Society should make composting a regular habit

Amanda Jung/ Staff Writer

“Can you put that in the compost please?” These are words I got used to hearing because of the community I grew up in.

However, it is unlikely that this is something you hear on a normal basis. Even though the world is becoming a more eco-friendly place, communities are still unfamiliar with the idea of composting.

I grew up in a green neighborhood, down the street from a farm and a few blocks away from an environmental middle school. My entire life my family had a compost bin sitting in our garage and a small container on our kitchen counter to hold fruit and veggie scraps from our meals throughout the day.

It wasn’t until I went off to college that I realized this is not a concept that has been fully introduced to the world yet. Our society has become used to recycling, but composting is still a bit foreign.

If you haven’t noticed, landfills have increasingly become an issue just as they have been increasing in size. Many of the items we toss in the trash have no place in the landfill.

But what is composting? According to Earth Times, it “is the process of turning organic matter that is ready for disposal into something beneficial” and “overtime these materials turn into a rich form of soil.”

Fruits and vegetables that were once a part of the earth can be put back into the ground in order to help new plants grow.

Throughout my lifetime, I have learned the importance of composting. There have been so many instances where I have accidentally thrown an apple core or orange peels into the trash.

Composting helps “reduce the amount of waste that is being directed into our landfills. This means, according to Earth Times, a reduction of concentrated, toxic [substances] and methane gas being released into the atmosphere.”

In other words, this helps decrease pollution. There are currently too many harmful substances sitting in landfills, and these are things that cannot be broken down properly and are just going to sit in the landfill for the next however many years.

Over time I have talked with many friends and peers and I realized that not many of them compost. In addition, many are not aware of the options that exist, which would allow them to compost on a usual basis.

As for the FIU community, many students live in dorms and the only way to get rid of their food waste is through the trash chutes located in residence halls. In my opinion, if composting were more accessible and advertised, people would make more of an effort to put their fruit and vegetable waste in a compost pile.

Composting is a process that is just too important to pass up. Not only do you benefit from the nutrients in fruits and veggies, but so does the earth’s soil.

Rather than let this opportunity go to waste, consider looking into composting options around your community.

 

DISCLAIMER:

The opinions presented within this page do not represent the views of Panther Press Editorial Board. These views are separate from editorials and reflect individual perspectives of contributing writers and/or members of the University community.

 

Photo taken from Flickr.

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