Composting: Feed's All You Need Guide

Composting is an excellent way to reduce waste, improve soil health, and grow healthier plants. According to Feeding America, over 119 billion pounds of food is wasted in the United States each year, most of which are fruits, vegetables, and other foods. Whether you have some small space on your kitchen counter, a space in your garden, or a larger backyard, being able to effectively compost can allow you to help make your own impact on helping the planet. Best of all, various inventions in recent years have helped to make the act of composting even easier! In today's Pop's All You Need guide, we'll cover the basics of how to compost effectively and efficiently and some of the ways you can implement composting into your own life.

What is Composting?

Before we jump into how you can incorporate composting into your daily routine, it’s essential to understand exactly what composting is. According to NDRC, composting is the natural process of recycling organic matter into a valuable fertilizer that helps soil and plants. Compost is full of nutrients and bacteria that help enrich the soil for better-growing food and plants (and is a great way to rid of uneaten food without throwing it in the trash). 

Additionally, there are many excellent benefits when it comes to composting! For instance, composting helps to lower the negative impact of food waste within our personal lives and in our communities. Completing your food scraps helps limit the amount of food that enters landfills, lowers the number of greenhouse gases created by that waste, and helps to support the ecosystem when used as compost. Another notable benefit of composting food waste is that it helps improve soil health and create better-tasting food. As noted by EarthEasy, composting contains three primary ingredients that help plants achieve successful growth, including nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and other chemicals like calcium, magnesium, and iron. Crops grown using compost rather than fertilizers with harmful chemicals allow for healthier and better-tasting fruits, vegetables, and more!

What Types of Composting Methods Are There?

Now that we’ve covered what composting is, it’s time to discuss what types of composting methods you can follow! There are many different methods for composting, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Some popular methods include:

Traditional Composting

Traditional composting is the easiest form of composting to adopt - simply, this is the method of breaking down organic materials in a large container. When using the traditional composting process, though, it’s important to note that it takes quite a long time for the food to break down (typically around weeks to months, according to Tauranga City). Additionally, this method works best if you have lots of leaves, twigs, and other garden items to help provide a suitable environment for the composting process to begin. 

Vermicomposting

Another method of composting is vermicomposting. If you’ve ever composted in school, you’ve likely used this method before! Vermicomposting uses worms to break down food scraps and other organic matter into rich soil perfect for growing healthy plants and delicious fruits and vegetables. This method is ideal for those with limited space, such as apartment dwellers, and can be done indoors with a little bit of soil! 

Bokashi composting

The final composting method is the bokashi composting method. With bokashi composting, kitchen scraps are layered with wheat germ, wheat bran, and sawdust combined with microorganisms, all within a tub or a bokashi composting kit! This is likely the fastest composting method, as it only takes around ten days to complete the process! Bokashi composting is great for those who want to compost food scraps quickly and without odor.

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