👩🏼‍🌾The hero concept of composting👨🏼‍🌾

Especially in the countryside it is not that uncommon (but still too rare)

to see composting bins in people’s gardens.

They stand there in a corner of a garden, with their contents slowly transforming in to nutritious mulch.

And it’s not a trend, it’s not something these people were told to do.

They just made the bin themselves or bought it at a hardware store,

stuck it in a spot in their garden and are now throwing their food scraps in there every day.

First, food scraps are collected in a container in the kitchen and then,

maybe at the end of the day,

the container gets emptied into the composting bin.

Just like that.

It’s neither an effort nor complicated or costly.

But why does not everybody or at least more people compost?

🚛Because there is a set up-system that people follow.

Food scraps get thrown into garbage➡ truck comes and picks up trash➡

trash gets transported to a waste processing site➡ gets burned or thrown into landfill

This system like many other is one that is being followed because it is just ingrained in our daily lives.

🌍Nowadays the sad truth is that we have to question and educate ourselves about so many daily things because most of the ways that things are done are harmful to our planet and in turn to ourselves.

👨🏼‍⚖️And yes, again it would be the governments duty to educate and inform us about how our trash gets processed and at least publicly inform their citizens that at this time with the way things are set up,

they are managing, processing food waste, in an unsustainable way and polluting the environment with it,

and that anybody who does not want to contribute to that pollution should set up a composting system in their garden/community/apartment building until they have changed that system.

👼🏼I know, a girl can dream, right?

This is why I want to tell you about why and how you should start composting

(I promise that it’s very easy and takes no effort at all)

Step 1: Go to a local hardware store and buy a composting bin made from wood or metal (metal lasts longer)

or build it yourself if you want the extra fun😋

Step 2:

Place it somewhere where there is some shade, it shouldn’t be placed directly in the sun nor completely in the shade.

Step 3:

Now you can start adding the components to your compost.

No layer of the same component (a layer of only leaves for example)

should be thicker than 20 cm.

It is very important to have variety.

Everything you can throw right on the pile:

🌱Coffee filters, teabags

🌱Fruit and veggie scraps

🌱Eggshells

🌱Several garden components like grass, hedge clippings, leaves and sawdust

Don’t compost this:

🧺Cat or dog litter

🧺None plant-based food components like meat or dairy

🧺Plants that are ill or have some sort of infestation

🧺Ashes

🧺Citrus fruits

🧺And of course nothing that isn’t a natural component like glass, metal, plastic, which hopefully is obvious.

Step 4:

About every 3 months you should turn over the content of the bin,

so that the entire content gets enough oxygen and the lowest layers get some air, too.

Step 5:

Use the nutritious hummus for your plants, your greenhouse, your grass

or just give it to any neighbor or farmer in need of nutritious soil🌱👨🏼‍🌾

💚Yay! You are making a big difference and supporting our beloved nature.

I know that not everyone has access to a garden, but do not despair…

🌱🏢There are ways to compost even if you live in an apartment building:

1. You can store your food waste in a container in your freezer

(so that it doesn’t develop any unpleasant smells) if you have one

and then take the food scraps to a farmer’s market or composting service in your city. You can research where there is an option to do that near you.

2. There is a machine sold by @vitamix which is called the FoodCycler.

You put in your food scraps and then press a button to dehydrate the food.

There is no smell and the end result is a nutrient rich fertilizer which you can then

use for your plants.

You can also keep the dehydrated food scraps in a paper bag and collect them until you have enough to drop off at your local farmer’s market.

Do you have a communal garden at your apartment building?

Ask your neighbors to participate in composting or set up a communal bin and get a luxurious, thriving garden going that you can all enjoy together!

🌍As you can see, the concept of composting is top notch and can keep a lot of waste out of landfills

(where it cannot biodegrade and releases different gases like METHANE into our atmosphere).♻

Hopefully we can move towards a circular concept again, meaning:

we have food waste that we compost, which then gets used as nutritious hummus on the fields where our food grows.

Instead of throwing the food scraps away, wasting them,

then producing soil and dung chemically and in turn only being able to grow less nutrient rich food.

👩🏼‍🌾🌱I hope that you have enjoyed this read.

I would really like to see pictures of your compost system (and whatever you use the hummus for)

if you either have one already or are in the process of setting one up!

DM me your pictures on Instagram on @thrive_bynature if you’d like!

See ya next blog👋🏼💚

Xx Stella