Composting Part 2

Review of Composting What is composting?

What can be used to Compost? DECOMPOSITION – ‘Without all 5, it won’t survive!’ (repeat) Browns = dry leaves, newspaper, straw, napkins Greens = leftover vegetables and fruits

What can be used to Compost? Compost Critters = worms, ants, microorganisms Oxygen = air we and other animals breathe Water = light rain, moisture WHAT CAN YOU COMPOST ON YOUR TRAY???

Compost Bin We will put all of our compost a long with dry leaves we find outside into the bin outside that looks like this! Our leaders will help to remind us that we need to turn our compost bin everyday. If we don’t turn it, the compost will not get enough oxygen and it will not work! - Just like humans need to walk, run and exercise, the compost bin needs to be turned everyday to get good Oxygen

What else does it take to make compost work? The right TEMPERATURE! Just like human beings have a normal temperature of 98.6 degrees, if we have a 100 degree temperature, we would have a fever! The center of an active compost pile is even hotter! The middle of a compost pile has a temperature between 90 and 150 degrees = very hot! Temperatures below 90 degrees mean the pile is not being broken down the way it should be!

Use of Compost in the Garden and Benefits/Waste Reduction Once compost is finished, it will be similar to soil used for gardening. This top layer of soil is called topsoil. You then add the compost to the garden by spreading it over the ground and mixing it into the soil with a rake or shovel.

Benefits of Composting The finished compost is full of nutrients that help plants grow, and protects the plants from diseases and pests such as harmful insects. Composting uses food waste to benefit the earth and people. It is a great way to recycle and has a huge impact on reducing the amount of garbage sent to landfills which helps save the earth!

How much garbage can we turn to compost? The average person throws away 1.5 pounds of trash each day! How much trash would that be if each person in this school threw away that much trash each day??? Thousands of pounds!

Each day, the average person throws away one and a half pounds of waste that could be composted. That’s about this much (show bag of trash weighing 1.5 pounds). Can you imagine how much trash there would be if everyone in the lunch room threw this much away each day? That’s a lot! Instead of throwing your compostable lunch scraps in the garbage, you can recycle them by composting. This not only gives us healthy soil for our school garden, but also helps keep our earth clean. By just composting 1 day per week, your school has composted (___) pounds of lunch scraps! That is about the same as (give item of comparison based on weight that kids can relate to).