Composting

Oh my gosh!  Who knew composting could be so interesting!  John Darling, a composter at University of Texas at Arlington, started as a volunteer.  His passion led him to a position at UTA.  As composting grew at UTA, he applied for a grant from the North Texas Council of Governments; awarding him $130,000.00. Food waste and top soil loss are serious issues that can be changed by composting.  John subscribes to the theory that we can "save the world in humble steps".  So let it begin with composting . . .


He relies on food waste and leaves from the groundskeepers for composting.  The UTA kitchen provides pre-consumer waste such as peel and fruit that has gone bad as well as coffee grinds.  Post consumer waster can't be composted because saliva has touched it.  This requires a special permit.  Meat, grease, and dairy aren't composted.  Food waste is looking for a place to roost.  


Food Waste Facts from John:

• There is one pound of waste per day for every adult and child in the United States.  This doesn't include food lost on farms, wholesalers or processors.
• 1/3 of what we buy goes in the garbage
• Japan, United Kingdom and Africa have huge food waste for a variety of reason

Composting 101:

• Compost is the product of controlled aerobic decomposition of organic materials.  If you don't know what it is anymore, you have compost!
• Compost is self-insulating
• An ideal mix is 30 parts of brown to 1 part of green (rule of thumb)
• It reduces or eliminates the need for fertilizers and pesticides
• If you increase lawn compost by 5% you can reduce waters by up to 60%

Check out www.mastercomposter.com for more information.