Autumn Compost: The Other Black Gold

Companies looking to close their production loops and save resources would do well to step outside this Fall and take notes.

It turns out that the natural world is the original closed loop, and the breakdown of biomass is nature’s way of recycling. Composting, which takes advantage of this process to create a nutrient-rich “super soil,” has long been used to fertilize fields, gardens and flower beds. Whether you are a veteran composter or just starting out, autumn will provide you with a bounty of raw material to reuse. After all the work you do to collect your leaves, now is the perfect time to put them back to work for you.

Before you wince at the idea of keeping a pile of rotting material in your yard, have no fear. Due to the heat they generate, compost piles won’t smell like spoiled food (as many people worry about), and the volume breaks down quickly enough that you can continually add to it at regular intervals.

Composting Basics: Green and Brown

Composting is the process of combining organic matter such as food waste, yard cuttings and yes, fallen leaves, in such a way that it breaks down (with the help of organisms big and small) into rich, dark, crumbly and extremely fertile soil. While this is essentially the same process by which dead plants and animals are slowly reincorporated into their ecosystems, by using the right combination of ingredients, it is possible to speed up this process and create usable compost in about a month’s time.

Composting guides generally sort matter into two categories, according to what they contribute to the process: green (nitrogen) and brown (carbon). When the two combine in a well-ventilated and lightly moistened pile, the ingredients rapidly begin to heat up and break down. It’s also helpful to note that the U.S. EPA provides a useful list of materials that should and should not go into your compost piles, so you may want to start there if you’ve never tried composting before.

Green

Most waste that the average household generates falls into the nitrogen-rich “green” category, which is good because two-thirds of your compost should be green matter. Typical green compost includes fruit and vegetable waste, bread, coffee grounds and fresh grass clippings.

Brown

Brown matter, which supplies the carbon fuel necessary for successful decomposition, is usually harder to come by. Brown matter like hay, straw and dried leaves should makes up about one-third of your compost material.

‘Tis the Season

Autumn foliage provides you with a plentiful starter kit by giving a carbon boost to your existing piles, so now is a great time to create your own compost. Dried leaves work better and are less likely to clump together (thus making air flow difficult) than freshly fallen or wet leaves, so you may want to bag or cover your collection until it’s brown and crisp.

You can also add the remnants of any decaying garden plants, as long as they are not too thick. You may want to give your lawn one last mow, and then collect the brown leaves and grass together. The two make an excellent brown/green mix that’s ready to go as soon as you rake or bag it.

Win/Win Situation

According to the U.S. EPA, nearly 25 percent of municipal waste that ends up in landfills could be composted and used as organic fertilizer. This may seem like no big deal since food and yard waste breaks down so neatly, right? Wrong! Inside a landfill, this waste is deprived of the air it needs to properly decompose. Instead of useful organic compost, the end product of landfilled organic waste is methane, one of the most harmful greenhouse gasses.

Aside from avoiding more greenhouse emissions and the obvious landfill space that we could save, using compost also reduces the need for chemical fertilizers (and the associated costs and resources necessary to produce and distribute them).

Along with the community benefits, composters also have a readily available source of nutrients for all of their plants. If you live in an apartment, there are several brands of indoor composters available as well.

Whether you tend a garden, plant flowers or keep a small herb garden by the window in your apartment, composting is the easiest way to turn even the blackest thumb green.