Many of you have been producing veggies from your vegetable scraps in recent months, including lettuce and celery stubs, spring onion roots, and shoots from your carrots and beetroots. Your sprouting vegetables will eventually need to be replanted in nutrient-rich soil. Did you know that you could produce your compost at home from food scraps rather than purchasing it online? With the help of this instruction, you can make compost at home and reduce your food waste even more.
What is compost?
Compost is a fertiliser generated by humans from decomposed materials. It is nutrient-rich and aids in the growth of gardens. In the meantime, the soil is the top layer of the earth that includes minerals and rock fragments along with some organic waste substance. Compost is crucial because it improves soil quality, aids in nutrient and water retention, and lowers the risk of plant diseases.
What to compost?
- Fruit and vegetable scraps
- Coffee grounds, including the filter
- Bread, pasta, and baked goods
- Rice and other grains
- Beans, nuts, and seeds
- Eggshells
- Meat
- Bones
- Yogurt, milk, and other dairy products
- Dried leaves
- Grass clippings
- Straw and hay
- Newspaper and other non-glossy papers, torn into pieces
- Cardboard, torn into pieces
What not to Compost
- Weeds
- Plastic
- Waxed cardboard
- Coated paper or cardboard
- Metal
- Glass
How to compost food at home?
The way you dispose of your food waste can significantly affect the world and the environment. Have you considered what happens to the lettuce bags and potato peelings after you throw them in the trash? To make the most of your kitchen’s leftovers, check out our inventive dishes, like our potato peeling crisps.
Composting food waste at home is one technique to lessen the quantity of food waste that ends up in landfills. The bokashi system and worm composting are two solutions that are becoming more and more popular. Although they appear frightening, they are not.
Both bin systems are simple to use and may be easily found online (complete with everything needed to get started). I have both at home (in an apartment with a balcony), and a combination of planning meals, doing little-to-no buying, and composting food waste has led to nearly nil food waste in my home. You don’t need both; just pick the option that best fits your living space.
The bokashi composting system
An anaerobic composting system called bokashi typically consists of two bins that are each about the size of a waste paper basket. It ferments kitchen waste into nutritious liquid compost for your plants using a specific inoculated bran. When you take the lid off after each layer of waste you add, bran sprinkle it with, level it out, and let it alone it could smell a little pickly, but if it bothers you, something is wrong. There is only the occasional requirement to drain out the juice it generates.
The benefits of having a bokashi system
- Its small size means that a large garden is not necessary.
- Surprisingly, the bokashi doesn’t smell when the cover is on, therefore it may be stored indoors. When the bins are almost full, you might at most detect a faint pickle-like smell.
- Make your compost by filling your bin to the top, securing the lid, and letting it sit for at least five weeks to begin the pickling process. Then, dig the contents into your garden soil after neutralising the acid with a sprinkle of garden lime.
Worm composting
As they move up through the bin’s trays and consume food waste, the worms create amazing vermicompost in their wake. Similar to bokashi, you also get compost that can be incorporated into the soil and a liquid that can be fed to plants (tomatoes love it).
The benefits of worm composting
- Your plants and lawn will appreciate the amazing soil-improving properties of the nutrient-rich fertiliser compost.
- Vegetables and houseplants love the “worm tea.”
- Kids would enjoy it since watching healthy vermiculture is so fascinating.
- It is simple to set up, plus you’re not affecting the environment, you are saving it.
DIY kitchen waste compost bin
Start by drilling a few holes in the bucket’s bottom and sides. So that air can enter underneath and keep the contents from getting anaerobic, you will need something to keep the bucket lifted off the ground. To collect any water that leaks out of the bucket during composting, place a tray underneath. This liquid, also known as compost tea, can be used as fertiliser for your garden by simply adding it there.
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