What is Composting

Benefits of Composting

Backyard composting is a controlled process of natural conversion of organic materials by micro organisms into compost. By composting, on average you can remove approximately 470 kg of organic matter from your household waste per year, diverting it from collection, the landfill or incinerator.

Composting is simply a combination of garden debris (like grass clippings and fallen leaves) and kitchen scraps (such as fruit and vegetable waste), separated from the waste stream and placed into an environment suitable for decomposition. Through composting, you can experience the benefits of this rich soil additive giving you healthier and greener lawns and gardens.

Benefits For You - The Resident

Composting is so easy and enjoyable it will be part of your daily routine. You will be empowered with the knowledge that you are an essential part of your community’s waste diversion efforts. Enjoy the satisfaction of doing your part for the environment – get composting!

Some councils that are active in Home Composting Programs implement public education and outreach programs to encourage residents to compost. Call your local council about composting programs or workshops in your area.

Benefits from using the Earth Machine™

• • Helps retain water
  • Improves drainage
  • Encourages worms
  • Encourages helpful micro-flora and fauna to colonise your garden beds
  • Provides excellent soil amendment for a healthier garden, lawn and house plants
  • Home Composting Handbook included with each Earth Machine
  • Takes as little as 10 minutes a week
  • Reduces use of artificial fertilisers and pesticides
  • Can reduce gardening water bill by 30%
  • Can reduce garbage by 47%
  • Big enough for a family of five

Benefits For The Environment

Environmental Benefits of Composting and using the Earth Machine™

If you make compost at home with garden waste and kitchen scraps it’s not only free but it contributes significantly to improving the health of our environment! This is because gases are produced when organic material, such as grass clippings, leaves and food scraps are decomposing. If the organic material is decomposed in a well-managed, aerated (plenty of air circulating) compost heap or bin, healthy compost will be made and the gas produced will be carbon dioxide. However, if the kitchen and garden waste is sitting in an anaerobic (no oxygen), soggy compost bin, or buried in a landfill, it will decay to produce methane gas and a smelly sludge is produced.

Both methane and carbon dioxide are greenhouse gases, but methane has a Global Warming Potential of 21 times that of carbon dioxide. The Australian Greenhouse Office states "food or garden waste that breaks down with no fresh air generates three to four times more greenhouse gas than it would if it decayed in the presence of air – aerobically."

The decay of a family's food and garden waste generates almost one tonne of greenhouse gas each year. Domestic wastes in landfill contribute 6% of greenhouse gases- this is more than the common target for reducing greenhouse emissions- lighting our homes (4%) and nearly as much as heating and cooling our houses (8%).

By composting our own garden and kitchen wastes in an aerated compost heap or bin, the carbon dioxide that is produced will be less harmful to the environment than the methane that would be generated from that same waste going to landfill.

Composting:

• Improves soil health and fertility
• Reduces landfilling which reduces methane gases
• Composting prevents wind and water erosion by increasing the availability of water and nutrients to plants resulting in rapid, strong plant growth in areas prone to erosion
• Improves soil porosity
• Improves water-holding capacity resulting in reduced dependency on watering
• Inhibits incidence of plant diseases

Information collected from Sustainable Gardening Australia. www.sgaonline.org.au/info_compost.html

Benefits For Your Community

Your local council bears the responsibility for collecting and processing solid waste; home composting reduces the amount of materials that must be collected, transported to a central facility, and disposed or otherwise processed. Approximately 470 kg of kitchen and garden waste can be diverted per year per household. Home composting is the most cost effective waste management option available.

Finances saved and reduction of resources spent on collecting and transporting organics to the landfill can possibly supplement community education programs on waste reduction such as workshops, waste fairs, organics recycling programs and waste diversion incentives for homeowners.