Comments on: The Breakdown on Compost http://www.nybg.org/plant-talk/2008/08/garden-programming/the-break-down-on-compost/ The Blog of The New York Botanical Garden Thu, 03 Jan 2013 14:44:16 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5 By: The Composting Chica http://www.nybg.org/plant-talk/2008/08/garden-programming/the-break-down-on-compost/comment-page-1/#comment-4912 The Composting Chica Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:12:52 +0000 http://www.nybg.org/wordpress/?p=446#comment-4912 Just another thought to add to your composting tips…
You mention piling up the materials to be composted; however, creating a compost pile encourages anaerobic composting which poses a few main problems. #1, it’s slow. Anaerobic bacteria are very inefficient and it can take a compost pile several years to create good, finished compost. #2, it smells. Anaerobic microbes produce methane and sulfate gasses as a byproduct of the composting process—these are the odors that we humans find very offensive. And last but certainly not least #3, it’s not very good for the environment. Yes, you’re composting and that is good. But those smelly gasses are also greenhouse gasses that deplete our ozone. After all, things can rot anaerobically in the garbage dump just the same as they can rot in your backyard.

A better choice might be to build or buy a compost tumbler for aerobic composting, which is quick (6 weeks in good conditions), easy, and doesn’t smell. Oh, and it also doesn’t produce any harmful greenhouse gasses, either.

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