Composting is easy, beneficial for homeowners and good for the environment, say experts
FRANKLIN TWP — Everyone who has kitchen scraps, grass clippings and fallen leaves can easily parlay those seemingly disposable resources into a rich, nutrient-filled addition to their flower and vegetable gardens while reducing the amount of trash that crowds ever-expanding landfills.
Jerry Zona, executive director of Tri-County Cleanways, educated about 20 compost-curious property owners on Nov. 5 at a Backyard Composting Workshop. The event was held at the Artisan Resiliency Center in Franklin Township.
Zona explained 30% of landfill content is yard waste and food scraps like peelings, fruit cores, decomposing fresh fruits and vegetables, coffee grounds and tea bags.
“Composting is a great way to keep that waste stream out of the landfill and produce a product we can use at home,” he said.
Zona said while tossing leaves, grass clippings and kitchen scraps into a pile will eventually produce compost — or dirt that is highly rich in nutrients — those who want to produce the special soil more quickly can follow a set of easy instructions to produce compost in just a few months.
He said a successful and active compost pile or bin should have roughly three parts brown contents to one part green.
Brown contents, like dry leaves and twigs, produce carbon. Green items, like fruit and vegetable scraps, grass clippings, coffee grounds and tea bags, provide nitrogen. Those two elements produce the perfect environment for the composting process, Zona said.
To produce compost most efficiently, he recommended layering items, then mixing them up with a pitchfork each time another layer is added.
But such diligence is for those who are in a hurry to use their compost in a few months.
“I mix mine twice in the spring as soon as it starts to warm up,” Zona said. “When I'm ready to use it toward the end of May, I turn it one more time and take the compost out of the bottom of the pile.”
Zona said the best use for compost is soil amendment. He recommends mixing compost into the dirt in vegetable and flower gardens or even sprinkling it on areas of a lawn that seem unhealthy.
“I use it more or less as a potting mix,” Zona said of mixing compost and regular dirt. “Some people use it as mulch around the trees in their yard.”
Attendees at the workshop asked a variety of questions and all received a free compost bin as they left.
The bins were purchased through a grant from Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, Columbia Gas and the NiSource Foundation. Zona started out with about 70 of the bins.
“As long as we have compost bins to give out, we'll offer the workshops,” he said.
Nancy Bergman has been composting at her Harmony home for about 45 years. As a longtime Penn State Master Gardener, she was instrumental in setting up the three-bin composting system at Passavant House in Zelienople, where fruits and vegetables are grown in a community garden. She also has given many seminars on composting over the years.
Bergman said some people are hesitant to compost because they are afraid it will produce a foul smell, attract rodents or look like a pile of trash in their yards.
In fact, she said, some homeowners associations among the many housing developments in the county prohibit composting due to these fears.
Being careful regarding additions to a compost pile or system effectively negates all those problems, Bergman said.
“I do think education is the key,” she said.
Bergman said various types of bins can efficiently process compost while saving neighbors from the sight of a compost pile.
Closed, premade tumblers or bins made of plastic or wood can be purchased, but Bergman said they can be problematic. If they are too small to accommodate the contents generated by a family or if they must be watered or turned regularly, it could be difficult to harvest the finished compost because the contents are constantly mixed together and processing.
Property owners can make an open bin system of wood, fencing, concrete blocks or other materials, Bergman said.
Green and brown contents are added to one, then shoveled into the next for further processing once the materials begin to break down. When the contents of the second bin becomes compost, it can be shoveled into a receptacle for use in the spring.
Bergman recommends saving fallen leaves and placing them over kitchen scraps when they are placed in an open bin, which prevents a messy view for neighbors.
Bergman uses a three-bin compost system and adds the finished product to the soil in her raised vegetable and perennial beds throughout her property.
She said compost is very important for successful growing in Western Pennsylvania, as it breaks up and loosens the clay-type soil.
“Clay is full of good nutrients, but unless the roots can get through it, they're not going to get those nutrients,” Bergman said.
She encourages everyone to reduce landfill content and provide themselves with free compost by trying the process at their own home.
“It's good for the environment,” Bergman said. “It makes me crazy when I'm on vacation and I have to throw away apple cores or potato peelings.”
Compostable items include
Vegetables, fruit, eggshells, coffee grounds, grains, tea bags, plant material, grass clippings that are chemical free, fall leaves and garden debris, and used facial tissue and paper towels. Other items that can be added in limited quantities are manure from herbivores such as horses, cows and guinea pigs; torn up pieces of cardboard or brown paper bags; shredded paper; biodegradable plates and cups and 100% cotton fabric cut into small pieces.
Items to never add to a compost system include meat, fat, bones, dairy, whole eggs, pet feces, citrus peels, grease and oils.
