Image via WikipediaOf all the things you can do for your home to become more eco friendly, composting is one of the easiest and most fun to start. The result is your trash load is cut in half, and you have a bottomless pit in your backyard that converts food into excellent gardening soil.
What am I going to do with this compost?
Before you create your pile, you may want to ask yourself what you want to use it for. Personally, I don't use my compost for much of anything. I just enjoy keeping all that material from the landfill and in my yard instead.
The reason I ask is because I think if you can avoid putting paper in your compost pile, you should. If you're looking to use the compost for gardening, then it shouldn't be a problem to add paper. However, if you want to grow vegetables, I'd advise against using paper scraps in your pile. Some examples would be: coffee bags, tea bags, and especially newspaper. There's a lot of chemicals that go into making paper products, and keeping them out of your food is definitely a good idea.
So how do I make this goofy thing?
There's a couple different ways to do this. Personally, I advise against using a proper compost container. Reason being that they take up a fair bit of space, and most of the designs you see are pretty poor ... they don't mix up the compost as adequately as they claim. However, if you're living in a city on top of your neighbors who may be opposed to a compost pile, then it would be considerate to have it contained.
I like the old trench composting approach. Get a shovel, dig a hole a few feet in diameter, and start throwing your food in it. Add twigs, leaves and branches to keep a good ratio between carbon and nitrogen, and let the pile do its thing. I wouldn't overthink it. Try and overturn the pile every day, but if you don't, the pile isn't going to explode. However, if you're adding your dinner scraps to it each night, you're doing your job.
Get Friends and Family Involved With Your Project
Involve the kids in the process if you don't feel like doing the work. Kid in a candy store, or a kid in the backyard with a shovel...same thing. Chances are, your kid may already know about composting from school.
Composting is a good gateway project that can lead to even greater things, such as building solar panels, a gray water system or vertical gardens. Be careful, green living is quite an addictive hobby. Get your friends interested and bounce ideas off each other for your next project.
Composting is going to become more and more common in the states as landfill space continues to be used at an ever-growing rate. Do your part now, have fun with it, and involve the family. As you can see, it's really not hard at all. Chances are, you will become curious about other sustainable projects to try. The green lifestyle is the way to go, as it entails making do with less, and saving plenty more.
Of course, these suggestions are just the beginning of your green journey. So remember: Composting is easy and it will benefit you greatly. Get your friends involved and keep at it with new ways to live simpler and for less. You will quickly see that living responsibly is quite rewarding.
Tyler urges you to put your thinking cap on and devise a plan to reduce your energy consumption and be rewarded with saving money and feeling good about yourself. Free sustainability report reveals how you can achieve dramatic results in little time. Uncover it here: http://www.tylers-ebook-reviews.com
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