Introduction
Today, solid waste management is one of the most prominent environmental
issues facing Texas and many other states throughout the nation. Our landfills
are filling up at an alarming rate. In fact, fifty percent of Texas's landfills
are estimated to be filled to capacity by 1994 unless something is done
to slow down the accumulation of waste materials.
Texans generate about 4 1/2 pounds of solid waste per person each day. Statewide
this amounts to over 12 millon tons each year. Recycling programs underway
in many communities across the state are helping slow the flow of wastes
into landfills. However, finding markets for recyclables and voluntary community-wide
participation remain obstacles to the success of these programs. While 95%
of what we throw away is recyclable, less than 20% of our household waste
is presently being recycled. A few communities have implemented mandatory
recycling laws while others are using a more indirect approach by raising
tipping fees at landfills and increasing the cost of curbside waste pick-up.
In Texas Legislature passed the Texas Solid Waste Management Act. This Act
requires municipalities across the state to document a certain percent reduction
in landfill volume. It also gives municipalities the right to refuse to
accept organic landscape materials at landfills.
Stringent environmental regulations have made the cost of constructing skyrocket.
Costs range from $250,000 to $350,000 per acre tobuild a new landfill facility,
or ten times more than they cost in the past.
Organic landscape materials, including leaves, woody trimmings and grass
clippings typically account for between 15% and 20% of a communities annual
solid waste. During peak leafdrop in fall when residents are bagging and
placing leaves curbside, organic materials may account for as much as 50%
of the incoming landfill volume.
The irony of this scenario is that, with the exception of large woody brush,
residents can recycle all their organic materials right in their own yards
through composting, mulching and grasscycling. By recycling these materials,
we're not just saving our landfill space but also improving our home environment.
Organic matter adds valuable nutrients back to the soil, improves the condition
of our soils, helps insulate the soil from temperature extremes, and helps
plants survive dry periods by holding moisture in our soils.
As concerned citizens and good stewards of the environment, it's time we
take action and stop throwing out what we can recycle and reuse. It's time
we stopped classifying organic materials as waste and see them as Mother
Nature intended..as an important link in the web of life, whose death and
decay brings newness of life and beauty to our environment.
Compost is the controlled decomposition of organic matter through biological
processes, with the end result being a nutrient-rich humus. The word 'compost'
is derived from the Latin verb componere which means to put together. Composting
involves the putting together of a mixture of
vegetable residue, animal matter, soil and water to form humus. Just as
variety is the spice of life, a variety of different organic materials makes
the best compost.
Composting is one way we can manage and recycle our organic landscape
materials and manufacturing humus for improving our soils. Composting will
also reduce the volume of organic materials by about 80% as they decay.
Every resident who has a landscape should also be composting organic materials.
It may be done as simply as piling organic materials in an out-of-the-way
place in the backyard and letting them rot on their own. Or you may want
to build or purchase a compost bin that will accelerate the composting process.
Compost will improve the productivity of your soil and the growth of plants
in your landscape and garden.
Composting is the cornerstone of waste source reduction. Source reduction
means putting less stuff on the curb for the garbage man to pick up and
deliver to the landfill. As progressive cities initiate volume-based fee
structures for refuse removal, the amount of garbage for curbside pickup
declines as citizens realize they will save money by discarding less. Tifton,
Georgia, for example, has already had a 33% drop in refuse collected since
beginning its "pay-as-you-throw" volume-based fee program in January,
1992 (from 60 tons per week to 40 tons per week). And as home composting
"catches on," even more residents will know how to reduce the
waste stream and their expenditures on it.
As a natural process, "composting" has been taking place since
the initiation of plant life on earth. Early man no doubt learned to use
manures and planted in soil enriched by natural decay. Historians have traced
composting and the use of compost in Europe to the Roman Marcus Cato over
2000 years ago.
