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| Kathy Fenton-Miller (photo by Nina B Lanctot) |
Composting
by Kathy Fenton-Miller
After I agreed to speak about composting, I began to wonder why I had done so. For one, I am not the greatest composter.
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| Photo by Nina B Lanctot |
Yes, I do put my
kitchen scraps in the bucket on the counter.
But I am inconsistent in taking it out to the pile, something which
Willard more often does.
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| Lanctot compost pile 1 |
And the pile
itself is neglected. It lies in a heap
most of the year, doing whatever it does largely on its own.
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| Lanctot compost pile 2 |
Also, isn't composting something which we all know
about? What could I say about this
tired, somewhat moldy subject that hasn't already been said? Perhaps, I thought, this subject would be
better placed in the metaphorical bucket to be carried out to the bin and
allowed to re-formulate itself in peace.
But as I read and thought more, I changed my mind. What I
want to share is the product of my composting experiences, sprinkled with a few
new learnings and into which I have stirred my reflections.
Compost Memories
My first compost memory has to do with childhood visits to
my Amish neighbors' compost pile.
Their pile was primarily aged manure, the product of
cleaning out the stable of their buggy horse.
Our goal was to collect fishing
worms and we were quite successful in doing so.
It was fun to peak and poke around in the pile of partially digested
straw, dung with the occasional vegetable matter and egg shell pieces. Although at the time I didn't know the term
“compost”, I was definitely impressed by the pile's ability to yield wigglers.
I will fast-forward about 25 years to a second compost
experience which occurred when we lived in Chicago's Lower West Side and had
young children (Sol and Emma were about 4 and 7 at the time). Our inner-city home had no front yard and in
the postage-stamp-sized back yard we had constructed a genuine square-foot
garden. This was when we became
interested in worm composting and set up a worm bin in our basement. The project was fairly easy to do and
space-efficient. It was appealing to the
kids, having the right degree of “yuck factor”.
It even became a second-grade science project.
Eventually the worm bin moved out of our lives, or rather we
moved away from it and to southwest Michigan.
Which brings me to the present disheveled pile, which nevertheless
contributes to our garden. Most recently
the pile has given itself to four rows of corn which were looking pallid and in
need of a nitrogen fix.
Fact Scraps
* Composting benefits
soil structure, chemical and biology and so contributes to the health of
plants, and us.
* Composting helps
reduce landfill waste. The EPA has
estimated that 25% of garbage in the U.S. is made of yard trimmings and food
waste, which means about 60 million tons annually.
* Composting leads to
reduced methane gas release into the atmosphere. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, about
21 times more potent than CO2 and thus a significant factor in global warming.
By reducing waste that goes into landfills, we decrease landfill contributions of methane which in
North America accounts for about a quarter of the human-generated emissions of
methane.
Action Reflections
* I have been
thinking about how we as a church do (or don't do) compost. Can we build a compost bin or pile and use it
for appropriate yard and food waste?
* How about checking
out our local landfill? We can see what
practices are used there, including harvesting of methane gas.
* On a larger scale,
community composting of biodegradables can deal with waste for which small home
systems are not equipped. This would
include meats, bones and pet waste.
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| photo by Kathy Fenton-Miller |
Finally, my action for the summer will be to take our
compost bucket to the pile daily. I want
to do so with thoughtfulness and gratitude for the many small beings in the
pile – bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes, mites, beetles, springtails, sowbugs and
good old worms.
They are all
contributing to the compost process, a process of transformation.
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