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Hey N! Composting just yard waste is fine. That's how I started but I couldn't help wondering what happens to the food waste. For years I thought that it was probably good for the planet and it was being dealt with properly. Then the more I looked into it I started to realise that it was incredibly bad. I assumed that it was probably used agriculturally but apparently not. Most of it goes into pits to rot which doesn't sound to dissimilar to what I'm doing at home. The problem is that there is just far too much to decompose properly and it creates an anerobic environment in which huge amounts of methane are released into the atmosphere. There's a lot of stuff being wasted that's so good for the environment and is ironically being turned into something very bad for the environment. Penny's just made a good point whichever I'll talk about in a moment
There's a lot of energy in meat. If you think about just how much a pig has to consume to reach its full size. Well all that energy is contained within the meat. When it decomposes that energy is then released back into the eco system. What I'm trying to say is that grass clippings are good but it doesn't take a lot to grow grass so you don't get as much in return from it when it decomposes. If you had a compost that was made entirely from grass clippings and cardboard it wouldn't contain as much goodness as compost with more variety in it. I know that my mix grows bushes and tress very well. Tomatoes are also great when feed with it. I don't think you could grow tomatoes as well using the grass compost as you could with more variety.That poor little piggy gave his life to have it end up garbage.I’m glad you’re putting it to use Prof.
''Tis true but I'm very careful and only put meat in the bins. E.coli is a risk with meat and manure but as long as basic hygiene is followed then there should be no problems. One of the reasons I use the bins for meat is so that's no one can touch it by mistake. I would love to just throw the pork, chicken and everything else on the garden but the animals would smell it from miles around and come and eat it over night. I've tried lol. I keep the lids on the bins which helps with the flies which could be a means of bacteria spreading. I just can't bring myself to throw it out. I have a level 3 food supervisors certificate which is the highest food qualification in the uk amd understand the risks associated with soil born diseases. I always wash my hands after dealing with any kind of soil whether it's been pasteurised or not. One way to tell if there is anaerobic decomposition is that there is a terrible smell associated with it. I wait until my soil smells like sweet vinegar before I use it....normally