The first important advance in the practice of composting was made by Sir
Albert Howard almost 75 years ago in India. He systemized the traditional
procedure into a composting method he called the Indore process. This process
involved stacking alternate layers of animal mature, sewage sludge, garbage,
organic matter, such as straw, leaves, and municipal refuse. The material
was stacked to a height of about 5 feet or was placed in specially constructed
pits 2 to 3 feet deep. The original procedure called for turning the material
only twice during the composting period of six months or longer. The liquid
draining from the decomposing mass was recirculated to moisten the pile
or was added to other drier piles. The Indore process, named after the locality
in India, with modifications and improvements, has been widely used in many
different countries. An important innovation has been more frequent turning
to maintain aerobic conditions, thus providing more rapid decomposition
and shortening the composting period.
During the period 1926-1941, Waksman and his associates carried out fundamental
research on the aerobic decomposition of vegetable residues and stable manures.
They made and reported important discoveries regarding the influence of
temperature on the rate of decomposition, the role of individual groups
of micro-organisms, and the effect of mixed cultures compared with pure
cultures on organic breakdown.
From 1950 to 1952, Gotaas and his associates conducted research on some
of the basic aspects of composting mixed municipal refuse containing garbage
and sewage sludge. Their investigation provided basic information on the
effects of some of the different variables encountered in aerobic composting,
namely: (1)temperature; (2) moisture; (3) aeration by turning and by other
means; (4) the C:N ratio of the organic materials; (5) the use of special
biological inocula; and (6) grinding or shredding the material.
Their studies also yielded data on the types of organisms present in composting
techniques for judging the condition of the compost at various stages of
decomposition.
While composting practices were being refined in India, China, Malaya, and
elsewhere, other investigators, notably in Europe, were devoting considerable
effort to mechanizing the composting process, particularly for use as a
method for treatment and sanitary disposal of the garbage and refuse from
cities. These efforts resulted in various mechanical innovations, usually
with the objective of improving the aesthetics of the process by enclosing
the materials in some type of structure, of speeding it up, and of making
it more economical. The mechanized and enclosed processes are primarily
designed for cities, but they are also valuable in rural village composting.
Various modifications of the Indore process have been used in the Netherlands,
Germany, Austria, England, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India, Malaya,
Central America, and the USA.
Composting is simply micro-organism farming. A good farmer keeps in mind
the basics of soil, season, pests, and climate when growing a crop, and
a good composter must focus on the materials being composted (their size,
freshness, exposed surface) and the climate around these materials (moisture,
aeration and temperature) to ensure a healthy compost crop. Fortunately,
as composters we can do much more to control the climate in a backyard compost
pile than a farmer can do to control the weather. The micro-organism farmer
who keeps in mind some basic rules of thumb can cultivate good compost in
any climate.
Anything organic - leaves on the ground, afallen tree, or a wood framed
house - will decompose. The more resistant the material is to decay, however,
the longer the process will take. Except in some special situations, decomposition
is inevitable! A total absence of air, such as in a peat bog, will prevent
decomposition. In very dry places or in very cold climates decomposition
may be slowed or stopped. Everything organic that's out in the weather will
sooner or later be fueling the decomposition process.
The materials you need to begin your micro-organism farming venture are
the very same ones falling on your yard, grass clippings from your lawn,
sod stripped for a garden, weeds, squash vines, watermelon rinds, coffee
grounds, tea leaves and fruit and vegetable trimmings from the kitchen --
all these materials come from once living organisms and can all be composted
in some manner. So start right in your yard with the materials at hand and
find ways to use what you have.
A diversity of materials is the key to a really first-rate compost. In addition
to the major plant nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium,
plants take up a host of minor elements and trace elements. The more diverse
the materials composted, the more likely that these elements are returned
to the plants. This is not to say the materials will compost better, only
that they will feed the plants better.
Where are materials for composting found? Well, an avid recycler of organic
wastes looks longingly at the contents of supermarket dumpsters and florist
shop trash barrels. These are items that would otherwise be thrown away.
The quote below from Vic Sussman's book Easy Composting (pp.
