Costa’s book extract
In his new book, Costa’s World, COSTA GEORGIADIS takes us on a wild and rollicking ride through all things garden-related, from wise use of resources and choosing plants, to caring for the creatures we share our gardens with. In this extract, he discusses ways to build biodiversity in the soil by recycling food scraps
Composting is a ticket to change. It is a chance to tackle the waste cycle head on and say, “Hey, I am no longer going to participate in the creation of problems. Instead, I am going to look at the creation of a new habit in the way that all new habits are backed and supported... positively.”
Waste is something that we all create every day. From the moment we wake up and visit the bathroom, we begin creating waste products, and then for the rest of the day our choices and our actions create waste materials that have to be dealt with. Waste doesn’t just go away. It may be taken from our site – and be seemingly out of sight – then transported to a registered waste facility, but the tip or waste transfer station is not away. ‘Away’ isn’t some magical faraway place that performs miracles on our behalf. It’s a destination that requires a lot of energy and effort and people power to somehow create something useful out of truckloads and piles of mixed materials. Once we hand it over to a mechanised and centralised system, we are supporting the need for high energy and effort to be exercised to try to turn the juggernaut around.
Food scraps are our direct connection – our daily umbilical cord – to the solution. So, if we separate the scraps as they exist on our kitchen benches and on our chopping boards, then a large part – in fact, I mean a massive part – of the problem is solved. Raw materials separated into their individual parts have real value. The food scraps in a kitchen compost bin are a resource with choice. As long as we’ve separated them, we have control over their next stage in life, their next destination. And their calling in life is to go back to the soil to create new life again. When I have a benchtop bin full of scraps, I have shares in a new system, in a process where the stakes are high – and the outcomes and the benefits of separation gain value and importance the longer they remain together.
And what is the true value saving that’s involved here, for time, effort and transport? These scraps travel no further than a few metres from the kitchen to the backyard, balcony, rooftop or garden bed, where their next chapter in life will begin. There are no garbage trucks, no rubbish bins that need to go out to the street to be emptied, no use of fuel to get the scraps and green waste to a processing facility, no electricity to run the facility and transform the material into compost, and no transport of the finished product to a new entry point back into the soil, such as at a farm, garden or park.
This is not to say that everyone has space for composting or worm farming where they live. Community-driven options are the simplest ways to bring locals together and make sure ‘waste’ is not a dirty word. The options are plentiful, and the opportunity to share these actions and relieve the burden on our local councils is right at hand.
what you don’t nish eating
Food waste: talk about it, examine it and determine what waste goes to which needy consumer. Imagine when we grow from having a single benchtop compost bin to then having one with divisions, or even a second one, to distinguish between scraps for your worm farm and scraps for composting. I also want to mention another option, because I have a third consumption kingdom in my world: backyard chickens.
As you become more closely acquainted with your food scraps, you learn that there can be an amazing hierarchy for how they’re used. In my case, my chickens rule the scrap roost, then the worms get the second category, and the compost bins get the rest of the scraps – those not dined on by the chickens or worms. I love this madness: my world not only has scraps identified as part of the family, but there is also a relationship within the scrap kingdom that takes their creation, identification and then delivery to the appropriate channels of consumption to a seriously valued level of responsibility.
Can you imagine yourself reaching this stage? After reading this, you may think that you would never share this level of scrap frenzy.
All I can say is that scrap life is contagious, and as you put on your scrap goggles, the world will take on a whole new level of meaning never before imagined.
Now, if compost bins, regular worm farms, bathtub worm farms and even ShareWaste (check out sharewaste.com) aren’t enough, you can go so far – or should I say, so near – as to make an in-ground worm farm by taking a circular rubbish bin, or even just one of those round white plastic tubs with a lid, and modifying it to start processing your food scraps. Just cut off the base, drill holes in the side of the bottom half, then screw the bin or tub into the ground and dig the soil out from within.
Place some food scraps into the tub, and then you have two options: let the underground local worms find the scraps and start munching away, or get some composting worms and put a handful in there to get it started. Either way, it is in the ground, can be readily used in raised garden beds and, basically, it means that the worms are less prone to drying out due to heat or wind extremes. It’s just another simple way to begin your journey towards waste warrior status in your household, extended family, street and local community.
All of the champion composters that I meet around the country have started out small and become entangled like worms in the world of waste. And they never look back. All the material used for in-ground worm farms can be sourced from street clean-ups, or from behind restaurants, food halls and shopping centres, where eateries leave their ever-flowing supply of empty tubs from oil, ghee, fetta, mayonnaise and so on. And most existing gardeners would be only too pleased to share a handful or two of worms to get you started.
Otherwise, if you’re already composting and worm farming, you have your own supply that can be divvied up and given away. Imagine making a few worm farms as birthday or Christmas gifts. It doesn’t get any more locally sustainable than that!
Compost really is the glue behind the food narrative that we need to edit, nurture and grow locally by using massive windows of opportunity to show us the way – but it’ll happen only when we choose to lift the curtains and let fresh ideas blow in like a southerly change.