compostsb

[compostsb]

Directory

Early History

US History

The Science

The Technology

Modern Adoption

Food Scraps SB

Isla Vista Composting Committee

Senate 1383

Co-Ops

Infrastructure & Legislature

[compostsb]

Future Direction: Infrastructure Changes

There is a general consensus that living sustainably is time-consuming and takes a lot more effort than the typical routines they are used to, but that is because our society was built and molded around this unsustainable behavior. If communities were built around accessible sustainable waste management and free/subsidized composting bins, people's lifestyle behavior have been seen to change in an environmentally proactive way (Sewak et. al. 905). Moreover, this can also involve working with local businesses to implement waste reduction and recycling programs, and encouraging the use of more sustainable packaging materials. For example, Trader Joes in Santa Barbara works with the Food Scraps to give back to the community and close the food waste gap.

Revamped city planning would also help to reallocate trash by adding more distinct waste reciprocals throughout cities and neighborhoods. By implementing a sustainable city legislature on waste management, the organization of waste can be implemented in a straightforward way that appeals not only to the laws of human nature but also dramatically reduces the methane emissions from landfills.

In addition to source separation, promotion of reusable items, encouraging composting, and providing education and outreach to the community about reducing waste and recycling practices. These efforts can be supported by city-wide policies and regulations that encourage sustainable waste management practices and discourage wasteful behaviors, resulting in a reduced amount of waste that ends up in landfills and incinerators.

[compostsb]

Future Direction: Co-Ops

Cooperatives have been around for generations-- encouraging ownership and control by a community and overall promoting the "people's" economy. They vary within different resources they can provide for the public such as waste management, irrigation, food distribution, etc. For agricultural co-ops, one of the main underlying themes is the technical and economic support for local farmers within the community. With the collaborative effort from residents, everyone can receive fresh produce, help create fertilizer for the crop, and support their local agriculture sector. By pooling their resources and knowledge, members of a co-op can gain access to tools and equipment that they might not be able to afford individually, as well as technical assistance and training in areas such as crop management, irrigation, and pest control (Li, 7-8).

Another important function of agricultural cooperatives is to help farmers market their products more effectively. By working together, members can aggregate their products and sell them in larger quantities, which can lead to better prices and more stable markets. This can be especially important for small-scale farmers who might otherwise struggle to compete with larger, more established producers.

Cooperatives often promote sustainable agriculture practices. By encouraging the use of locally sourced inputs and promoting practices such as crop rotation and soil conservation, cooperatives can help reduce the environmental impact of agriculture while also ensuring the long-term viability of local farming communities (Thyfault, 55).

Co-ops are an important tool for promoting the "people's" economy, providing resources and support to local farmers, and ensuring that communities have access to fresh, healthy, and sustainably produced food. By working together, members of a cooperative can achieve economies of scale and collective bargaining power, while also strengthening social ties and building stronger, more resilient communities.

Isla Vista Cooperative, 2014

[compostsb]

Senate Bill 1383

The state-mandated law requires a 75% decrease in food/organic waste and a 20% increase in excess edible food recovery by 2025. This bill works to focus on food insecurity in California as well as greenhouse gas emissions produced by overproduction and underconsumption. Food waste is the second largest contributor to organic waste in California landfills, and this bill strives to remove it as a contributor almost entirely. Donations for excess edible food are encouraged via Food Generators and food scraps from residential and commercial areas are slowly getting required to be sorted out of regular waste. Reallocating this waste will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions via methane gas that is produced in landfills as well as provide food to communities that are insecure due to the unequal balance of socioeconomic status.

[compostsb]

Isla Vista Composting Committee

Isla Vista Composting Committee (IVCC) was founded in 2017. This program focuses on making composting accessible to all the Isla Vista residents who sign up in the area and describes how even their pickup process is green (electric bikes with people sifting through the compost to make sure it's all compostable). The program is free unlike that of Food Scraps SB and works through the community service district of Isla Vista to provide environmental information about the district, within board meetings, etc. IVCC also promotes collaboration through UCSB in order to get undergraduates interested in sustainable food waste practices.

They provide a step by step guide on their website so people can begin to compost at home, showing that they aren’t focused on just their compost gains, but the bigger greener message that everyone can and should participate. Also, because their program has limited funding and therefore limited at home storage containers to provide, they opened up three large scale dumpsters within Isla Vista for residents to distribute their food scraps to.

In addition, IVCC collaborates with the UCSB Associated Students Board & Food Bank at the end of every quarter to provide meals on wheels to low-income communities. The Food on Wheels subprogram is a week-long event of taking donations from local residents and allocating them to reduce food insecurity in the area.

