Eco-tip: Focus of composting may change from backyard to business
“Compost happens,” said a bumper sticker I saw, twisting a similar, less optimistic phrase.
Everything living will eventually rot when exposed to a combination of moisture, air and microorganisms, so eventual success at composting is likely.
However, if you are trying to make compost on the same site where you generate yard clippings and food scraps, proper technique is important for avoiding problems and efficiently producing high-quality soil amendment.
Until recently, the focus of on-site composting was almost exclusively on residential backyard bin methods.
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However, state mandates for businesses, institutions and others to avoid landfilling yard clippings and food scraps may change the focus over the next few years.
Like homeowners, who use a curbside cart for yard clippings, the vast majority of commercial and public-sector organizations with qualified waste will likely pay for an additional bin, picked up by their refuse hauler on a truck headed to a compost facility instead of a landfill.
However, diverting materials on site instead will save some employers money, and those employees with experience from home composting may find their skills in demand at work.
How to learn some tips
Local cities, community gardens, the Ventura County Master Gardener program and others teach composting at their workshops.
Residents may get some guidance from an upcoming workshop sponsored by Master Gardeners of Ventura County, a project of the UC Cooperative Extension. Meeting from 9-11 a.m. Oct. 26 at The ARC of Ojai, 210 Canada St., it will focus on winter vegetable gardening but also will include soil preparation methods, such as composting. You can register at http://ucanr.edu/survey/survey.cfm?surveynumber=28244.
For more in-depth local composting assistance, call the Master Gardener help line, 805-645-1455, which is staffed by a volunteer 1-4 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday. At other times, you can leave a message or email mgventura@ucdavis.edu.
A workshop more specifically focused on composting will be offered from 9:30-11 a.m. Nov. 16 at the Calabasas Community Center, 27040 Malibu Hills Road. Although it is open to non-residents of Calabasas, Ventura County residents will not be able to buy a discounted compost bin at that event. Instead, check with your local city. Discounted bins are available through Camarillo, Oxnard, Thousand Oaks and Ventura.
Looking to the past
On-site composting has a long and vital history in America. According to the official website for President George Washington’s home and business, MountVernon.org, Washington in 1787 oversaw the construction of a stercorary, or a dung repository, for use in composting, and “nothing seemed to work as well as a mixture of manure and plant material” composted together to “invigorate his lackluster soil.”
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While historic composting consisted mainly of managing material discarded on site for use as compost on site, modern composting has changed.
Ventura County, with its pockets of agriculture interspersed between urban areas, illustrates well one of the forces influencing this change. Houses and businesses in many developed areas were built on fertile former farmland, and they discard the abundant harvest of their landscapes weekly in curbside carts or bins.
Meanwhile, farmland has become more expensive, so farmers squeeze crops out of the soil intensively, often with more than one harvest per year. The soil nutrients discarded by the urban part of our county are needed by the agricultural part.
Composting as a business venture
Limoneira, between Ventura and Santa Paula, has been the local paragon of farm-based composting since 2004, when, according to its website, “Limoniera Company continued its agricultural entrepreneurial spirit by partnering with Agromin,” a company specializing in making mulch and compost.
Currently, a 10-acre facility on Limoneira land receives urban yard clippings and lumber, mainly from companies affiliated with Harrison Industries. Agromin’s entire product produced at Limoneira is currently used just at Limoneira, where, according to the website, the mulch reduces erosion, conserves water, combats weeds and moderates soil temperatures. The Agromin/Limoneira team has submitted to the county a permit application for a major expansion of activities, including the right to make more compost than is needed for on-site use, and to sell the remaining compost.
As noted, compost happens, but proper technique is essential to avoid problems. Regulations ensure the practice of these proper techniques, especially when composters take more than specified amounts or material types or accept material from off-site. As with any permitting situation, site specific variables can be significant enough to require direct contact with permitting authorities before beginning any composting activities.
Eco-Tip is written by David Goldstein, an environmental resource analyst for the Ventura County Public Works Agency. He can be reached at 658-4312 or david.goldstein@ventura.org.