Give Me the ‘Dirt’ On Composting

So we’ve all heard that as good environmentalists, we should all be composting. But why is it so important and why should we all be doing it?

Consider this: at least one-third of all our garbage is compostable material. This garbage needs to be trucked by huge gas-guzzling trucks to far-away overflowing landfills, in the process releasing massive amounts of CO₂ just to get there. Once there, our valuable compostables waste away without ever being reused.

Need more reason? Composting reduces our need for chemical fertilizers since our newly created dirt is a natural fertilizer for our gardens. Chemical fertilizers are responsible for wreaking havoc on our local waterways and ecosystems often wiping out entire populations of aquatic organisms.

Thus, composting is one of the most sustainable practices we can all easily undertake, even if you live in an apartment. In a nutshell, composting is an endless cycle of food and dirt. In fact, all our vegetable and fruit trimmings can be thrown in our compost bin to give us the highest level, nutrient rich, dirt we can get. This dirt can then serve to grow our new batch of fresh fruits and vegetables locally in your backyard, on your balcony or in our local community gardens, thus reducing our dependence on imported produce.

Don’t have a garden? Don’t like gardening? No problem. You can still donate your valuable dirt to Vancouver’s many local community gardens (see http://city.vancouver.bc.ca/parks/parks/comgardn.htm). Believe me, you’ll be making a lot of local gardeners very happy while in the process making your own life that much more sustainable. To get started visit the composting links under the Links section on the upper right-hand side of this page or call the local Compost Hotline at 604-736-2250.