How to start a compost bin

we have a food waste problem out of all the things we throw out food occupies the most space in American landfills the average American family of four throws out $1600 of produce each year Australian throw out up to 20% of Thursday by adding up to about a thousand and thirty six dollars annually for the average household when food goes to the landfill it's not returning to the earth in a pleasant way as it rots it releases methane a devastating greenhouse gas although some dioxide is more prolific than methane in the atmosphere Nathan causes greater short-term damage it dissipates within a decade but traps up to a hundred times more heat than carbon dioxide inside year period composting your food scraps is an important step to take and reducing your personal impact when we compost our food we're diverting it from the landfill and allowing it to break down in a way that significantly reduces and even prevents methane production on top of that you can actually use the finished compost a gardening and landscape project today alex and i are going to build a compost bin for Alex's mom but first a little more on how composting works it's not as easy as dumping your food scraps in a pile there's a little bit of science to it in order to your compost to be happy you need to have a balance of nitrogen and carbon greens and browns greens include food scraps coffee grounds tea bags garden scraps and fresh grass clippings Browns include dry leaves straw sawdust twigs paper napkins and newspaper you should have two to three times as much Brown as greens if you have too much green your compost pile will stink most organic materials can go into the compost including eggshells hair fingernails qeh cotton and wool but you should not compost meat dairy bones pet feces or diseased plants when you add to your compost make sure you cover your greens with browns in order to prevent odor and pests it's good to throw in some soil in there as it will introduce more organisms into your pot you also need to make sure your little science project is properly hydrated if the microorganisms don't get enough water they'll die if they get too much water they'll drown you want to land somewhere in the middle cover your compost during heavy rains and add water if needed the healthy compost you also want to aerate pod this can be interning at every few days and potentially dragging holes into it to create air channels if you do a good job of balancing greens Browns water and air you can get finished compost every few months finished compost is dark brown smells earthy and has a crumbly texture Tom past returns important nutrients to the soil which is great for gardening or growing food if you don't have a garden often neighbors friends and families if they would like some could even sell it okay now for that compost bin Alex's mom asked us to put together a compost bin with this spare trash can that she has laying around so what we're going to do is drill some holes into it so it can get air flow I'm going to set it up onto some bricks so that the air can come under and that's about all we're doing to modify it you don't need to go out and buy a super expensive compost kit you can make your own at home pretty easily [Music] [Music] all right now we're putting things in the compost I'm just going to take leave Brown for carbon and put them at the bottom we're going to put some bigger sticks and drops and whatever in here just because to give a little bit of structure we have some common yard totally optional and I recommend is ten barging your iron instead of buying some from the store but it is good for the soil but you shouldn't use pet feces in your compost for that month yeah sounds are great because they grow that will introduce some nice bacteria into the compost in the same way that adding some natural soil and dirt would all right that's a household vegetable scraps here if you have time to cut up your scraps before putting them in the compost that's ideal it's smaller the bits are the sooner they'll break down we'll put some wall brown on top now we have to use the water in the water we put in came out too fast from the holes in the bottom so we're going to put a bit of burlap sack in the bottom to help slow that down would ash and charcoal have a high carbon content sorry it's a North write it down without the nitrogen if you don't want used too much put that lid on it so that it doesn't get too much water in it during heavy rains you don't want your compost to get and also having a lid on it keeps pests and animals out we also wanted to show you my grandmother's composting system which has been using for a couple of years we've got like a foot and a half long piece of PVC pipe fill some holes around the edges at the bottom all the way around and you just stick it into your garden bed and put food scraps in there cover it up and the one will get into it so for the compost that doesn't fit inside of the PVC pipes Alexes grandma has a large bin where she puts all the extras into compost so steam coming out of this compost which means it's breaking down really well yeah it's hot good compost should get hot and it doesn't smell so even if you're in a city you can have a compost bin so I'm going to keep it right it won't make your apartment smells your landlord won't no it's better so this is a rubbish bin with a tap on the bottom you just put some manure in there oh so a cow and fill it with water and then out of the tap you can get some liquid fertilizer to put on your gun you

Channel: Faith Meckley

Views: 1,405,990

Keywords: compost, how to, diy, sustainability, sustainable living, The Earthling Dream, composting, gardening, food, food waste, methane, greenhouse gas, climate change, global warming, garden, Alex Televantos, Faith Meckley, environment

Id: RyYyy4nKzDg

Length: 8min 45sec (525 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 12 2017