An introduction to compost

Okay, just a bit of a crash course in the idea behind composting, which is basically a food recycling system. Every year heaps (unfortuantely I don't actually have a figure to provide here) of food waste goes into landfill where it basically just decomposes, releasing heaps (also an unspecified quantity) of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, I believe it might be methane, like what is released from agriculture (believe it or not, cows (of which there is a huge industry here in Australia (if you have watched the movie Australia you'll know what I am talking about)) farting is one of the biggest greenhouse gas emitters).

So composting is pretty much the most ancient form of recycling, because our ancestors have been finding uses for organic waste before paper, aluminum cans and plastic bottles were invented.

Most composting systems are very small scale, unlike waste disposal and other forms of recycling, which are organised by local governments or town councils. For example, at home our composting system consists of a big old icecream bucketsitting next to our dustbin in the kitchen in which we put food scraps and sometimes other things such as tissues and every few days Mum will empty the bucket into the garden. We also have buckets in the shower and to collect water we use in the kitchen to wash anything from vegetables to dishes. By the way, the vast majority of people living in Canberra live in low-density housing, generally houses with front and back yards, although many don't have vegetable patches and fruit trees like at our place. I'd assume that in Singapore, most people live in medium- to high-density housing, based on what I've seen of the city flying over it in a plane :D

However, this largely individual form of recycling has been undertaken on a much greater scale on the ANU campus. You might have heard of our sustainability office, ANUgreen, and as part of their recycling campaign, they have now put in a large-scale composting system, because up to one third of our waste going to landfill is organic matter. Its called a HotRot and can recycle up to 2 tonnes of compost a day. There have been systems set up to deal with this. There are wheelie bins which are grey as opposed to green (rubbish) or with a yellow top (recycling) or blue (paper) and these grey bins have been placed in cafes, restaurants and halls and colleges on the ANU campus and trucks pick up the waste every few days.

As you may know, Australian soils are also the most nutrient deficient in the world as well, so our soils need a lot of care and extra nutrients to grow almost any plant which isn't native. So all this food waste basically comes back as rich compost for use on the campus reducing our waste output.

I was giong to post a picture of the HotRot system at ANU but unfortunately it doesn't seem to be working. Oh well, if I can work it out I'll put one up.