet you are making a very personal contribution to water pollution woes and all the septic regulatory laws on the books as is are not altering this tragic effect.
By not peeing & pooping in a water flush toilet but instead capturing and adding humanure to a well built and maintained compost pile one no longer pollutes ground water aquifers, or otherwise causing run-off pollution because a good compost pile is like a huge sponge -- it can absorb and hold a tremendous amount of water without any run-off (barring of course flood conditions).
I imagine that Galveston homes once provided for their own water with their own wells and cesspools for their septic waste, but one day discovered that their water wells were becoming tainted with their septic wastes leaching into their ground water aquifer and even the bay. The mop & bucket solution was then to provide for city wide water as well as sewer lines and sewage treatment facilities.
Bob, what do you think happens to this water after sewage treatment and the de-watered sludge? I think I know but for your own edification you might want to visit your own sewage treatment plant and ask some questions. Among them I would encourage you to enquire of the treatment process, how it works and what chemicals they use anywhere along the treatment process; also where does the treated water go afterwards (re-injected in the ground?) and where the de-watered sludge goes (this last one could carry you far afield of Galveston). What tests do they run on their treated water and can you see the results? The test results will fall within their regulatory limits but it is by no means pure water and the test results will show this.
Of your public water supply I imagine it is treated with chlorine. You do know that chlorine is a potent poison? But the regulatory laws meant to ensure your water quality require it. Such laws may be fit for regulatory purposes but IMHO adding poison to one's water supply does not enhance its water quality. If you want good water of pure and untainted quality now a daze that more often than not comes in plastic jugs one buys at the store (although I would not recommend anything that isn't from a spring or distilled -- forget about Desani.)
So, Bob, once you've really looked into this regulatory mop & bucket boondoggle of *water quality protection* and then care to truly "oppose any activity that adds to pollution in general", you too will soon be making compost in your backyard and adding your very own humanure to it. Perhaps then you'll understand the virtue of such a personal endeavor of responsibility and will know better to extoll it rather than foolishly rebuke it.
So you're saying that it's mainly untreated animal waste from people's pets running off into groundwater supplies that pollutes the water in your area... this seems to be an apples and oranges situtation then. On the one hand, we have untreated, unmanaged fecal coliform bacteria from dogs and wild birds contaminating the groundwater.. surely a problem, but one that doesn't really relate to carefully composted material. And on the other hand, we have maybe a handful of people, 0.00001% of the US population, dealing with their "leavings" in a way that, if done properly, dramatically reduces the presence of harmful bacteria present, improves soil quality, and provides a long-term alternative to energy-intensive, costly, and ultimately environmentally destructive sewage treatment systems. The four main sources of coliform in groundwater are:
1- leaky septic tanks or overflowing combined sewers,
2- pets,
3- birds, and
4- poor agricultural practices, such as letting livestock graze near bodies of water.
These all share one common feature: untreated, "naked" manure, if you will. This is a completely different set of circumstances than a carefully managed compost pile. The infinitesimally tiny chance of general pollution from manure recycling is far outweighed by the benefit of reducing participation in municipal treatment systems that are known to, for instance, dump 1.2 billion tons of chlorine into our streams, lakes, rivers and oceans each year, along with the 2.3 million tons of toilet paper produced by paper mills that are themselves sources of fecal coliform.
So, from a pollution standpoint, I'm not saying mine doesn't count. I'm just saying it counts for a helluva lot less than the alternative.
And yeah, it takes much work to make soil.
Yeah, no joke. Everyone who is interested in sustainability should compost. Not because it reduces your personal footprint (though it does, minutely) but because you learn things about the natural processes of decay and renewal that have been largely forgotten in our culture.
Take Freeman Dyson for example. He recently wrote an essay denying the urgency (but not the reality) of climate change, which included this asnine suggstion:
I appreciate the fact that he is looking for positive responses and alternatives to doom and gloom. But this suggestion is clearly coming from someone who has no personal experience with soil or the building thereof: it's very hard to do on a large scale without enormous inputs. The fact that it is also a totally undervalued commodity (reflected in the fact that our ag system wastes it like mad) also means that his suggestion is utterly impractical on an economic basis.
Grey Zone,
Earthworms are wonderful critters. Their castings are very valuable as organic fertiliser, and the excess worms that you breed are easy to sell as bait or use as chicken feed. Its a business that post crash survivalists should consider for regular income, plus they are great to compost leaves, grass cuttings, kitchen waste or even newspapers and cardboard. Since worms don't require sunlight, they are great for areas that are too low light to grow vegetables. a simple worm bed can be built with scrap lumber and screen wire.
Worm castings sell for as much as $6.95 a lb. They're perfect to use with potting soil to set up container gardens, and cut regular fetilizer quantities by as much as 75%.
Some good sites to check out worms amd worm castings are:
http://www.vermico.com which has books for sale
http://www.jollyfarmer.com/earthwormcastings
http://www.dirtworks.net
or just look up earthworm castings on yahoo or google
Bob Ebersole
Earth worms are nice...
We raised a pig this year almost entirely from the table scraps, left over's, and fridge refuse from a family of 4, and the dung produced by the pig will make its way into our garden, and the pig has found his way into our freezer. Our goats do the same for our weeds and grass clippings...
This is the one I own - great value
http://www.sportsmansguide.com/cb/cb.asp?a=264294
Dirt by David R. Montgomery needs to be read by TODders. He might have called it Peak Soil.
Meat and dairy can also be added to an active, "hot" compost system. Run the meat through a blender to aid decomposition.
Do not attempt with a passive system, or it will stink like, well, rotting meat and dairy.
Even if it doesn't stink, it attracts rats.
My parents tried composting for awhile, but they made the mistake of including meat scraps. It didn't smell (my dad threw soil on top), but boy, was it a rat buffet. They were were rushing to chow down even in broad daylight.
So they gave up composting.
Put the rats in a blender and add to the compost pile. :)
My grandparents and second cousins in upstate NY composted with blended meat, I remember no problems with rats. They also had a few cats, however.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow7N40V4HkM
That's OK. Don't bother.
I get the feeling I wouldn't like your GP and cousins.
Rodney DangerRat
======
http://www.ecoliteracy.org/publications/harvests.html
http://mms.mcn.org/~garden/GPlan.html
http://layt.k12.ca.us/LEMS/garden.html
http://www.ncrcn.org/projects/ly/spyrock.html
Educational Gardens and Recycling
At Laytonville Unified School, California students in grades K-8 have organized and managed a recycling, composting, and gardening program since 1987. The gardens are fertilized by compost made from cafeteria wastes. Vegetables, fruits and bread make compost for the garden; protein waste goes into a "pig bucket" for a local farmer's hogs; milk cartons are recycled; and paper bags are shredded for mulch or worm food in the garden's worm culture beds. Within 10 months, 14,181 lbs. of materials was recycled. Food grown in the garden is sold to the school lunch program, donated to the community, and sold at the Middle School Market.
Educational Gardens & Recycling
150 Ramsey Road
P.O. Box 325
Laytonville, CA 95454 http://solstice.crest.org/environment/renew_america/kidprogs.htm
Todd...were you part of this project?
Rat,
No, I wasn't. Binae Pane (sp) was the one who deserves the credit.
Todd
710,
I've never found a clear definition of what constitutes a "hot" or "active" system versus a passive system for composting. From reading, I've assumed that it is a composting system with active biological agents that due to their actions can keep the compost pile