Eventually everything breaks down and gets rebuilt in nature. The key word here is eventually. Composting is no exception. It can take anything from a month to a couple of years to turn waste into compost. It depends on the types and quantities of materials used, the temperature, moisture and amount of air in the mix.Composting your food waste is a very easy way to save the earth as there are many benefits.
Last night at Flagler Organics Meetup Group we learned something new about composting from Alan & Mary Whitham – Bunnell Organics. We found out that there are additional benefits to composting. It’s not just about recycling and saving our landfills or having nutrient rich soils for our plants and gardens.
The process of mineralization in composting will actually breakdown most pesticides and chemicals.
No organic gardener wants to introduce pesticides, and to have them arrive via compost seems like the ultimate betrayal. Even if they do somehow get into your pile, many pesticides of all kinds — herbicides, insecticides, fungicides — break down into harmless chemicals during the composting process. But some, including several that have become increasingly common in recent years, do not.
During the composting cycle, pesticide levels in the feedstock (the material that went into the pile) are reduced by a variety of processes. Some toxins decay into simpler molecules. Some form bonds with other compounds (adsorption). Some volatilize, or escape into the atmosphere. Some leach from the pile, draining away with liquid run-off. Some undergo humification, becoming part of humus molecules. And some undergo mineralization, which is the most “desirable fate” for pesticides.
Mineralization, the preferred end for pesticides, refers to the breakdown of organic compounds into their inorganic (or mineral) and organic constituents. The remaining organic constituents that contain carbon breakdown further into a variety of simple molecules that include carbon dioxide and water. The CO2 volatilizes, or evaporates, the water joins the soil solution, and the inorganic, or mineral part of the pesticide molecule takes its place in the soil environment. The result is that the pesticide has been permanently transformed into non-toxic molecules.
Additionally we learned that when you put yard clippings into your compost that came from the side of the road or a place with heavy traffic, those plants during their lifetimes have absorbed many different types of heavy metals. During composting the metals will be encapsulated and not released as plant food when used.
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