5 Steps to Make Compost from Kitchen Waste
Don’t throw away your kitchen trash right away, because it can be processed into compost.
What is compost? Compost is organic fertilizer resulting from the decomposition / decomposition of plants, animals and waste by micro-organisms, such as bacteria and fungi.
The benefits of compost – quoted from the deptan.go.id website – are to increase the binding capacity of sandy soils, increase the holding capacity of groundwater, improve soil drainage, and contain nutrients, namely a source of nutrients or food needed by plants.
Kitchen waste that can be composted includes: fruit peels, vegetable scraps, fruit scraps, and food scraps. Garden waste such as leaves and grass can also be used as compost.
Like what is the way to process waste into compost? Here are 5 steps:
1. Provide a composting container
Place for composting can be: holes in the soil, tubs, drums, basins, and others. If the container uses a plastic drum or basin, hole a few points (5-7 points) at the bottom and place a seat on top of the bricks. Try to keep the container from being directly exposed to rain.
2. Separate the trash
Separate organic waste from non-organic waste (plastics, cans, rubber, etc.). Making compost only uses organic waste in the form of food scraps, fruit peels, vegetable scraps. Cut or chop large vegetable or fruit waste.
3. Mixing Process
Fill the container with the old compost, about a third of it. Old compost accelerates the decomposition process, because there is already an ecosystem of micro-organisms in it. Furthermore, kitchen waste is added, and mixed / stirred with the old compost. You can add sawdust or manure and compost yeast (Tricholant). Then, cover the container with a sack / plastic.
4. Cured Compost
Stir the trash once every 7 days. During the decomposition process the temperature of the material warms up, ranging from 30-70 degrees Celsius. Entering week 5-6, the compost is ready. The characteristics of the finished compost are: the material no longer smells bad or pungent, smells of soil, blackish brown, temperature 30-32 degrees Celsius, the pH degree of the compost ranges from 6.5 – 7.5.
5. Sifted and Packaged
The ripe compost is then sieved to obtain fine grained results. Good compost is dark brown in color, soft when crushed with fingers and has an earthy smell / does not sting. Then packed in plastic.