Why compost at home?
Food and plant materials can comprise upwards of 30 percent of what we discard into our landfills. These materials then decompose or are incinerated, releasing harmful greenhouse gasses. Composting is an easy and inexpensive daily practice to help combat this issue and positively impact the environment.
Compostable materials include fruits and vegetables, eggshells, coffee grounds and filters, tea bags, nut shells, shredded paper, cardboard, yard waste, houseplants, hay and straw, sawdust, wood chips, cotton and wool rags, hair, fur, and fireplace ashes.
Here are some additional benefits to composting at home:
- Composting is a tangible and hands-on way to teach children how to live more sustainably. It connects the activity to their own life in terms of what is consumed in the home and encountered in their yard.
- It helps you be a thrifty gardener by producing a free and highly effective soil amendment.
- As fertilizer, compost helps the soil retain water and nutrients.
- As mulch, it helps prevent erosion.
- As a pesticide, it attracts beneficial organisms to the soil which can reduce the need to purchase dangerous-to-the-environment pesticides.
- Lastly, compost reduces our human carbon footprint by building soil’s resilience to the impacts of climate change by sequestering (capturing, securing, and storing) carbon in the soil so it doesn’t cause atmospheric warming.
For more information about Alpine Bank’s sustainability and conservation efforts, please visit our Green Initiatives webpage.
About This Author
Pete Yang
Pete Yang is a senior vice president for Alpine Bank and the co-chair of Alpine's "Green Team." He's based in Aspen, where he handles commercial and consumer loans, with a particular focus on resort financing. He has a keen interest in protecting Colorado's unmatched mountain environment.
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