From Ecopedia

Overview

Compost is the term used for a combination of plant, animal and other organic materials that get decomposed mostly aerobically, forming rich black soil, which is useful in many ways that include gardening, horticulture, landscaping as well as agriculture.

Compost soil serves as a land fertilizer, soil conditioner and also as a natural pesticide for the soil. Ecologically, compost soil is useful for controlling erosions, land reclamation and stream reclamation, landfill cover and wetland construction.^[1]

Environmental Benefits

Composting requires nitrogen, carbon, oxygen and water for decomposing the organic matter. Certain ratios of the four elements would provide some beneficial bacteria and fungi to the soil, which break down organic material to create nutrient-rich humus that aids in retaining the soil moisture.

Compost is found to suppress certain pests and several plant diseases from occurring, besides reducing or totally eliminating the need for any chemical fertilizer, thus, promoting higher agricultural yields. ^[2]

Composting offers a better environmental alternative to landfilling, as composting encourages recycling by converting decomposable organic matter into useful and stable products.

Besides offering resource efficiency, composting is useful in creating useful products from organic waste, which otherwise, would go into landfills.^[3]

Composting is also shown to absorb several harmful odors, besides effectively treating VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and semivolatile compounds such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons. The compost process is also shown to degrade and in certain cases, completely eliminate wood preservatives, chlorinated and nonchlorinated hydrocarbons from the contaminated soils.

Furthermore, composting is found to avert the production of harmful methane gas as well as leachate formulation in landfills. Numerous storm-water pollutants are also prevented from entering surface water sources due to composting.

Industrial composting

In developed countries, industrial composting along with other modern waste processing systems is increasingly being adopted as an effective waste management alternative to traditional landfills.

In industrial composting, mixed waste streams are mechanically sorted and combined with in-vessel composting or anaerobic digestion to treat the organic waste in the contaminated soil.

By industrially treating the biodegradable waste, before reaching a landfill, helps in preventing the poisonous and global warming-causing methane from entering the atmosphere. ^[4]

References

1. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compost
2. ↑ http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/rrr/composting/benefits.htm
3. ↑ http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/rrr/composting/
4. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compost