103-4), sums up the situation:
"..gardeners can serve an important role in collecting such 'wastes'
that might otherwise plague the community and the local environment by ending
up as pollutants. But besides lifting a small part of the burden off your
fellow taxpayers, you'll be functioning as an agent of change. People will
expresssurprise and curiosity at your collection and composting of what
they had previously considered useless stuff. Your recycling and humus making
will act as a reminder that garbage and organic trash are really resources,
not problems, if we use our collective imaginations and practice self-reliance".
The Texas Home Composter Program is an initiative of the Texas Agricultural
Extension Service and the Texas Water Commission, made possible by state
and federal funding and a grant from the Texas Water Commission's Clean
Cities 2000 program and intended to serve as a model for county and city
governments and private enterprises.
It is a part of the TAEX Master Gardener's program and we're proud to say
that it includes the concepts of the "Don't Bag ItTM" program developed
by Dr. Bill Knoop of the Texas Agricultural Extension Service.
The main purpose of the program is to help Texans to understand composting.
By composting at home and other methods of landscape recycling, we can reduce
the volume entering our landfills by at least 20%. Like other forms of recycling,
home composting, mulching and grasscycling (Don't Bag ItTM" concepts)
allow the individual citizen to have a hand in solid waste reduction.
On the other hand, this program involves more than just saving our landfills
and helping the environment. We hope the training will help you gain a deeper
understanding and greater appreciation for organic recycling and its benefit
to your living environment. By returning to the earth what Mother Nature
provides, your landscape and garden plants will thrive. Once you learn the
simple techniques and discover the benefits, you will want to show others
just how simple it is to get involved.
The Texas Home Composter Program through the successful Texas Master Gardener's
Program includes training workshops, permanent demonstration sites throughout
the state, and support for volunteers who will spread the word on composting
at home to their friends, neighbors and relatives. The Texas Water Commission
has made this program an integral part of its statewide solid waste management
educational program called for by the recent legislative acts governing
solid waste management in Texas. The TWC and TAEX expects this project to
stimulate the adoption and promotion of composting at home as an integral
part of solid waste management in Texas.
Major features of the project are as follows:
1. Volunteers are trained via Master Gardener's schools and workshops:
Volunteer participants attending a Master Gardener's school or workshop
receive training on compost technology, educational techniques, and organizational
skills. Volunteers then conduct similar home composter training programs
in their communities using resources provided. Each volunteer promises to
provide at least 40 hours of home composting training in his/her community
(Master Gardeners will be utilized).
2. Demonstration Sites:
The TAEX Solid Waste Management Initiative Team is also providing financial
and technical assistance to help local governments establish selected permanent
sites in regional areas of Texas demonstrating the simplicity and benefits
of composting at home. Each site is intended to be the nucleus for educational
programs provided by the volunteers. Each site will display a variety of
homemade and purchased composting bins and will offer free brochures on
home composting. Attractive signs at the sites will show how easy it is
to start composting at home. Other signs will promote "Don't Bag ItTM",
grasscycling and mulching. Each site also will show local plants growing
in compost. The demonstration sites will serve as the training locations
for the initial composting workshops.
3. Support for trained volunteers:
The TAEX Solid Waste Management Initiative Team will provide slide shows,
table-top exhibits, and educational displays for use by volunteers in instructional
programs at schools, churches, civic clubs, garden clubs, and other community
groups. Host governments for each of the demonstration sites will appoint
a project director and a home composting team. Project directors and team
members will be trained and then become the nucleus of the local home composting
program. Other volunteers recruited from the regions served by each demonstration
site will learn home composting and spread the concept to their communities.
As Master Gardeners and home composters our job as natural resource managers
is to help our friends, neighbors, and relatives learn to recycle some of
the things they have been throwing away. Remember, it's not waste until
it is wasted, and there is no reason to throw away what can be recycled.
As you will see, composting is one of the easiest of all recycling techniques;
it requires no sorting or hauling.
All you need is a little bin.