Why You Should Start Composting

I came upon the idea for this blog when seeing a plate full of tea grounds outside. Every morning, my parents and I drink Indian tea mixed with local honey. A byproduct of this is a bowl full of tea grounds. We used to throw them away as any other family would, but recently I have been seeing them on plates outside. Curious, I asked my mom what they were doing there and she explained to me that the tea grounds were used for composting and that actually a large percentage of greenhouse gasses were due to food rotting in landfills (check out my last blog on ugly produce!) so she was doing her best to be more sustainable in our kitchen. Rather than letting food rot, we decided to compost which is when organic materials are recycled into soil for the nutrition of plants. Our tea grounds went into the flower beds we had in our front yard once they dried up. 

Currently, about one-third of the food produced in the world is being wasted. It is estimated that every year 2.9 trillion pounds of food, equivalent to around a third of all the food produced, is being discarded. In fact, the largest component of landfilled solid waste is food scraps, which account for 22% of discards. Like I said in my previous blog, decomposing food is responsible for a huge 10% of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Rather than trashing our food which ends in landfills, composting can help reduce more than 50% of carbon dioxide-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions. Waste reduction prevents the need to expand the sizes of current landfills. 

Another, more direct, benefit is that of soil enrichment. The purpose of compost is to help plants grow. Completed compost is highly rich in nutrients and can dramatically improve the quality of soil, bolstering plant growth. Compost enriches soil by increasing water-carrying capacity, improving aeration (circulation of air), and balancing the acidity (pH) levels. According to the EPA, an increase in the organic matter of soil by just one percent can increase the water-carrying capacity threefold. Compost also acts as a slow-releasing fertilizer and provides the plants with nutrients over an extended period of time which reduces the need for artificial fertilizer which has its own environmental implications. On the other hand, synthetic fertilizers release all their nutrients at once which is more ineffective. Soil enrichment is vital because it allows for greater crop yields, healthier plants, and a reduced reliance on chemical-based fertilizers. Plants that are grown using compost are more resilient to disease, fungi, and pests. Additionally, composting eliminates the need for pesticides because the healthy bacteria and microorganisms help to fight off harmful pests.

Composting has other, more direct, environmental benefits. Because compost has the capability to retain water and nutrients, there is no longer such a profound need for excessive irrigation and synthetic fertilizers. This prevents the chances of chemical runoff into nearby bodies of water. Composting also is responsible for increasing the biodiversity in soil because it promotes the growth of microorganisms and increases the role of earthworms, which are essential in enhancing the soil health and nutrient cycling process. Composting is a vital step in sustainable agricultural practices. Over the last few decades, due to intense and artificial agricultural practices, nutrient depletion has become an issue. Composting is a major step in the right direction to help reverse this recent tendency.

Compost plays a crucial role in combating erosion. Stormwater runoff is one of the primary reasons behind erosion. However, with composting, permeability and infiltration of heavier soils is increased, decreasing the amount of stormwater runoff. Like I mentioned previously, compost increased the water-carrying capacity. This reduces erosion due to running water as the water gets absorbed into the soil. Extreme weather events tend to result in heavy erosion, but with compost, the results are significantly reduced. 

Although the agriculture sector has recently been plagued by harmful practices and chemical supplements, the switch to sustainability can still be made with composting. Even if large farms are apprehensive, we can still make a difference locally. Scraps of leftover food should not be thrown away and should instead be gathered for compost. Local gardens can benefit tremendously from composting while also saving tons of methane emissions. While working in the Mayor’s Office of Resilience and Sustainability with the City of Houston, I learned that even if you do not have a local garden to tend to, composting can still be a solution. There are tons of composting services online that come by weekly to pick up your compost. There are probably also composting drop off locations near you in case you do not want to pay a small fee for a service. Becoming more like my mother and using those tea grounds effectively can put our environment in a better place!

Works Cited

Addison County. “Top Five Reasons to Compost – ACSWMD.” ACSWMD, 2019, http://www.addisoncountyrecycles.org/food-scraps/composting/101/why-compost.

“Benefits of Compost – US Composting Council.” Www.compostingcouncil.org, http://www.compostingcouncil.org/page/CompostBenefits.

Talt, Gina. “The ComPOSTer: How Much Can Composting Help in Solving the Climate Challenge? [UPDATED].” S.C.R.A.P. Lab, 4 Mar. 2020, scraplab.princeton.edu/2020/03/the-composter-how-much-can-composting-help-in-solving-the-climate-challenge/.