Yard waste and food scraps make up 20% to 30% of garbage!! Many landfills are filling up and closing. Finding places to put garbage is a big problem. By composting yard and kitchen waste, you send less garbage to landfills.
Gardeners use compost. Compost allows the soil to hold more water and adds nutrients to the soil. Flowers, vegetables, trees, shrubs, house plants, lawns, and container gardens grow better in soil mixed with compost.
Composting provides an almost constant source of free fertilizer and soil conditioner. The organic materials in the compost help your plants grow by loosening the soil and allowing better root entry. The texture of compost improves the solid ability to hold water and can reduce your water bills. Compost has all the nutrients that plants require, unlike chemical fertilizers. Through regular use of compost you can greatly reduce or even get rid of the need for chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides, which saves money and reduces contamination of our waterways and drinking water.
With the composting methods described here, you can help the composting cycle work even better than it does in nature. The organic waste you put back into the environment can be used by other living things. This way, instead of going to a landfill or garbage-burning plant, your wastes become valuable resources.
Compost?
What is Compost?
Materials To Avoid
Best Ever Compost Recipe!!
Directions
How Does Composting Work?
Troubleshooting
What Can I Do with My Compost?
TNRCC Environmental Bulletin, Mulching and Compost
Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service, Backyard Composting Wastes to Resources