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Urban Composting DIY
Urban composting tips are to help you compost at home. It is more important than ever to be sustainable. In addition, composting can also save you money.
Top 3 Urban Composting Tips
#1 Composting starts in the kitchen
Composting needs to be a habit. It needs to become part of your routine. This all starts in the kitchen.
Dedicate a container as the receptacle for your kitchen waste. Make sure it is placed somewhere that is easy to access.
If you live in the tropics you should consider using a container with a lid, to minimise ‘fruit fly’ activity around your kitchen compost bin. When it is full, take it outside to your composting bin.
#2 Water and Air are Essential to Urban Composting
Composting requires four ‘essential elements’. They are a) organic matter; b) bacteria; c) water; and d) oxygen.
You can greatly hasten the process by ensuring your compost is moist and by ‘turning it over’ regularly so oxygen can get in. There are many tumbler style compost bins around these day that make this process easy.
#3 Crunch and Cut
Eggshells are good for compost, but crunch them up before you add the shells. Otherwise they will not break down and you do want the valuable calcium from the shells on your garden.
Cut up anything that takes longer to break down. Garden branches are a good example. Prune branches into your compost bin in small pieces, rather than throwing in a whole branch!
Urban Composting No No’s
There are some things you should definitely not put in your compost. So we will look at three of them now.
Dog and cat poo should not be added to your compost. This is because they are carnivores. Hence dog and cat waste often contains microorganisms and parasites that you do not want your hands or your veggies to be in contact with.
Citrus peels and onions are not good for compost. This is because the acidity in citrus peels and onions can kill worms and other microorganisms, which can slow down the decomposition in your pile.
Meat scraps should not feature in your urban composting. So you do not want to add fish and meat scraps to your compost. This is because fish and meat will smell and act like a magnet for any rats, mice and other pests in the neighbourhood. In addition the the stink of rotting meat and fish could really annoy you and your neighbours.
