In the many ways we try to be more sustainable in our everyday lives, many of us dismiss or forget about composting. We think it’s too impractical or we don’t see how it would help us live a more sustainable lifestyle. All the waste you could compost at home can just decompose in a landfill anyway, can’t it?

Well, it can’t – and that’s only the beginning of why recycling is so important to living sustainably in the 21st century.

It reduces landfill waste

Our landfills are becoming fuller and fuller every day. In the UK, an average person produces 409 kilograms of waste annually, while recent research shows that nearly half of that waste could be composted instead.

One of the biggest problems with sending food waste to landfills is that it doesn’t decompose the way it is supposed to. As piles on piles of garbage are loaded onto one another, the microorganisms and oxygen which break down waste don’t have access to it. It’s because of this that even 20-year-old food waste is still around in our landfills.

At this rate, we’re due to quickly run out of landfill space to send our waste to. When that happens, more and more space will be needed to dispose of our rubbish. Parks and forests will turn into landfills and much of the nature we admire will be no more.

However, as we mentioned before, we could prevent half of our waste from going to landfill and contributing to this phenomenon with one simple

Stopping climate change with composting

We’ve mentioned that food waste doesn’t truly decompose in a landfill – this has another consequence. As the waste sits in a landfill, without access to oxygen, it releases methane instead of decomposing.

Methane is one of the greenhouse gasses responsible for man-induced climate change. What’s scariest is that it is very fast-acting, 84 times more potent in the short term than CO2, to be exact. However, because of its fast-acting nature, this also means that if we cut our methane emissions, we will see changes on our planet much faster than if we cut down on our CO2 production! This means that composting won’t just help us curb climate change by decreasing our carbon footprint, it will help us do so faster.

Keeping the soil rich

Often, our soil is being stripped of its nutrients by intensive agricultural practices. If we use the compost we create in our garden, or even just add it to our potted plants, we’re helping plants grow stronger thanks to the rich nutrient content that’s often lacking in our soil nowadays.

This goes even further than adding nutrients to the soil, as more healthy plants are able to capture more CO2, as well as other pollutants, from the atmosphere, helping us tackle air pollution and climate change.

Anyone can do it!

Lastly, a wonderful thing about composting is that truly anyone can do it. You no longer need to have a large garden with a secluded corner set aside for your compost. Modern composting solutions are much more elegant and compatible with many different living situations.

Worm bins provide a perfect solution for those living in a flat or apartment, without access to any outdoor space, proving that composting truly is for everyone. There is also a garden-less composting movement called ‘bokashi’ composting, which we will talk about in a mini-series in the future. Even if you do have a garden, you can choose from a wide variety of options available nowadays, other than the compost pile. You can make your own compost bin or buy one from a gardening store. You can compost at increased temperature to speed up the process or keep it simple.

No matter which option you choose, it’s crucial that more of us add composting to our list of sustainable habits. It can truly make a world of a difference.

We are really interested....Do you use Bokashi Composting techniques? And if not, are you looking forward to our mini-series on the topic? Let us know, by leaving a comment below!