{"id":1646,"date":"2018-02-28T17:34:38","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T17:34:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/biol2103h\/?page_id=1646"},"modified":"2018-03-01T21:33:50","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T21:33:50","slug":"benefits-of-composting","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/biol2103h\/composting-resources\/benefits-of-composting\/","title":{"rendered":"Benefits of Composting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Taylor, John, Lauren, Vivian<\/p>\n<p><strong>statistics:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Composting can reduce household waste by 30%<\/li>\n<li>Composting can reduce soil fertilization costs by 50%<\/li>\n<li>A small American city of 100k people creates enough waste in one year to equal three times the weight of the Statue of Liberty, roughly the equivalent of $165 billion of wasted food every year in the US.<\/li>\n<li>Over 60% of what we put in our what we put in our landfills is organic waste<\/li>\n<li>Composting prevented the release of 183 million tons of carbon dioxide into the air&#8211;\u00a0that\u2019s equivalent to 34 million cars taken off the road for one year<\/li>\n<li>Over \u2153 of landfill waste is compostable<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>benefitting water:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Compost helps soak up water, slowly releasing it to plants. With enough compost in your soil, you won&#8217;t have to water as much. Also, compost applied thickly as a top dressing has some of the benefits of mulching. It will keep water from evaporating from deeper levels.<\/li>\n<li>Composting increases the volume of water by 3 quarts per cubic foot of soil resulting in less frequent watering (this could potentially help agricultural areas experiencing drought ie California)<\/li>\n<li>Compost helps to improve water retention in soil<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>benefiting fertilization:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Composting is a natural alternative to chemical fertilizer<\/li>\n<li>Composting can reduce soil fertilization costs by 50%<\/li>\n<li>Cons of Fertilization and why we should use composting as an alternative\n<ul>\n<li>Require multiple applications in one season<\/li>\n<li>Temporary solution, doesn\u2019t add nutrients to soil<\/li>\n<li>Pollutes stormwater (more water treatment = increase in water cost)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>benefitting the environment (CO2 Emissions):<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Reduces methane emissions from landfills and lowers your carbon footprint<\/li>\n<li>Food scraps in landfills generate methane, a greenhouse gas with global warming potential 84x more potent than CO2 in the short term<\/li>\n<li>\u00bd inch of compost applied to rangeland sequestered the equivalent of 1 metric ton of Co2e\/hectare over three years<\/li>\n<li>Composting prevented the release of 183 million tons of carbon dioxide into the air- that\u2019s equivalent to 34 million cars taken off the road for one year<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>benefitting human health:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Composting can have an effect on physical health as well &#8212; we can ingest molecules of harmful substances such as fertilizer and landfill leachate<\/li>\n<li>Composting can make us more aware of what we eat and how that food is produces<\/li>\n<li>source:\u00a0Davies, S. (2011). <em>Composting Inside and Out : The Comprehensive Guide to Reusing Trash, Saving Money and Enjoying the Benefits of Organic Gardening<\/em>. Cincinnati, Ohio: Krause Publications.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>benefiting agriculture:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Composting promotes higher crop yields<\/li>\n<li>Compost can be used to remediate soils contaminated by hazardous waste in a cost effective manner<\/li>\n<li>On a per-ton basis, making compost alone employs 2x more workers than landfills and 4x more than incinerators<\/li>\n<li>One study demonstrated in over five years, a natural (compost) turf program resulted in 25% savings when compared to a chemical one (SOURCE: GrassRootsInfo.org)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Taylor, John, Lauren, Vivian statistics: Composting can reduce household waste by 30% Composting can reduce soil fertilization costs by 50% A small American city of 100k people creates enough waste in one year to equal three times the weight of the Statue of Liberty, roughly the equivalent of $165 billion of wasted food every year &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/biol2103h\/composting-resources\/benefits-of-composting\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Benefits of Composting<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"parent":1643,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1646","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/biol2103h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/biol2103h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/biol2103h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/biol2103h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/biol2103h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/biol2103h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1646\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/biol2103h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/biol2103h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}