Composting in a Nutshell

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COMPOSTING in a nutshell

From banana peels, to egg shells, to coffee grounds, food scraps can really add up. When thrown in the garbage and disposed in landfills, these innocent-seeming scraps become major contributors to climate change. In fact, if all of our food scraps were combined, together they would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, after China and the U.S. Fortunately, there’s an easy and satisfying way to harness the power of food scraps and return all of these vital nutrients to the land—composting! Composting feeds the soil instead of landfills and incinerators. Here’s everything you need to know to get started before the garbage collector comes! Creating your own compost is one of the best ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase the carbon sequestration capacity of your land. Rather than sending your food scraps, yard trimmings and other organic materials to landfills, where they release methane and CO2 into the atmosphere, these items can be composted and later used as a nutrient-rich addition to your yard, school, or community garden. Applying compost provides nutrients to the soil, enhancing soil health and plant growth. Compost supports the development of beneficial bacteria and fungi that transform food scraps and other organic matter into complex, stable forms of soil carbon, including humus, which can store carbon for hundreds to thousands of years. So don’t delay, start your compost pile today!

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