Connecticut Composting, Do's & Don'ts.

 Connecticut Composting, Do's & Don'ts.

Depending on whose statistics you use yard trimming and food waste counts for between 19 to 24 percent of the US municipal solid waste ending up in landfills.  Incorporating compost at home is not hard to do and provides a rich nutrient soil for your garden and house plants.

The Do's & Don'ts List of Composting.

The Do's, what to use:-

• Shredded cardboard & newspaper
• Fruit waste
• Leaves
• Peanut shells
• Sawdust
• Peat moss
• Vegetable stalks
• Coffee grinds & Tea bags
• Eggshells
• Fireplace ash
• Grass clippings (if free of pesticides and chemicals)
• Hay
• House plants
• Wood chips

The Don'ts, What not to use:-

• Coal or charcoal ash
• Dairy products (butter milk, sour cream, yogurt) and Eggs
• Diseased or insect ridden plants
• Fats, Grease, lard or oils
• Meat or fish bones and scraps
• Pet waste ( dog and cat feces, cat litter)
• Yard trimmings treated with chemical pesticides
• Colored paper
• Pressure treated lumber

A good mix of browns and greens also helps the pile maintain the right amount of moisture and air. Browns are high carbon content materials such as ash, leaves, shredded cardboard, woodchips, fruit waste.  Greens are high Nitrogen materials such as food waste, garden waste, coffee grinds, vegetable scraps.

The best combination of browns and greens is about 3 to 4 parts of "browns" to one part "greens" by volume; this is called the Carbon to Nitrogen ratio.

There are five basic methods of composting:

•1.    Holding units that hold yard and garden material for 6 months to two years without turning such as wire mesh holding units or snow fence units.

•2.    Turning units such as rotating barrel units or a series of holding units to allow rotation of materials

•3.    Heaps, just in piles, turning over frequently for quick composting.

•4.    Soil incorporation, mix soil with fon fatty foods and buried at least 8 inches below ground.

•5.    Worm composting in a bin. Food waste combined with shredded moistened paper, cardboard, peatmoss and/or sawdust. Food waste can be digested by red worms but requires temperatures between 50 and 70 Fahrenheight.

For more details on the 5 methods and construction of units please click here to go to link.

EPA website ~ Reduce, Reuse, Recycle ~ Composting

Additional Composting Information ...  https://usinsuranceagents.com/home-composting 

David Popoff is a license Realtor in Connecticut with William Raveis office in Darien.   A life time resident of Fairfield County he has worked throughout lower Fairfield County and now resides in Darien, Ct since 2004.  

• member of the Connecticut Association of Realtor's, CAR.
• member of the National Association of Realtor's, NAR.
• David Popoff is an accredited LEED Green Associate (LEED GA) and member with the United States Green Build Council (USGBC) and the Connecticut chapter (CTGBC).  
• Associate member of National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and the local chapter HBRA-Fairfield County, Ct.
• Contact David Popoff for all your real estate needs in Darien, New Canaan, Rowayton and other parts of Connecticut.