Anyone can Compost!!

Hi All,

Composting - A word which was not there in my dictionary 4 years back because of my ignorance, but now is my daily routine. A word that keeps me grounded, keeps me motivated and makes me look forward to every day with better hope and faith. And its not something new that i have invented, its what mother nature has blessed us with, but only some of us have realized its true meaning.

1. What is Compost and Composting?

As a young child, when my mom told me that i should bury my milk tooth in soil when they fall, i believed her thinking new teeth will grow. Today, I am old enough to understand that my mom handled my fear of losing my teeth very well, but at the same time, mature enough to believe that I am what this soil has made me. I come from it, i am a part of it, i survive on it and i will perish in it. This understanding has deepened my connection with nature and the people around me as well. And because i am nothing but a part of nature, i understand that what i use should also be a part of nature. This has further helped me understand that the things i use on a daily basis need to be nature given, the food i eat need to be nature given and anything that i cannot use anymore needs to go back to nature as well. I don't know which incident triggered such a drastic lifestyle change in my life, but i am glad something did. And i mostly attribute this to my little one, who made me think every second about the kind of things i am giving her or exposing her to!

Composting refers to the degradation of organic matter with presence of air and/or beneficial microbes to produce a nutrient rich, earth smelling product which in turn enriches the nutrient quality of the soil. This product is referred to as COMPOST. While this is something beautiful happening naturally in our environment, the onus is on us to provide suitable conditions for composting to happen. With the extensive use of plastic in our lives, we started using plastics even to dispose our kitchen waste and this is what has mostly led to the garbage volcanoes called landfills in several places in the outskirts of our city.

2. What happens to wet waste when it gets composted? How to compost? What container to use? What is green to brown ratio? 

Like i said earlier, if we can just provide the right conditions, nature will beautifully carry out composting and this can be achieved even in the limits of your own balcony. This post is just to share about one of the most simplest ways to compost kitchen waste. Composting as i have understood is all about balancing the green and brown matter, Green matter is the wet kitchen waste. Brown matter can be anything ranging from dry leaves, saw dust, coco-peat and old compost. Brown matter helps absorb the wetness of the wet waste and the microbes naturally found in the air breakdown the wet waste furthermore to blend with the brown matter. So air happens to be something essential for composting without which the good microbes cannot prevail. Hence, according to me, one of the best containers to choose for composting is a terracotta container because it is naturally porous and it comes from the earth.

Choose any terracotta container of your choice. This can even be your old flower pot. You can drill holes carefully on the sides using a drilling machine. But this is optional, because terracotta is naturally porous. Spread a 2 inch very thick layer of brown matter (anything from the list above) at the bottom of the container. On top of this add a handful of wet waste. Repeat covering the wet waste with another layer of brown matter. Continue to do this till all your wet waste is completely covered with brown matter. Keep the container covered with a terracotta plate or a cotton cloth which will let air pass through. The good microbes that help composting are the same ones that help you digest your food. One of the primary ones, is lactobacillus, which is found in buttermilk. So, sprinkle some buttermilk to the contents of your terracotta container from time to time(ideally 3-4 days once) to introduce the good microbes. I say sprinkle because, we don't want more wetness introduced because of the buttermilk. Use a rake to mix up the buttermilk so that it is evenly introduced in your container. Note that the thick layer at the bottom helps absorb excess water from the composting process and so it needs to be a thick one, or else one might have to deal with excess water coming out. As a safety measure you can even keep the container in a plate and clean the plate in case any water from compost collects.

As this container gets full, let it sit for a week to ten days or more depending on the external temperature while stirring occasionally with buttermilk. Meanwhile start with another container. Make sure you choose a shady spot for your terracotta containers and safeguard it from rain. After 10-15 days, the contents of your first container will have reduced in volume. This is because composting is an exothermic process where heat and water is released. This water needs to be absorbed by our brown matter and eventually the volume of wet waste reduces. In the subsequent days, turn as often as possible to end up in beautiful rich black gold! If you have big hard pieces like mango shells and corn cobs, they will take more cycles to completely compost, so handpick them and add them to your next cycle.You will know when your compost is fully done because it smells beautiful once done, like moist earth. This process takes anywhere between 6-8 weeks when done correctly. This is a very basic  terracotta container composting method that can be tried out to gain confidence in the process of composting.

