Transcript what is compost? - HCC Learning Web

The Basics
Presented by
XXXXXXXXXX
1406 Biology
HCC – West Campus
Fall Semester 2010
WHAT IS COMPOST?
Compost is: a natural process of
breaking down and recycling
decomposed organic materials into
Compost, which is a rich soil. Humans can
harness this natural process of returning
nutrients into soil by composting outdoors
and indoors.
2
MAKING COMPOST
Compost is usually made by gathering plant
material, such as leaves, grass clippings,
and vegetable peels, into a pile or bin and
letting it decompose as a result of the
action of aerobic bacteria, fungi, and other
organisms.
3
Composting is applied microbiology. Literally
thousands upon thousands of different species
of microorganisms (2 million individuals per
gram) in a highly complex ecosystem.
4
WHY COMPOST?
Composting has been around for centuries.
In fact, Historians have traced composting and
the use of compost in Europe to the Roman
Marcus Cato over 2000 years ago.
Compost is one of nature’s best mulches and
soil amendments, and you can use it instead
of commercial fertilizers.
Other reasons include…
5
 Soil conditioner. With compost, you are
creating rich humus for lawn and garden. This
adds nutrients to your plants and helps retain
moisture in the soil.
 Recycles kitchen and yard waste.
Composting can divert as much as 30% of
household waste away from the garbage can.
 Introduces beneficial organisms to the soil.
Microscopic organisms in compost help aerate
the soil, break down organic material for plant
use and ward off plant disease.
6
 Good for the environment. Composting offers
a natural alternative to chemical fertilizers.
 Reduces landfill waste. Most landfills in North
America are quickly filling up; many have already
closed down. One-third of landfill waste is made
up of compostable materials.
7
GETTING STARTED OUTDOORS
Choose a spot in your back yard
or select a compost bin
There are many types of bins used
to hold the compost materials.
There are commercially made
square or cone shaped plastic bins,
homemade square bins often made
of wood, and rotating tumbler style
bins just to name a few.
8
Each type of bin has its' own advantages
and disadvantages but all types of bins can
be used to make great compost.
9
Select a Location for Your Compost Bin
 Choose a site that is level and well drained
 Easily accessible year round
 Place the bin over bare soil rather than concrete
or paving to ensure that worms and other
beneficial organisms can make their way into the
pile.
 It's a good idea to remove any grass or plants
and turn the soil to a depth of about 6 - 8
inches.
10
Add Good Composting Materials
 Generally, composting ingredients can be divided
into two categories:
 Brown materials such as leaves, hay, straw
and paper and
 Green materials such as grass clippings, fresh
manure, vegetable trimmings and most green
plant cuttings.
11
RIGHT MIXTURE IS KEY
It's important to get the right
mixture of ingredients in your
compost to ensure that it heats
up nicely and breaks down
effectively.
Getting the right mixture of brown (carbon) materials
to green (nitrogeneous) materials will make a huge
difference.
Adding too much brown material will result in a
compost pile that takes a long time to break down.
12
Adding too much green material will
result in a compost pile that is slimy and
smelly that doesn't break down well.
13
BROWN COMPOSTING MATERIALS
Brown materials such as leaves, straw, hay
and sawdust are high in carbon and are a
source of energy for the compost microbes.
14
GREEN COMPOSTING MATERIALS
Compared to brown materials, green compost
materials are much higher in nitrogen.
Nitrogen is an important element in amino
acids and proteins, and is a vital protein source
for the compost microbes, helping to speed up
the process of decomposition.
15
Green composting materials include:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Vegetable peelings
Grass clippings
Coffee grounds
Fresh manure
Sea weed
Plants and plant cuttings
Green materials that are very high in
nitrogen should be used sparingly, especially
fresh grass clippings.
16
WHAT NOT TO ADD
TO YOUR COMPOST!
Vegetable fats and dairy
products slows down the
composting process by
excluding the oxygen that
helpful organisms need to do
their job.
