Sustainability at Home—Composting Workshop

One of my favorite things about sustainability is incorporating local agriculture into our everyday life in the forms of edible landscaping, raised garden beds, farmer's markets, community gardens and locally grown produce.  

One way to bring sustainability to your home is carefully sorting your trash. Part one—Recycling,  part two—composting. Composting is another means of diverting waste from our landfills.  Just as an aluminum can be recycled and turned into another can, eggshells, banana peels or coffee grounds can be turned into fertilizer for your garden.

One way to turn those nutrient leftovers into a gardener's dream is to use something called vermicomposting— where earthworms will eat your kitchen's leftovers and the by-product of their work (which is referred to castings, yes, worm poop) is considered the best soil amendment you can get. The best part— it's self-sustaining.

Aliso Viejo is offering a free workshop on composting on April 23 for those who want to learn more. I highly recommend you attend.  As a bonus, the city is offering a voucher toward a vermicompster, which will cover half its cost. A vermicomposter provides a home for the worms, helping them to process the food waste into compost.

This workshop is aimed toward the entire family and I plan to bring my daughter with me.  To help get kids involved, CalRecycle has an interactive section on their website about the Adventures of Vermi the Worm.  Vermicomposting is a great science experiment and something the whole family can participate in.

Here's more information about the composting workshop later this month:

"Residents with children of all ages are invited to a free Sustainability Workshop on April 23, which is designed to help benefit them and the environment.

The Sustainability Workshop is from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Aliso Viejo Town Center Amphitheater off Aliso Creek Road and Pacific Park Drive.

Attendees of the educational workshop will learn the eco-friendly practice of creating compost from food scraps and yard waste, how to make eco-friendly purchases to reduce their waste reduction, how to re-use common everyday items to lessen their contribution to local landfills and what can and should be recycled.

Each resident or family that completes the workshop will receive a $30.35 voucher (funded by a grant from CalRecycle) toward the purchase of a $60.35 new vermicomposter unit, which will be available the day of the workshop (only one available per household.)  Vermicomposting is a composting technique that uses red worms to accelerate the composting process.  A vermicomposter unit is a housing unit for the worms, which enables them to process the food waste into compost.

Residents must pre-register by April 8 to Rae Beimer at 949-425-2535, rbeimer@cityofalisoviejo.com or by dropping by City Hall at 12 Journey."

For more information, visit the city's website