Why composting is so damn cool

The world is changing fast, and so many of the ‘normal’ things we do are being called into question. It’s time to rethink a lot of our systems, and one of those is waste. 

Our waste streams have been designed for convenience, and they encourage us not to think twice before chucking stuff out. Even if this stuff was only in our lives for half an hour, it’s out of sight and whisked off before we can even consider the impact it’s had. 

While this behaviour may feel like it’s just woven into our society, it’s not - we are innovative, adaptable human beings, after all. Remember, it wasn’t so long ago that it was ‘normal’ for supermarkets to dish out plastic bags. 

So now, we’re being challenged - to develop a mindset focussed on helping the planet to thrive, to ask, ‘how do we keep things in use for longer?’ We’re being challenged to develop a regenerative way of thinking, which starts with examining what we call ‘waste’. 

So much of this ‘waste’ is in fact a valuable resource, and food scraps are the perfect example. Chucking those apple cores and banana peels in the rubbish bin is like throwing a fully-charged battery in the bin - it’s got so much left to give!

What happens to food scraps in the bin?

When we put food scraps in the rubbish, we’re basically interfering with nature’s own closed-loop system. Instead of returning her resources to the soil, where they came from, we’ve invented a system to scoop them up and take them ‘away’. Unfortunately, that ‘away’ is the landfill, where they’re covered up and starved of oxygen. 

Without oxygen, they break down anaerobically, releasing methane (which everyone knows is definitely not a good thing) into the atmosphere.

So what about the insinkerator - or gurgler, gobbler, whatever you like to call the toothed hole in the sink? Unfortunately, that all ends up in the landfill, too, just in a whizzed up form.  

The purpose behind learning all of this is not to have you wringing your hands with guilt. After all, it’s only by becoming aware of the flawed nature of our waste streams that we can start to look for alternatives. 

And, of course, there is a way better pathway for those apple cores - one that nature herself designed and where your food scraps can be turned into black gold. Yep, we’re talking about composting.

Everyone’s talking about composting. What’s so great about it?

Less methane in the atmosphere. Instead of excreting a harmful greenhouse gas, your scraps are breaking down to produce carbon-rich compost. 

Carbon sequestration. Sounds fancy, and it is - a little bit. Compost is full of carbon, aka organic matter. By laying this organic-matter-filled goodness onto soil, you’re giving plants more nutrients to help them grow. As they grow, they draw carbon down from the atmosphere, helping to cool it all down. 

It helps to grow more nutritious kai. Compost, as we said, helps plants to grow. This means healthy veggies and more of them, providing food resilience for hungry communities in changing times. 

Compost adds to a healthy soil ecosystem. We get into the details in this piece here, but in a nutshell, compost is a vital ingredient for a thriving soil food web. This of course supports plant life, but also means soil can hold onto more water. If you want to know more about the vital role this plays in reversing climate change, have a read of this one here.

Time to get your hands dirty. 

Or not. Getting engaged doesn’t actually mean you have to have your own compost bin, although this is a fantastic place to start. It’s an incredibly satisfying process watching your scraps turn to earth, and can bring out the science geek in anyone. Plus, your landfill bin will be refreshingly light and non-smelly.

If you don’t have the space to do your own composting, reach out to people in your community. Sharewaste helps connect people with food scraps and people who need them. 

Another way of joining the regeneration revolution is by growing your own food - even if it’s just some herbs to start with. The more active, living soil that covers our land, the better. 

And last, but not least - for now - spread the word. Have conversations that let your friends and whānau know there are different ways of doing things - ways that feed our planet and our communities, not the landfill. 

Let’s create a new normal that taps into nature’s own cycles, and get those scraps out of the bin.