If you add these materials you
will still have usable compost,
it will just take much longer.
17
The microorganisms in your compost need both
carbon and nitrogen to thrive; carbon for energy
and nitrogen for protein synthesis.
For every one unit of nitrogen used by the
bacteria they also consume about 30 units of
carbon.
So in order to keep the bacteria working
efficiently we need to supply them with a mixture
that is about 30 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen.
18
Needless to say, most materials
don't have a ratio of 30:1.
However, if we know the
approximate C:N ratio of the
materials we use in our compost,
we can combine them so that the
total mix will be close to 30:1.
19
Example
• dry autumn leaves (C:N of about 50:1)
• kitchen scraps (vegetable & fruit peelings,
coffee grounds etc: about 12:1)
• grass clippings (about 20-30:1)
• sawdust (fresh: 500:1, rotted 200:1)
20
Using different combinations of materials
we will try to get close to the magic 30:1
ratio.
If we use 1 part dry leaves to 1 part
kitchen scraps we would have the
following:
leaves 50/1 + kitchen scraps 12/1 = 62/2
= 31/1 or 31:1
21
TURNING THE COMPOST
Adding fresh oxygen into your compost pile by
turning it more frequently will help your
compost break down faster.
Many of the bacteria that break down in a
compost need air to survive.
A week or two after the pile is made, these
bacteria will start to die off as they start to use
up the available air in the pile.
22
This drop in the amount of bacteria will result
in the compost pile cooling off a bit from it's
peak temperature.
When this happens it's time to turn the pile
to get more air into it.
23
TURNING TIPS
When turning your compost pile:
-move the drier material from the
outer edges of the pile into the center
-break up any clumps
-get as much air into the mixture as
possible.
Moisten any of the materials as you go if they
seem dry.
24
TEMPERATURE
Decomposition occurs most efficiently
when the temperature inside the pile is
between 104 degrees F and 131
degrees F.
It is best not to turn the pile while it is between these
temperatures, but rather when the temperature is
below 104 degrees F or above 131 degrees F.
This keeps the pile operating at its peak.
The more the pile is turned, the faster the compost will
finish.
25
If you're using a plastic
compost bin, an aerator
tool will make the job of
turning much easier.
A garden fork is often the
best tool for turning
compost in an open style
bin.
26
CHECK THE MOISTURE LEVEL
The key to getting the correct moisture in your
compost is to moisten the pile without making it
too wet and soggy.
Many people recommend adding moisture until the
material is as moist as a wrung out sponge. This is
far too wet.
If you can squeeze water out of it, it's definitely too
wet. By adding some dry brown materials such as
chopped leaves or hay will help dry it out.
27
If you're in a climate with a lot of rain or
moisture in the air, like Houston, cover the top
of the pile with a tarp or other covering to keep
it from becoming too wet.
A moisture content of between 50-60% is
desirable in an active compost pile.
28
To judge the moisture content in your compost:
Take a handful of compost from the center of
your pile and squeeze it in your hand:
If you can squeeze water out of it, the compost
is too wet.
If the compost does not release water but
crumbles apart when released, it's too dry.
If the compost does not release water but stays
compacted, it's just right.
29
SHRED SOME OF THE INGREDIENTS
Especially the Brown material
If there is one secret to making
compost faster, it is finely shredding
the carbon rich ingredients such as
leaves, hay, straw, paper and
cardboard.
30
increases the surface area
that the compost microbes have to work on
and provides a more even distribution of air
and moisture among the materials.
Since it's the brown materials that take the
longest amount of time to break down,
shredding them significantly reduces the
finishing time of compost.
31
If you don't have a chipper or shredder you can
chop your materials into smaller pieces with
pruning shears or strong scissors.
32
FINISHED PRODUCT
Compost is finished when it's a dark, rich
color, crumbles easily, and you can't pick
out any of the original ingredients.
It should have a sweet, earthy smell. If it's
too stringy or lumpy, it may need more
time.
