Going green, reducing waste and making your home eco-friendlier is not only good for the environment, but it can be an excellent way to reduce household costs and wastage. Composting is an easy way to make the most of your organic household waste, however many people just don’t have the space to do it.
The average Australian produces around 180kg of food and garden waste a year, and if that waste goes to landfill it produces 15.3k of methane gas, a toxic greenhouse gas. Composting not only eliminates the methane, but by turning the compost into the ground carbon is sunk back into the soil, and the quality of the soil is elevated. Perfect for growing plants and veggies at home.
“Even if you only have a small garden or balcony, there are lots of ways you can go about composting,” says Emilie Porterfield, co-owner of Pop-Up Gardens in NSW. “Choosing the right compost method to suit your home is important.” We asked Emilie to suggest composting options to suit any home, lifestyle or budget.
For large spaces: For larger gardens or households, a large bin – or even an open compost pile – are a great way to produce large quantities of rich and fertile compost.
For small spaces: For smaller gardens a compost tumbler is a fantastic option. This is a barrel on a stand which can be spun or ‘tumbled’ using a handle, ensuring the compost is mixed evenly, allowing it to break down faster.
Limited space: Where outdoor space is very limited, a worm farm is a great option. This is a unit specifically designed to house live worms. Just put your scraps in and let the worms break them down quickly to create a liquid compost.
Indoors: Even if you have no outdoor space at all, there are so many indoor options available. A Bokashi bin is designed specifically for indoors and uses beneficial bacteria to ferment kitchen waste in 2 – 4 weeks. It’s recommended that you have 2 bins, so you can rotate them: filling one up with new scraps, whilst leaving the full one to ferment. Bokashi bins produce a potent liquid compost which is great for your home-grown veggies.
No space: Community compost schemes where local residents, community gardens and schools take waste donations to add to their compost piles. So even if you don’t have the ability to make your own compost bin, you can still reduce your waste and contribute to a local community project. Check out the ShareWaste app to see who in your local area is collecting scraps.
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