By: Izabella Smith
Composting is a great way to prevent food scraps from going into your trash and ending up in a landfill. Here you can learn why you should compost and how to compost with limited space.
Why is it bad that food scraps go to landfills in the first place? When food scraps go to a landfill they do not decompose as easily as they would in a compost. In order to decompose, plant material needs oxygen and most landfills are anaerobic environments so it takes the plant material much longer to break down and when it does it is just surrounded by other trash. On top of that, when plant material breaks down in landfills it releases methane, a very toxic greenhouse gas. Compare this to a composting system where plant material can safely break down and then the compost can be added to soil, returning nutrients to the earth and adding an organic layer to the soil horizon.
This being said, it can be hard to keep food scraps in a dorm or small apartment. The easy solution to this is to freeze your compost, this will keep it all in one space and keep it from smelling. You can compost any type of plant material (banana peels, apple cores, orange peels, etc.), egg shells, and coffee grounds. Remember to take the stickers off of your produce and the membrane out of your eggshells.
Thankfully as a UF student there are a few different places to drop off your compost. The Field and Fork Farm and Gardens on museum road has a three bin composting system that you can drop your compost off in. There is also the student compost cooperative, both will be linked below.
Please remember that compost is still food waste and the best way to reduce food waste is to meal plan, use every part of your produce, and keep your leftovers.
Field and Fork: https://www.facebook.com/fieldandforkuf
http://fieldandfork.ufl.edu/
UF Student Compost Cooperative: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ufscc
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