Happily, composting practices are beginning to increase in the United States, but many other countries throughout the world have either been composting as communities for much longer or are doing it on a much bigger scale. People all over are starting to recognize the value and importance of composting. You can help spread the word, too!

From the City to the Farm

All big cities in India are legally required to compost organic wastes for rural farmers to use to restore soil and protect it from drought. Countries across Europe have been doing the same thing since the 1960s, and many developing countries in places like Africa and Asia are also working on increasing what is known as urban-rural nutrient recycling. A nutrient is anything that provides nourishment. Food is a nutrient for humans. Compost is a nutrient for soil. Turning the food waste into compost is a form of recycling. It's a great form of cooperation because the people in the city need the food from the farmers in the country. Likewise, the farmers in the country need the food waste from the city to create compost for healthy soil to grow more food.

Global Warming: Composting to the Rescue!

Composting isn't just a great way to reduce waste and help restore nutrients to the soil; it's also a super solution for preventing global warming. Here's how:

• When waste decomposes in a landfill, it does it anaerobically (without oxygen) because everything is squished in so tightly the oxygen can't get in to help the material break down as it would in nature. Anaerobic decomposition creates methane gas, a strong greenhouse gas. Landfills are the number-one source of human-created methane. The more waste we keep out of landfills by doing things like composting, the less methane gas is created.

• Planting trees helps prevent global warming because plants help keep greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere by doing something called “carbon sequestration.” It's a fancy term that just means they hold or store carbon dioxide. It may be hard to believe, but dirt can hold twice as much carbon as plants. Healthy soil has a lot of organic material in it. It's the organic material that helps hold all the carbon dioxide, but many current farming practices strip the soil of the organic material and saturate it with synthetic chemicals and fertilizers that further weaken the soil. Putting compost back into the soil helps make it strong and healthy again. It also quickly increases its ability to hang on to the carbon dioxide and protect the planet from global warming. Super Soil to the rescue!

It's time to “Keep Compostable Organics out of Landfills” (Keep COOL). If your community isn't composting paper and organic waste, it is totally un-COOL. Write letters to your mayor and city council letting them know how smart it is to compost. You can learn more about the issue, how cities can start composting, and more at www.cool2012.com.