Breaking Ground Composting Project
Did you know that COMPOSTINGcan divert as much as 30% of household waste from the landfill?
Cycle of composting
My first recollection of composting was back in the 1970′s when my mother put a large bowl in our kitchen an explained to us that we would besaving our vegetable, fruit and other “non-meat” scraps instead of putting them in the garbage can. It then became a bit of a game of who would take the bowl out back and dump it on the pile of leaves, grass and other yard materials to later be spread in our flower beds. At the time, I don’t think I quite understood the purpose, but I definitely knew there was something important about the way the compost helped plants to grow. Now, as the Director of Education Services for Breaking Ground Contracting, I am more than keenly aware of how important composting is. Working with Kevin Songer of MetroVerde, we now have a full-fledged composting program at the Breaking Ground Contracting office. We have engaged our employees to bring their household organic matter (coffee grounds, egg shells, vegetable and fruit peelings, etc.) to the office to contribute to the compost bin, and two of our employees, Sammi Livingston and Kevin Powell, have begun to track the weight of what we bring in. That data can be seen in the composting “meter” on the right side of this blog. Watch the bar fill in as we get towards the 500 lb. mark, which is what we anticipate the weight of the bin contents to be when it is full and ready to spread. After only two weeks, we have already collected 27 lbs. of waste that would be contributing to filling up the landfill.
With the food waste we contribute, along with brown matter such as leaves and biomass from the green roof, we expect to have “black gold” within the next 6-9 months! This compost will contribute directly to our roof agriculture and also be used by employees in their own personal home gardens. So, waste that would typically go to the landfill instead goes to our compost bin, then the compost gets spread on our roof to naturally fertilize our grasses, flowers, fruits and veggies which produces healthier food for our bodies and produces waste that goes back to the compost bin. This is the definition of the true cycle of sustainability!
Cycle of composting