Composting: Nature’s Way of Recycling

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Green material is added to a compost bin to help produce compost.  Greens include vegetable and fruit scraps.  Photo: Flickr/Gudlyf

Green material is added to a compost bin to help produce compost.  Greens include vegetable and fruit scraps.  Photo: Flickr/Gudlyf

Celebrating International Compost Awareness Week

(Dalton, GA, May 9, 2012) –  According to the EPA’s 2010 Municipal Solid Waste study, 27% of household waste in the United States is made up of food remnants and yard trimmings.  These organic residuals can be very useful to the environment if they’re recycled into compost instead of being thrown away.  Composting can easily be started in your backyard by combining landscape trimmings and food scraps in a compost bin.  Nature takes care of the rest, producing a nutrient rich soil amendment through the decomposition process after several months.

Compost producing bins are filled with a combination of “brown” materials, “green” materials, and water for moisture.  Brown materials include paper, cardboard, dry yard waste like dry leaves, small branches and twigs, and straw.  Greens include wet yard waste like fresh grass clippings, green leaves, as well as food scraps like vegetable and fruit peels, coffee grounds, and bread.   Each category provides the nitrogen and carbon needed for nature’s recycling process to begin.   When the material at the bottom of the bin is dark and rich in color, and has no remnants of food or yard waste, the compost is ready to use.

To celebrate International Compost Awareness Week, Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful is hosting a Compost Bin Sale at the Downtown Dalton Saturday Market.  On Saturday, May 12th at the Dalton Green from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm volunteers will be distributing composting information and selling a limited number of “Garden Gourmet” Backyard Composters for only $40.00 each, 50% off the retail price of $79.99.

International Compost Awareness Week, organized by the US Composting Council, is from May 6 to 12 this year.  To learn more about composting visit www.compostingcouncil.org.  For event information call Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful at 706-226-6211 or visit www.keepdaltonwhitfieldbeautiful.org.