WHAT IS COMPOST
 
Composting is a natural process where organic matter is broken down, or "rotted" by decomposition organisms including worms, molds, fungi, insects, and microbes.  During breakdown each of these decomposing organisms gains nutrition, and the old material is broken into smaller components that can be reabsorbed and used by the plants, soil, and other life forms.
 
Humans have been composting waste for centuries as a way to make efficient use of waste products, and return nutrients to the earth.
 
WHAT CAN BE COMPOSTED
 
Popularly composted items include vegetable and grain based food waste, garden waste, autumn tree leaves, lawn cuttings, farm animal manure, and sometimes even meat and fish heads can be composted!
 
WHY COMPOST
 
Reduce waste by composting it!  Turn those rotten leftovers into springtime garden soil fertilizer!  Why put garden and food waste into a plastic bag, then a landfill when it can be buried and used as nutrition for your lawn, flower, or vegetable garden?  Residential trash collection could be cut by half or more with the introduction of easy to implement recycling and food waste programs.
 
Spring garden soil amendments can be expensive!  Why spend your hard earned dollars on pre bagged compost (in PLASTIC mind you!) when you can easily make your own home brew out of stuff you might otherwise have thrown away.  Turn poor soil into a rich and nutritious garden bed by simply digging in your food waste, or nurturing a compost pile to customize your organic waste.
 
WHO CAN COMPOST
 
Anybody can compost.  REALLY!  If you live in a teeny tiny studio apartment you can run a small compost operation hidden away in a cabinet, using your produced compost to feed your house plants.  If you live on a large farm you can compost on your land, to enrich your garden soil.  If you have a suburban home, start a compost heap in a corner of the yard and use the home brew to enrich your lawn or flower beds.  In a community garden plot, dedicate a 1 or 2 square foot patch to a mini compost pile, then reallocate finished compost into the garden soil.
 
Compost is particularly fun for children who LOVE little creatures like worms and insects.  Composting is interesting for those who like science and enjoy exploring the breakdown of organic material.  Composting is rewarding for environmentalists who want to feel they are doing their part to reduce the human footprint.  Compost can be profitable for businesses who want to cash in on the green movement and reduce their office waste (and the cost involved in disposal of it).  Composting can help the standard family save money on trash disposal, which is increasingly priced according to volume removed.  Composting can be beneficial to landscapers who are seeking to remove organic waste from gardens, and add beneficial soil amendments to enrich the garden environment.  Composting is EXCELLENT in an educational environment, and presents endless teachable moments.  Of course, gardeners and farmers have long composted for the obvious reasons.
 
WHERE CAN WE COMPOST
 
Thanks to the growing popularity of composting, it can be done just about anywhere.  One can find manufactured composting machines for sale on the internet that allow heat based compost of meat, vegetables, and sandwiches in a kitchen or office break room, or tub based compost bins with charcoal air filter for countertop use.  A worm bin can be easily implemented in a classroom or utility room cabinet.  A compost bin can be built in a corner of a back yard or community garden to allow natural outdoor composting.  A large organization might have enough land and power tools to dedicate a swath of land to "power composting" where a team of gardeners or a bobcat might be used to turn and rotate the compost regularly.
 
Composting can be done in the city or the country, inside or outside.  The only requirement is that you choose the appropriate tools!  One seeking to compost in a studio apartment would not choose a bobcat to turn the compost, just as a farmer might rather not use a 2 gallon bucket to compost in.
 
HOW CAN WE COMPOST
 
The smallest and simplest of composting tools could be a flower pot with a handful of soil from outside, and a tin foil covering.  On the internet they sell shiny 1 gallon compost spinners with a charcoal filter for odor reduction.  Juice will filter out for immediate use watering house plants, and the larger bulk of the compost can be added to small gardens or house plants as it matures.
 
A family kitchen or small office break room might choose an electronic compost heater.  This type of unit ranges in size from compact to huge.  It utilizes electricity to power a heater and rotating arm to mix and aerate the waste.  The unit is encased in an insulated body, the compost is added to the top, along with wood dust pellets and baking soda for PH equalization.  Every few hours the motor arm will rotate the compost around to mix it, while the heater keeps the compost at a consistent temperature between 120 and 130 degrees.  This unit utilizes heat, microbes, and mixing to decompose the food into compost in about 7 - 10 days.  These units also come in larger sizes (about the size of a residential trash can) which can be stored outdoors, or in a basement to accommodate apartment building residents, or medium sized office buildings, and generally operate just like the smaller units.
 
A school classroom, outdoor work area, or utility room environment might choose a worm bin.  Worm bins are NOT for the faint of heart, as they involve a complete ecology of worms, microbes, fungus and molds, and decomposing insects.  Feeding and watching the worms and other decomposers grow provides daily excitement.  One awesome benefit of the worm bin is that the worms will eat your junk mail and shredded paper!  As the worm bin environment matures, more space is added.  Worms will eat vegetable foods (no meat, dairy, or grease please!) bread, copy paper, newspaper, bits of cardboard, or magazines.  The worms multiply every couple weeks, as does their decomposing power.
 
The standard gardener or happy home owner might be familiar with the corner of the garden where lawn mower clippings and autumn leaves are dumped.  This corner can be expanded to also eat up your refrigerator waste.  Dig a hole, and alternate brown and green waste to equalize your nitrogen and carbon elements.  Green is nitrogen, and can putrefy or smell if there is too much of it.  Brown is carbon and will slow down decomposition action if there is too much.  Getting the right mix is pretty easy, and if your mixture is off, it's obvious.  Adding eggshells, old bread, corn cobs, rotten lettuce, last weeks spaghetti, and even the odd chicken bone to this corner compost pit will enrich it.  Turning the compost will speed up the rate of decomposition.  Compost breaks down fastest when it heats to over 100 degrees with the proper amount of water.  The ideal outdoor all purpose compost pit might have TWO separate pits, each with a "wall" about 24 inches high.  For easiest turning, one might have the two phase compost pit.  On a regular basis, shovel pit one into pit two, mixing everything in the process.  Then reversing the procedure the next time.  If space is available, a third pit could be allocated for compost that is near finished, so that it can sit and mature for a few weeks without turning before being integrated into the garden soil.
 
A simpler form of the standard compost pile/pit, is the compost roller.  These new fangled gizmos often involve a barrel ranging from 25 - 200 gallons with a wheel, or simply a round shape, that can be rolled and rotated to mix the compost.  This is also an excellent way to finish off any compost generated through other means, where one might seek to adjust the PH through additives, or simply allow maturation and complete breakdown of the most recent additions.
 
Larger operations like community gardens or gentleman farmers might set aside a swath of land for composting.  A gentleman farmer might put his cow/horse manure there, as well as the leftovers from the corn crop, end of year tomato plants, or autumn leaves.  These could be arranged in rows, and turned with a bobcat several times per year, then covered to heat for a summer season before utilization as soil amendment.  A community garden might do the same (without the animal waste or power tools) utilizing the power of a group of individuals to turn the garden waste piles for a season, then piling up for heating before distribution.
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Benefits - Oh the benefits - in list form?  Conservation of nutrients.  Utilization of saved nutrients - nitrogen cycle anyone?  Saving money on soil amendments, or waste removal.  Trash reduction.  Learning about compost.  Local local local.  Exercise involved in compost turning.
 
Drawbacks - The drawbacks are few, but mostly for squeamish individuals.  Worm bins include flea beetles, which can be pretty disturbing when they escape into your house, though they are totally harmless.  Outdoor bins can attract rodents if you put meat into them, and neglect them.  I hear some people are even afraid of worms.