[compostsb]

Food Scraps Composting in Santa Barbara

The program began in 2007 with now over 200 participating resutarants, stores, shops, and apartment buildings. The food waste is picked up by the city's largest waste management company, MarBorg, and organized accordingly. They offer various sizes of food waste containers and work all throughout the city.

The food scraps are then transported to Santa Maria where there are large scale composting mechanisms to transform the waste into fertilizer that is then taken back to Santa Barbara. The composting facility ensures that the compost is created in the optimal temperature, moisture, and pH conditions for the final destination for the compost-- whether that be landscaping stores, large agricultural farms, or city parks.

Environmental Specialist Eric Lohela in front of one of the MarBorg food scrap bins.

[compostsb]

Modern Adoption of Composting

Food waste is one of the largest inefficiencies of the modernizing world and in some countries 

it's baffling that there’s enough food available to even produce waste. 

Composting has seen a surge in adoption in recent years as individuals and governments around the world seek more sustainable ways to manage waste and improve soil health.

At the individual level, home composting has become increasingly popular as people become more aware of the benefits of composting and the environmental impacts of waste. Many cities and towns now offer subsidized or free composting bins to residents, and there are many online resources available to help individuals get started with composting.

At the community level, composting programs have been implemented in many cities and towns around the world. Municipalities are recognizing the benefits of diverting organic waste from landfills and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and are investing in composting infrastructure to manage this waste. Composting facilities range from large-scale, centralized operations to smaller, decentralized programs such as community gardens and school composting programs.

In addition, composting is increasingly being integrated into sustainable agriculture practices. Farmers are recognizing the benefits of using compost as a soil amendment to improve soil fertility and plant health, and are using composting to manage agricultural waste such as manure and crop residues.

The modern adoption of composting reflects a growing recognition of the need to shift towards a more sustainable, circular economy, where waste is minimized, and resources are reused and recycled.

[compostsb]

Composting Technology History

One of the earliest recorded composting systems in the US was by George Washington in his Mount Vernon estate in Virginia in 1787. It was a compost waste pit that was regulated by his farmer manager and ws situated close to the stables in order for easy transport for laborers to bring the fertilizer onto the adjacent fields. While the passage does not explicitly say, it is known that Washington had slaves at his estate in Mount Vernon working on the fields, so the data that was collected showing the success of this early composting mechanism wouldn’t be possible without the acknowledgment of those who were forced to participate with potentially unimaginably quality of life conditions. 

In the United Kingdom, knighted agricultural scientist Sir Albert Howard pioneered the Indore method of composting (later with improvements became the Bangalore method) that utilizes a high ratio of carbon to nitrogen via leafy waste and animal manure. The Indore method leads to more adaptations of methods such as the Buccari method in Italy and the notable VAM (The N.V. Vuilafvoer Maatschappij) method in the Netherlands. While Buccari was one of the first mechanized composting methods, VAM was one of the earliest composting methods of municipal solid waste that later evolved to use larger-scale mechanisms like trains and grappling hooks for the transport and collection of compost/food waste (Fitzpatrick et. al., 1-4). 

Two of the most notable composting mechanisms to come out of early US history are the Windrow method and the aerated static pile. Windrow composting takes rows of organic matter and turns it via tractors, but because of lack of aeration in this method, use of the Windrow method for large-scale composting wasn’t successful. Thus, the aerated static pile was created which utilized the Windrow methods, but put the rows on top of an air distribution system with fans to force aeration and reduce unwanted moisture in the piles. 

From these methods, two commonly used forms of composting were utilized in the later part of the 20th century: non-reactor (open-air) composting and reactor composting (enclosed). Nonreactor methods are still common today in home food waste and yard waste while the reactor systems like the rotary drum and silo systems still hold as the most popular form of composting on a large scale. Because these methods are still widely used today, improvements and further adoption is plausible behavior for the continuation of the 21st century to mitigate methane emissions from landfills (Breunig, 2).

Rotary drum composting system, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. Photo by G.E. Fitzpatrick.

[compostsb]

Science of Composting

The process of composting requires both chemical and biological mechanisms intertwining together to turn organic waste in precise conditions into useful forms of energy again. The process consists of decomposing organic materials, such as food scraps, leaves, and yard waste, into a nutrient-rich soil amendment that can be used to improve soil fertility and plant growth. 

The science of composting involves understanding the principles of microbiology, chemistry, and ecology. Microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi, play a critical role in breaking down organic materials into simpler compounds. As they feed on organic matter, they release enzymes that break down complex molecules into simpler ones that can be used by other microorganisms or absorbed by plants. Chemical reactions also occur during composting, as organic materials react with oxygen and other compounds to form carbon dioxide, water, and other byproducts (Bertoldi et. al., 157-158).

