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School Composting Article
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Help Your Soil Become Rich With Composting
from:Did you know that you have a virtual goldmine within your rubbish pile? Composting is not a new technology, in the least, but it has become increasingly evident that it can be important to our environment.
Once upon a time, when most people had a garden in their backyard there would also be a compost pile; a pile of rubbish and clippings that provided black gold. Not, oil but rich soil that was used in gardens to add nutrients to increase vegetable production.
What Is Compost?
What is composting? Well, it is the "aerobic decomposition of biodegradable organic matter which produces compost"; in other words it is decaying food (mostly vegetable or fruit) and other green matter. Composting is a form of recycling because it down cycles organic household, yard wastes, and manures to useful soil or hummus. It does return needed organic matter and nutrients to the soil and it helps reduce "green" waste in the landfills.
Composting Terms
There are certain words used when speaking of composting technology. A few of these are:
• Compostable – This is biodegradable material that when put under composting conditions breaks down into carbon dioxide, methane, water, and compost biomass. However, size does make a difference to a timely compostable. For example, a whole piece of hardwood would take a long time to break down, but the sawdust of such would be a lot easier.
• Compost-compatible – These particles are not compostable or even biodegradable but they do not have an adverse effect on the compost. As a matter of fact, most compost has traces of these materials; sand particles and small plastic bits are commonly found.
• Biodegradable – Materials that are capable of being broken down completely into carbon dioxide, water, and biomass. Some materials make time a long time, but eventually they will.
How Is It Done?
There are different ways to compost and some are more effective then others. Regardless your style, the technology stays the same. Food and green waste will eventually break down and you can use it within your garden, yard, and under bushes and trees. If you have the correct ratio of certain elements, then you will have compost in no time and with little decaying smell. Suitable compost ingredients with high carbon content are: dry straw material, autumn leaves, sawdust, wood chips, paper, or corrugated cardboard. Suitable compost ingredients with high nitrogen content are: vegetable and fruit peelings, coffee grounds, or herbivore manure (cow, rabbit, horse, or chicken).
It is a fact that American's landfill waste is compiled of 60% compostable or recycled materials but less then 6% is recycled or composted. Composting was once historically for gardeners or farmers but now it is considered a necessity for saving our landfill space.
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School Composting Specific links
School Composting News
Baldwin second-grader takes lead in composting
Student composted uneaten food every day after school
Read more...Students spearhead lunchroom composting operation
SARANAC LAKE - Students at Petrova Elementary School have started composting food scraps that previously would have been thrown in the tras.
Read more...Massabesic students take aim at school waste
Elizabeth Clock, 14, an eighth-grader at Massabesic Middle School, pours out milk accumulated from milk cartons during lunch on Monday.
Read more...Making dirt Students experiment with worm composting
Photos by Amanda Huckabay Makala Nelson holds a cluster of red wiggler worms used for indoor composting.
Read more...DuPage eyes emergency funds for environmental group
Help is apparently on the way for SCARCE — but it’s temporary. The DuPage County Board is scheduled to vote Tuesday evening on allocating $58,500 to keep the environmental advocacy group School and Community Assistance for Recycling and Composting Education funded through Nov. 30, the end of the county’s budget year. Currently the county’s support is due to dry up June 30. The money will come ...
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Sandy Spring Friends School , a pre-K through 12 coed college preparatory Quaker school in Montgomery County, has announced plans to install more than 2,000 solar panels on t
Read more...Decatur Public Schools Foundation instrumental in aiding district programs
DECATUR — Instrument cases sit on the floor in the Decatur Public Schools Foundation office, turned in by students who borrowed them for the school year so they could take band or orchestra classes.
Read more...Waltham Recycling: The basics of composting
My family has composted for years. We did it because it saved us money and was better for our garden. Our “waste not” mentality was part of that New England frugality the region is so famous for.
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