Solid Waste Alliance Communities

(SWAC)

 

What Do I Do With...? Living Green Less-Toxic Alernatives Can I Burn?

 

COMPOSTING IN YOUR BACKYARD
Composting in your back yard... it's easy, saves you money, and produces nutrients for your garden!
COMPOST is simply organic material that has rotted to the point where plants can use the nutrients. Home composting is a way to manage this process so that it is faster and more convenient.

Composting Benefits:

  • Composting can be done with almost no effort. Composting is just collecting kitchen scraps and leaves and putting them in a pile or bin. Just add equal amounts of kitchen waste and leaves from the autumn leaf drop and... compost happens!

  • It improves the structure and fertility of garden soil, adds nutrients and helps to prevent plant diseases. Returns nutrients to the soil such as phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, zinc, manganese, iron and boron.

  • When added to the soil compost helps promote root development, enhances retention of water and nutrients, and makes the soil easier to cultivate.

  • When used on the surface of the soil as mulch, compost reduces rainfall run-off, decreases water evaporation from the soil, and helps to control weeds.
  • About 40% of the waste we each create is food and yard waste. Composting can also help reduce the amount of materials you send to the landfill and help cut your trash bill down to size. Compost is also a great addition to the soil.

  • Reduces the smell in your garbage bags. With all that wet stuff gone, your trash is lighter and less putrid.

  • Reduce global warming. Food decomposing in the landfill produces methane, a supercharged greenhouse gas; in your backyard compost bin it doesn't.

  • Saves space for longer-lived landfills.

  • MAKING COMPOST

    Compost is simple to make, requiring just two things: a container of some sort to hold the ingredients and the compost ingredients themselves.

    INGREDIENTS:

  • Vegetable peels.

  • Leaves.

  • Yard clippings.

  • Egg shells.

  • Small sticks…

  • The list of items you can add to a compost pile is a long one!

  • Compost ingredients can be separated into two categories-greens and browns.

  • "Green" ingredients provide nitrogen.

  • "Brown" ingredients provide carbon.
  • Mixed together they make heat, which makes it all rot faster.

  • Some Greens (nitrogen): Fruit and vegetable scraps; coffee grounds, filters; tea bags and loose tea; grass and shrubbery clippings; wet leaves.

    Some Browns (carbon): Dry leaves; small sticks (less than 1 in. in diameter); straw and hay; wood chips.
    HOW DO I GET STARTED?

    The Rutland County Solid Waste District (www.rcswd.com) offers Soil Saver composting bins for sale to SWAC residents for $45.00 and kitchen collection containers for $10.00. Contact Deane Wilson at the District at 802-775-7209 for further information. Composting bins are also available for sale in many home and garden stores and catalogs. There are also many designs for "make-your-own" composters. Check out the links sections of this page for more helpful advise for great home composting results.

     

    Solid Waste Alliance Communities, 87 Halls Pond Road, Salem, NY 12865
    (518)-854-9702

    email:
    info@rutlandcountyswac.org