In addition to microbiology and chemistry, the science of composting also involves understanding ecological principles, such as the importance of nutrient cycling and the role of decomposers in ecosystem functioning. Composting can be done through a variety of methods, including open-air composting, vermicomposting (using worms), and anaerobic digestion (using bacteria in an oxygen-free environment). Proper management of temperature, moisture, and aeration are essential to ensuring the composting process is efficient and effective. 

Also, the pH of the soil determines which kinds of bacteria and/or fungi can prosper in the composting conditions. Fungi primarily thrive in higher acidic conditions while different bacteria prefer ranges of 5.5-8 pH. High pH can lead to a decrease in nitrogen through ammonia volatilization, and although pH is hard to change in the soil, the beginning of the composting process decreases the pH initially with the break down of organic matter due to acid producing bacteria (Bertoldi et. al., 163-164)

Too high of temperatures can inhibit the reproduction of microorganisms which slows down the decomposing process. Moreover, this process naturally releases energy as heat, so regulation maintenance of temperature is key to ensure that the process is happening efficiently.

In perfect conditions, within a month, the microbial mineralization and humification of organic matter will turn into usable fertilizer.

[compostsb]

Composting History in the United States

Squanto of the Patuxet tribe was said to be the earliest communicator between the Native Americans and Mayflower Pilgrims. According to historical records from the Pilgrims, he was said to have taught them how to utilize fish on each corn hill to have fertile maize. While there is controversy about whether or not he said the whole fish or parts of the fish, nonetheless, this early method of composting was adopted by the colonists and catalyzed further decomposing food waste methods (Loewen, 1).

In the 1900s, landfills and incineration were the primary methods of managing municipal solid waste in many parts of the world. However, concerns over environmental pollution and resource depletion led to the development of new recycling methods in the latter half of the century.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the first modern recycling programs emerged in the United States, driven by concerns over the environmental impacts of landfilling and incineration. These programs initially focused on collecting and recycling a limited number of materials, such as paper, glass, and aluminum cans.

In the 1980s and 1990s, recycling programs expanded to include a broader range of materials, such as plastics, and became more widespread in other countries. Governments began to implement policies to encourage recycling, such as mandatory recycling programs and landfill taxes. During this time, there was also increased interest in composting as a way to manage organic waste, such as food scraps and yard trimmings and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from landfills. Municipal composting programs were established in many parts of the world, and home composting became more popular (Stentiford & Sanchez-Monedero, 2-3).

In the latter half of the 20th century, as concerns over environmental sustainability and waste management grew, composting gained renewed interest as a way to divert organic waste from landfills and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In the 2000s, there was a growing recognition of the need to shift towards a more circular economy, where waste is minimized, and resources are reused and recycled. Recycling and composting programs continued to expand and became more sophisticated, with new technologies developed to improve the efficiency of these processes (Stentiford & Sanchez-Monedero, 4-9)

Today, recycling and composting are widely recognized as key components of sustainable waste management. Governments, businesses, and individuals are all working to reduce waste, increase recycling rates, and develop new technologies to minimize the environmental impact of waste management. Composting is practiced on a small scale in home gardens, on a larger scale in commercial agriculture, and as part of municipal solid waste management programs around the world.

Illustration depicting Squanto, serving as guide and interpreter for the English Pilgrims at the Plymouth colony, circa 1621. (Kean Collection/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

[compostsb]

Early History of Composting Methods

Archeological evidence points to the earliest records of composting done by ancient scots around 5000BC where they were found to grow plants more frequently in land covered with manure due to the results of plants growing quicker and more bountiful (Callis, 1). Clay tablets dated to around 2300 BC from Akkadian empire show literature about creating compost, possibly the earliest record of manufactured compost. In addition, both the Talmud and the Bible discuss the use of dung on the fields to promote plant growth and fertility in the fields. 

The earliest known written reference to the use of earthworms for soil improvement dates back to ancient Greece in the 4th century BCE, in the writings of Aristotle. He observed that earthworms were beneficial to soil fertility, and their presence indicated a healthy soil ecosystem (Panwar & Tripathi, 3). Egyptians were among some of the early recorded users of worms in their agriculture through vermicomposting as well as Roman general Cato the Elder and Charles Darwin who praised worms for their constructive utilization in farming and breaking down organic matter to increase the fertility of agriculture.  

Bokashi was a practice done by early Japan and Korea that utilized fermentation of food waste and decomposing organisms. Bokashi is still used today, but is more refined to specific microorganisms and is used in combination with other composting methods (Nene, 12). This was one of the earliest methods of fermentation using specialized bacteria in an anaerobic environment that didn’t decompose the matter but rather changed it into another form to be used on top of other agricultural methods (Alattar, 5).

Ancient Hieroglyphic of Egyptian Agricultural methods