Don't forget to compost

[CatsEyeEditing]

Composting is something good you can do at home for the environment, but it is also a great activity for the family. Click on the link below to my article on How to Compost with the Family:

How to Compost with the Family

[Johnny Electriglide]

Absolutely one of the better things a family can do. Much of the 67% soil loss in the world since 1910 is from the flush and forget mentality, insufficient, and incomplete composting. Huge cities with all their untreated waste being drained into the ocean. Often down 40' so you don't see it on the surface as much. Only 25% of American towns and cities even partially compost. It goes beyond kitchen and yard waste, to composting toilets, and shallow biodegrading burial of our dead.
Replenishing the soil of the Earth is one big problem. Reducing water use to non-polluting, non-overuse of rivers, lakes, and especially aquifers. Ensuring a benevolent climate in the future is another big problem. All three are necessary for the food we eat.
My family composts with a big yard composter, a compost toilet, and 100 square feet of composting gardens (redworms and nightcrawlers). Burials planned without preservatives in a cardboard box. Our water use is 35 gallons each per day on average (rainwater catchment for the gardens). Small engined vehicle used only as necessary and total solar power bring the carbon footprint to 15%. Lowered meat use and eating from our own gardens helps reduce it, too.
At the rate average since 1910 without massive composting, the Earth will be out of good farm soil by 2070 or before. People that believe in hydroponics forget about the micronutrients of natural healthy soil. Overuse of fertilizers has become pollution to ocean dead zones (destroying the North Sea fishery in 1988, 50% recovered since), plus universally reached a point of diminishing returns and food nutritional decline.

[Patrick]

Does anyone know how much energy we could potentially get if we burned all of our combustible trash along with all human waste? I would estimate at least 50% of our current energy use. Does anyone know about this?

Sorry to keep linking this but it is just too damn cool:
Sweden's green utopia - Building

sustainablecity.blogspot.com

[Johnny Electriglide]

With vegetable mass and excrement, it would take substantial energy just to remove the water so it can burn, producing more CO2(and water vapor that may need further treatment for a safe condensate). The idea is to produce much less CO2, and replenish the lost soil more rapidly than the natural process.

[Patrick]

What if you just left the waste out to dry somewhere, and then burned it?

[belmontgoer]

I understand the basic concept of composting, but I live in a small apartment. I do juice and feel guilty about throwing out extra pulp and other veggie matter. How would you recommend composting in a tiny apartment (w/no yard)?

[Johnny Electriglide]

Burning produces too much CO2. I have a 1 gallon plastic container with a snap top under the sink. When it gets to the top with peels and cutoff, etc. then I add liquid RidX and it goes down half way. I shake it with additional stuff until it is full again, then put it in an outdoor composter. Go to RealGoods.com for real interior composters. The one that uses redworms is the best, IMHO, but there are others.

[Patrick]

Johnny,
I guess my question is this:
Would burning waste produce more or less C02 emissions than burning an energy-equivalent amount of coal?

If we have reduced our emissions to the point where the environment can safely absorb them, would it not be feasible to then use waste as a substitute for oil or coal? That way we would not need to rely on foreign countries which mostly hate us, or strip mine the entire country.