Food Waste: Home composting and green waste reduction
You can reduce your household costs and your environmental footprint by using some age old techniques to turn waste food into healthy organic compost for your garden (or a friend's garden!)
Another way to reduce food waste is to use leftover food creatively in the kitchen! Many recipes utilise left over food. You can make delicious soups and stews from left over meat and bones, and vege scraps can also be used for soups. We're not culinary experts - but there is lots of information available for the keen chefs and cooks out there!
How to use Bokashi bins
Bokashi involves the use of a bucket and a special microbial concoction (zing), or EM, to ferment food scraps.
The process of filling a bokashi is very straight forward. You add your waste materials then cover with a table spoon of EM or zing; you then repeat this process until your bin is full. At this point you let it sit for a period of time ranging from several days to a couple of weeks.
Bokashi systems available directly from TEC-contact us or come in and see us for more information.
Worm bins
A worm farm works by converting vegetable and organic waste into worm foecal mater called casts.
The worms eat the organisms that break down the kitchen waste that you provide (it doesn’t eat the actual vegetable itself), place the layer of waste on top of the soil, the waste can be anything ranging from egg shells to coffee grounds. The smaller you crush or rip the food the faster it converts to rich worm casting.
Worm farms are made from recycled plastic barrels with a drain plug attached to the bottom of it, worm farms may be set up out side in some shade out of direct sun light in the summer and moved into a shed or garage in the winter this prevents worms dieing in a frost or in cold weather.
Fill the barrel with plenty of soil and organic material and add a few worms that will multiply. Do not overfeed your worm farm.
Compost bins
Composting is a natural process that turns organic material into rich soil-like material.
The organic material is broken down by microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, insects and worms, and by chemical reactions. The process generates heat as decomposition takes place, and the more heat that's generated, the faster decomposition occurs.
To work properly, composting needs lots of air and moisture. The composting process is known as 'aerobic decomposition', which means decomposition in the presence of air.
For a downloadable guide to composting, click
here.
Benefits of Composting
Composting has a number of benfits, including:
- Reduces the amount of waste going to landfill from your home (which can save you money)
- Reduces production of methane gas in landfills (a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide)
- Compost can be used as a fertliser for you garden, or used as mulch can save on garden watering