CURIOUS ABOUT COMPOSTING?

BY DOLORES RADER MINISTER TO FAMILIES

It was during quarantine that I realized something about banana peels that I have never previously considered…I assumed that when I toss a banana peel into the trash, it goes to a landfill and because it is organic, it would decompose there in pretty much the same way as if I threw it in my backyard.

Not true and here is why: single material in our everyday trash, constituting 24 percent of municipal solid waste. Almost one quarter of our landfill trash is organic material! One quarter of our trash is not only unnecessarily ending up in the landfill but causing significant environmental problems.

I have packed my banana peel in a plastic garbage bag and that bag will be crushed by a bulldozer (to maximize the use of space) at the landfill. The basin of the landfill has been lined with plastic to avoid toxic runoff, so there is very little oxygen reaching my poor little banana peel. With only limited oxygen, my banana peel off-gasses methane (not good) and takes years to decompose.

The great news is there is a pretty easy way to not only significantly reduce the amount of trash that is going to our landfills and actually significantly improve the earth that God has entrusted us to care for— composting!

Composting is proven to

• Improve soil health

• Reduce water usage

• Promote sustainability

• Encourage biodiversity all of it—bon xic runoff,

It was a very easy decision for my family to start composting. We started with a backyard version, but it turns out that wasn’t as easy as we were hoping it would be. So in August of 2020, we started using Happy Earth Composting that our friend Jan Barkley recommended. Last fall, South Main Baptist Church added composting to the Fellowship Hall.

Make sure you are dishing all of your food (really, all of it—bones, meat, salad dressing, anything you did not eat) into the compost bin.

Consider this mind-boggling fact: The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that more food reaches landfills than any other fact: ood er eac and com

Food waste is such a significant issue, and as co-stewards of the earth God has entrusted to us, Christians are called to do something - even a little something. Save your banana peels each week to compost on Sundays and Wednesdays or consider composting at your home.