Value Of Composting

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Compost – Composting Compost is an organic matter (plant or animal origin) that has been decomposed and recycled for various uses especially as fertilizer and soil amendment. Background Compost has been produced naturally for a very long time in the past as part of the cycle of life and death on Earth. The raw form of compost (animal manure) was first used in Egypt in about 3,000B.C. The value of compost has been identified by the Greeks and Romans in boosting crop production and in the production of off season crops due to the warmth produced during composting. There has been an increasing use of composts during 17th and 18th Centuries in Europe and in the USA reaching about 90% of the fertilizer use in USA during the early 1900s. Afterwards,…show more content…
Organic farming is an example whereby the use of organic fertilizers such as composts is considered a means of providing safe nutrients to plants and avoiding possible hazardous that could result of chemical fertilizers. From environmental and health point of view, organic fertilizers including compost has been promoted during the last decades of the 20th century as a safe and practical method to recycle farm wastes into useful products (compost). This environmentally friendly practice will be of value in situations where dumping of farm wastes takes place on surrounding lands or into nearby water bodies. As more compost has been produced, more farmers favored it over chemical fertilizers not only for environmental or health reasons but also for economic purposes through reducing production costs. Moreover, the use of compost continued to be preferred over chemical fertilizers for improving soil structure in agriculture and gardening. Raw composting ingredients Compost may be made from any organic material of plant or animal origin material. The most common raw materials used for composting are grass clippings, leaves, and trimmings of trees and shrubs. Manure, used stable straw, spoiled fruits and vegetables, field refuse are also a compostable raw material. The adequacy of raw materials for composting depends on its contents of particular elements such as carbon and nitrogen. Ingredients rich in…show more content…
Large scale facilities tend to be established where enough quantities of desired raw materials are available in the present and in the future. These facilities could be found in the area close to breweries, sugar refiners, and food processing plants, canneries and lumber mills. In commercial compositing, more focus is given to the suitability of raw ingredients, adjusting ingredients since start and overtime, possible use of specific mineral powders to absorb smells, and the compliance of compost produced to quality and safety standards as set by official agencies. In home composting, range of techniques are adopted that vary from passive composting (leaving the nature acts in a more leisurely manner through piling compostable raw materials and leave it alone for a year or two) to more advanced practices where more control measures and monitoring may be applied (e.g. temperature monitoring, regular turning of

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