BROWN IS THE NEW BLACK

The urgency to act on climate change has prompted social initiatives globally. Ahead of Singapore’s food segregation rules, we explore the art of composting

THIS COMING NEW YEAR, if you’re planning on making any resolutions at all, consider setting a goal that helps the environment. Because however we look at it, any effort we make is going to help us and our progeny by way creating a healthier, safer planet to live on.

There are many levels of personal initiatives we can take. Dutchman Boyan Slat was a mere teen when he started designing what would become the world’s first ocean plastic cleanup system. Jadav Payeng spent 30 years of his life planting trees. His solo effort reforested 550 hectares of land in India that is now home to thriving wildlife. On a smaller scale, our sub-editor committed to using bar soaps instead of liquid bodywash to eliminate one routine plastic bottle in her life. If you happen to have a garden, you can think about composting your organic trash.

Return To Nature

Composting is the practice of decomposing organic solid wastes, to derive a nutrient-rich material that is great for growing plants. Typically, these waste materials comprise discarded food, though other biodegradables such as cardboard feature as well.

The importance of composting is relevant to Singapore, considering the city-state produced 763,000 tonnes of food waste in 2018, of which only 17 per cent was recycled. Hence, in 2019 Singapore announced her Zero Waste Master Plan, which will require large malls, hotels and caterers to participate in food waste segregation starting from 2024. The organic waste will then be treated and converted for use, chief among this being compost for sustaining our garden city and nature reserves.

Despite being slated for 2024, change may come as soon as 2021. Under the Public Sector Taking The Lead in Environmental Sustainability (PSTLES) initiative, both the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment and the National Environmental Agency will be working across the board ‒ with owners of large public sector buildings as well as food and beverage outlets ‒ to facilitate food waste segregation. It will also be mandatory for developers of new commercial and industrial premises, where large amounts of food waste are expected to be generated, to allocate space for future onsite food waste treatment systems in their design plans.

Earthbound Success

At the grassroots level, a composting movement has also been burgeoning. The Foodscape Collective is a network of individuals, communities, organisations and businesses whose goal is to create a fair, inclusive and regenerative food system. Much of this arrives via permaculture, which is a type of whole systems thinking that utilises patterns and features observed in natural ecosystems, and the practice of composting lands squarely within this definition.

The Foodscape Collective began as a small group of like-minded individuals in 2015 but has since grown into its own ecosystem. It piloted a food education curriculum in 2019 and created the Biodiverse Edible Garden at Jurong Central Park. Most recently, its Project Black Gold (a community project involving three neighbourhoods) received a grant from OCBC for deeper engagement

with communities in composting.

On a personal level, making your own compost is not as difficult as you may imagine. According to NParks, the trickiest bit is ensuring a balance between your “browns” (which includes twigs, dry leaves, cardboard and vegetable stems) and “greens” (such as cut grass, fruit wastes, tea leaves and eggshells). Aside from that, all you need is a lidded container and a well-ventilated but shaded area to place it in. Aerobic composting is perhaps the most common method around. This will require puncturing the lid to allow air to circulate freely.

Introduce a few handfuls of garden soil into the mixture (this will allow micro-organisms to work their magic), and add water until it is moist before mixing thoroughly. You will need to turn the mixture consistently every week to promote air circulation, and to add water to prevent drying. If it’s too wet, however, simply add more “browns”. As time passes, the compost mixture will heat up. The temperature of the mixture needs to reach around 70°C to guard against harmful bacteria. After around three to six months (depending on the mix), the final product should be ready: a dark brown, crumbly substance capable of enriching soil to give you healthy plant growth.

Beyond Horticulture

Even if you don’t own a garden, it may be useful to understand the benefits of composting and soil enrichment. Cultivating compost means reducing our dependency on industrial fertilisers. Much like fossils fuels, our consumption of industrial fertilisers results in toxic by-products, such as the oxides of sulphur and nitrogen. These substances are often released into the air or dumped into rivers, contributing to environmental pollution and impacting wildlife.

Excessive use of chemical fertilisers can also lead to mineral depletion of the soil, as well as chemical burns on crops. A 2019 study conducted by Amity University Rajasthan in Jaipur, India, discovered a correlation between plants harvested from heavily fertilised soils and excessive heavy metal intake in human beings. Phosphorus, one of the main components of industrial fertiliser, was also found to negatively impact surrounding water quality.

It’s all a cycle. How we treat the Earth will determine how the Earth treats us in return. Living more ecologically benefits us in more ways than one. Composting is but one of the simplest ways to get started with this lifestyle ‒ there’s also great fun to be had. Vermicomposting, for example, uses worms to do all the heavy lifting. There’s also black-soldier-fly composting which uses ‒ you guessed it ‒ black soldier flies, which is great if you’re looking for an odour-free compost.

With landfilling fast becoming an unsustainable practice, we must look towards alternative means of waste disposal if we are to minimise its impact on the environment. So don’t be too quick to toss out your garbage the next time around ‒ a quick sort-through might just yield a trove of compostable materials. After all, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Especially when a label like “black gold” is thrown into the mix. AM