Andrew Commander

Some people have the desire to be Eco-friendly, including myself.

Composting is an easy and effective way to cut down on trash. The benefit of composting is that you can take the compost out and use it around your garden or lawn.

So are you ready for composting?

You may not want to go through the effort of building a pile using cinder blocks, so maybe a compost bin or compost tumbler would be a better solution!

A compost tumbler is easier to manage and more time efficient.

The advantage of having a compost pile is that it has contact with more oxygen, allowing the compostables to break-up easier.

Composting is possible through the oxygen allowing the bacteria to break down organic items, and with the use of worms.

Some items that are compostable include

• Grass Clippings
• Leaves
• Food scraps
• Pond plants
• NO DOG POOP

The last item on the list may be the most important. You don’t want to be putting that back on your tomato plants in the spring!

With all the talk of environmental, “going green”, and Eco-friendly these days, I am beginning to wonder when people will actually do something that matters.

Of all the possibilities in our daily lives, whether it be recycling, driving a hybrid car, or for me…composting, I think that the only way something will get done is if our country works together as a whole.

Every company it seems, is trying to drive this “Green Marketing” but who is really doing something positive for mother nature.

I happen to know that Google itself uses recycling and composting at the Boulder, CO office. One of the ways that the USA should change as a whole is to adopt recycling and composting mainstream. This could be a huge endeavor, but it would create jobs, something we are lacking for as a country right now.

The way that I try to make money in this green market is by managing a compost pile for a neighbor. She pays me to turn the compost, basically igniting the compost a few times per month. Every couple of months I pull out finished compost for her to plant with in her garden. All of the nice dark compost was created from her lawn clippings, leaves, and other food and gardening scraps.

I feel that I am doing more than the average American to try and reduce waste. But our planet won’t get better just because of me.

If more communities around the country had composting and recycling programs, I think that the trash reduction would be amazing! Our nation would be that much closer to being an Eco-friendly nation.