The ecological benefits of composting cannot be undoubted, with composting systems having great potential to make an impact on the strategies of waste management, thus contributing to both small- and large-scale sustainability efforts. On a local scale, composting can promote better environmental conditions in the area, encourage community-wide collaboration on sustainability efforts, and increase awareness about waste reduction and recycling. Thus, if individuals understand the basic principles of composting and engage in it as a part of their recycling and waste optimization practices, the wider community will experience improved sustainability outcomes. An essential part of proving the hypothesis is implementing a lab experiment involving composting to educate oneself and others on the best practices of the process.
Research has shown that there are multiple reasons why individuals should compost. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (2018), food scraps and yard trimmings represent a third of the materials that are being landfilled and incinerated, with paper, wool, and other textiles, some of which are compostable, representing another third. Therefore, when people eliminate organic materials from the waste stream, they will reduce the need to dispose of them, thus protecting the environment and cutting communities’ costs (Szczucinski et al., 2020). Besides, as suggested by the findings of composting experiment, adding organic matter to soil will be beneficial to its fertility, decreased erosion, better retention of water, and improved carbon storage.
Compost can help create a sustainable agricultural system, which is possible to facilitate on a local scale. In any community, there will be individuals who grow some plants and vegetables in their gardens, and providing them with compost can be a great way of building community collaboration on improving its sustainability efforts. Composts help prevent topsoil erosion by allowing the soil to absorb and retain more water, which is conducive to robust plant growth. The study by Risse and Faucette (2015) found that the use of compost in the soil can help reduce water loss by 86%. The efforts in which communities engage when they are dedicated to sustainability and waste reduction are expected to have a beneficial outcome on local agricultural practices.
The composting experiment to be carried out will involve starting a small batch of compost and tracing the process from collecting compostable materials to adding the end-product fertilizer to the soil to improve its quality and allow for better plants to grow. The compost will include grass clippings, non-acidic fruit and vegetable scraps, egg shells, paper straws, compostable bags, napkins, cups, coffee grounds, and many other additions. The temperature test will be performed to determine the optimum temperature to yield the best quality compost, with further adjustments made to produce compost. When the final product is complete, it will be added to the soil, the quality test of which will also be carried out to compare the soil with and without compost. It is expected that the plants growing from the soil with the added compost will be of greater quality compared to the compost-free one. Overall, the potential for research on the benefits of composting for individuals and communities and vast. The more people are educated about how easy but effective composting can be, the more likely they are to try it end to build a community around it, which, consequently, is better for the environment on a larger scale.
References
Risse, M., & Faucette, B. (2015). Compost utilization for erosion control. UGA. Web.
Szczucinski, D., Gelino, B. W., Cintron, C. J., Becirevic, A., & Reed, D. D. (2019). Increasing appropriate composting in high-traffic university settings.Behavior Analysis in Practice, 13(1), 22–28. Web.
US Environmental Protection Agency. (2018). Advancing sustainable materials management: 2015 Fact sheet. Web.