Composting and Recycling Chart from Vassar Sustainability
Humans produce a ton of waste that ends up in landfills around the world. Landfills produce methane, a major greenhouse gas, and are a monument to human wastefulness. It is important to keep usable materials out of landfills. Recycling materials such as plastics, cans, glass and composting organic matter are two ways to achieve this. In addition to keeping organic material out of landfills, composting adds nutrients back into the soil to help plants grow. Adding nutrients back with compost reduces the need for chemical fertilizers. Compost also improves the soil’s ability to retain water, nutrients and air, and helps balance out the soil’s pH. Composting contributes to the soil microbial community by encouraging the growth of beneficial fungi and bacteria.
In summary, composting is an easy way to reduce both your carbon footprint and waste output while adding nutrients back to the garden. We recommend keeping a compost bucket in the kitchen. This helps make composting an easy and automatic thing to do while cooking. If you’re interested in learning more about composting, here is a link to a great guide on how to compost from start to finish: https://www.epa.gov/recycle/composting-home.
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