It's no secret that composting is great for the environment. Rooted in Nature loves to help promote all things lawncare and "green," and composting is arguably one of the best things we can do as a household for the environment. Let's get into the most important reasons to compost.
1. Composting reduces landfill waste.
Modern waste management methods are environmental tragedies. Waste lies stagnant in landfill sites where the vital oxygen that is needed to facilitate the decaying process cannot reach it. Landfill material also releases greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change; methane gas escapes during the building process. Incineration leaves some toxic ash waste, and the burning process releases a vast amount of carbon dioxide into our precious atmosphere.
2. Composting is good for the land.
Everything you compost at home becomes a thriving habitat and nutritious fodder for an entire population of bacteria, bugs, worms, fungi and creepy crawlies, and what they leave behind becomes nourishing fodder for you plants. The amount of methane emitted through a well-managed compost heap at home? ZERO!
Composting is nature’s way of recycling, found in ancient woodlands and other natural soils across the world. It uses a natural process that still occurs worldwide to produce rich degraded organic matter, also known as humus. This humus provides channels for air and moisture to get into the soil and other gases to get out, E.g. respiration gases from fungi and insects. Soils with organic matter in them allow mycorrhiza fungi to form a network between different plants in order to facilitate nutrient exchange.
Composting is the active breakdown of foods and other materials through an organic process. The ‘waste’ matter becomes as rich as the nutrients you put into it, and compost made from a variety of ‘waste’ materials usually harbors vital micronutrients. You can test this theory by conducting the following experiment. Pot one plant into garden soil and another plant into garden soil mixed with compost. The outcome? The plant in the partial-compost will grow visibly larger than the purely soil-based one.
Cleaner Oceans/Less Erosion
Since all water eventually makes its way to oceans, compost’s ability to filter water as it penetrates the ground means that the water flowing into the ocean will be cleaner. One of the biggest pollutants of the oceans are the acidifying fertilizers and other harsh chemicals used in farming.
Using compost decreases the water run-off that brings these chemicals into the ocean and diminishes the need to add these artificial fertilizers and chemical pesticides in the first place.
Once again, compost’s water retention abilities for the win! We’ve lost one-third of the earth’s farmable land within the last 40 years due to erosion and pollution. Most erosion is caused by excess water.
Unable to penetrate the ground, water swells up on the surface and rushes down to lower elevations, taking the top soil with it and depleting the land in the process. Compost acts like a sponge and allows way more water to infiltrate the ground, keeping the topsoil exactly where it belongs…on top!
We hope that if you already aren't an avid composter that you might start - it's easy and so amazing for the environment! To discuss all things lawn and garden, please contact us at 443-846-0199 or info@rootedinnaturemd.com.
Kommentare