3) I don't have access to dry leaves and sawdust. What else can be used for brown matter?

For people who do not have access to dry leaves or saw dust and such other brown matter, there are options available too. 

a) You can use a coco-peat brick, available in any gardening store or bought online. Expand it to a powder form if you bought coco-peat brick. Use this powdered coco-peat as your brown matter and continue to add buttermilk once in every 3-4 days. 

b) A microbe infused coco-peat brick is available in the market. You could use this too and this has the added advantage of having the microbes and so you wont have to add buttermilk and turn. Even turning will be avoided with this. Just keep adding wet waste and microbe infused coco-peat in alternate layers and let it sit for 25 days. 

c)Another option is to use dry soil itself as brown matter. This works beautifully too only turning will be more because soil tends to compact.

4) What kinds of kitchen waste can be composted?

You can add all types of wet waste in this process. However, if you are starting as a novice, try with veggie and fruit peels alone initially, then gradually move to add citrus and cooked food too. Avoid adding gravies, strain the water content and add the remains to your compost container. I have friends who compost their non veg waste too. Mango shells, corn cobs and such hard stuff take a long time to compost. But it will eventually get composted. Just handpick these if undone from your container and add it to the next batch. Also, it helps to chop up your veggie and fruit waste into small pieces to increase the surface area for composting. 

5) What are maggots and when do they come? Are they harmful? Can they cause infections? What can i do to control them?

One of the biggest fears of many people to start composting is dealing with maggots. Maggots are larvae of soldier flies that feed on the contents of your kitchen waste and help them turn into compost. They are really beneficial creatures and do not cause any infections. They are not harmful also. In fact maggots speed up the composting process. So, just in case you end up seeing maggots in your container, don't be alarmed, its alright to have them. 

Maggots occur when there is insufficient air circulation in your container or its contents are too wet. If you see maggots in your compost  pile, add more dry brown matter(dry leaves, coco-peat, saw dust etc.) to reduce wetness. Use a rake and turn the contents to introduce more air. Maggots crawl out only when there is insufficiency of oxygen inside and they are suffocating. Like i mentioned earlier, composting being an exothermic process generates heat and proper air circulation is very essential for the maggots to just stay inside and do their work. Also, maggots perish inside your compost, so you wont see any trace of them in your final compost.

6) What commercial composting options are available?

Many commercial vendors have come up with composting solutions. While each of these solutions differ in method, space used and cost, their end product is the same, rich earth smelling compost. Especially for a novice, who wants to try composting in small spaces without going wrong, such options are a boon. I am not commercially involved with any of the composting solutions available in the market. However, I would like to share that i started as a novice, being ignorant about the whole process. I started with one of the commercially available solutions and followed instructions to the "T" only so that i don't go wrong and my family disapproves of the whole thing. I have come to realize now, that the price we pay for each of the commercial solution is the price paid for the research they have carried out in the subject. Nowadays customer support and help forums are really good and can guide you well in the event of any crisis with your method. At present I have four different methods of composting going on working 24x7 in the confines of my balcony.

7) Still i am not convinced to compost, i don't see it returning anything!

Whats more, you can start growing your own food once you generate your compost. No more eating dried greens from the market, you can grow them right at your balcony with compost and coco-peat. This soil-less mix can make it easy for your back while your family is blessed with home grown safe greens to eat. If you have access to bigger space, you can even grow tomatoes, brinjals and cucumbers to name a few, sufficient to feed your family.

Its a great past time for kids, especially the sieving part and my little one is really happy to do it!I feel thankful that she enjoys these things in today's gadget world. And I am happy that i am doing my bit to make the world she is going to live in, a better place!

Whichever method you choose, the aim of this post is to convince you to try composting because it is a beautiful thing to do for yourself and your family. We just need to trust Mother Nature and let her do her job as we provide the right conditions. Imagine if each of us did this beautiful thing, we'd never have to deal with garbage woes and will automatically have cleaner and greener surroundings. The feeling of holding sweet smelling moist black gold in your hands is priceless, liberating and therapeutic.

Lets take this chance and be the change we want to see in this world. Lets minimize plastic in our lives. Lets reduce, reuse and recycle and above all lets give back to Mother Nature what she has gifted us with,  because ANYONE CAN COMPOST ! :)