33
Keep in mind that the
amount of time can vary.
It can take anywhere from
three to four weeks to 12
months to produce compost.
34
SUMMARY
Composting is a way to “go green” and cut
back on the amount of waste going into
landfills.
Composting starts with scraps of food. The
composting process involves the break-down of
these scraps of food.
35
Decomposition depends on a number of
things including:
•
•
•
•
•
temperature
type of organic matter
type of compost bin used
how fine the waste material is chopped
how often it’s turned
36
Composting is an inexpensive way to
create your own nutrient-enriched soil for
plants.
Compost can be used for:
- House Plants
- Soil amendment and fertilizer
- Flower and Vegetable Beds
- New planting areas
- Established planting areas
- Lawn top dressing
- Compost Tea
- Around trees
37
Composting is a form of recycling.
Recycling Statistics
The U.S. is the #1 trash-producing country in the
world at 1,609 pounds per person per year.
This means that 5% of the world's people generate
40% of the world's waste.
The average person throws away 4 pounds of
garbage PER DAY.
Each year Texans create enough waste to fill two
lanes of I-10 from Beaumont to El Paso ten feet
high.
38
In 2008, Americans generated about 250 million tons of
trash and recycled and composted 83 million tons of this
material.
In 2008, Americans recovered about 61 million tons
(excluding composting) through recycling.
Composting recovered 22.1 million tons of waste.
39
Nationally, we recycled and composted 83 million tons of
municipal solid waste (MSW).
This provides an annual benefit of 182 million metric
tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions reduced,
comparable to the annual GHG (green house gas)
emissions from more than 33 million passenger vehicles.
40
Recycling and composting 83
million tons of MSW saved 1.3
quadrillion Btu of energy, the
equivalent of more than 10.2
billion gallons of gasoline.
41
Recycling 1 plastic bottle not only saves
anywhere from 100 to 1000 years in the
landfill, but it also saves the environment
from the emissions in producing new
bottles as well as the oil used to produce
that bottle.
42
Recycling is one of the most
important actions one can take.
Only 1/10 of garbage gets recycled,
but over half of it could be.
43
Too Much Trouble?
The average person in our region creates 8
pounds of trash daily.
That's 8.2 million tons of trash from our
region in one year.
Up to 70% of this trash is buried in landfills.
44
How Long to Breakdown
(Biodegrade) Items?
45
Recycling is Much Faster!
46
Recycling and Composting
Collection Programs
Nationally: approximately 8,660 curbside
recycling programs exist, down from 8,875
in 2002. *
* Source: For 2002 data: BioCycle 2006. For 2008 data: EPA, Supporting 2008 data tables and
figures.
47
For 21 years, the city of Houston has collected
over 205 million pounds of recyclables.
There are several programs to recycle many
different types of materials available throughout
Houston.
48
Recycling and composting is not the total
answer to the solid waste problem.
Not everything can be reused.
Some things will still have to be thrown away
and buried in a landfill or burned in an
incinerator.
49
But recycling can be cheaper than either
burning trash or hauling it to landfills.
The key is to remove as much as possible
of the paper, plastic, glass, cans, and
other reusable materials from our trash.
If the amount of garbage can be
reduced, it'll cost less to get rid of it.
50
What makes recycling programs work?
It’s the people, not the programs.
For years we have been throwing things out
the same way.
We have to change.
If we all work together, recycling becomes
more effective.
51
It's up to each of us
to make the effort.
52
53
REFERENCES
http://www.compost-info-guide.com/make_better_compost.htm
http://iedaddy.wordpress.com/?s=mantis+compost+twin
http://www.howtocompost.org/info/info_composting.asp
http://www.compost-info-guide.com/beginner_guide.htm
http://www.houstonbeautiful.org/recycle.html
http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/municipal/pubs/msw2008rpt.pdf
http://www.recycleinfo.org/site/Home.html
http://www.bing.com/images
54