compost

1. A mixture of decaying organic matter, as from leaves and manure, used to improve soil structure and provide nutrients.
2. A composition; a mixture.

1. To fertilize with a mixture of decaying organic matter.
2. To convert (vegetable matter) to compost.

[Middle English compote, from Old French, mixture, compost, from Latin compositum, mixture, from neuter past participle of compōnere, to put together. See component.]

For more information on compost, visit Britannica.com.

Compost is a finely divided, loose material consisting of decomposed organic matter. It is primarily used as a plant nutrient and soil conditioner to stimulate crop growth. Although many people associate compost production with small garden compost piles that are tended with a shovel, most compost is produced in large municipal, industrial, or agricultural facilities using mechanized equipment.

Background

The expression "older than dirt" certainly applies to compost. Nature has been producing compost for millions of years as part of the cycle of life and death on Earth. The first human use of animal manure, a raw form of compost, was in about 3,000B.C. in Egypt when it was spread directly on the fields as a fertilizer. Later, manure was mixed with dirty stable straw and other refuse and allowed to sit in piles until it was needed. Rain kept the piles wet and aided the decomposition process, producing a rich compost.

The Greeks and Romans knew the value of compost to boost crop production and even used the warmth of decomposing compost to produce summer vegetables in winter. Christian monasteries kept the art of composting alive in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire, and by about 1200 compost was again being used by many farmers. Shakespeare mentions it in several of his plays written in the early 1600s.

In the United States, Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were prominent landowners during the late-1700s and early-1800s. When they were not involved with affairs of state, they both spent much of their time trying innovative farming practices, including experiments with various composting methods and materials. As years of successive crops depleted the nutrients in the soil on the East Coast, the practice of composting became widespread. This trend continued until the early 1900s when it was estimated that 90% of the fertilizer used in the United States came from compost.

That all changed in 1913, when a German company began producing synthetic nitrogen compounds, including fertilizers. These new chemical fertilizers could be produced less expensively than messy animal manure compost, and the farmyard compost pile quickly became a thing of the past. By 1950, it was estimated that only 1% of the fertilizer used in the United States was derived from compost.

One notable exception to this trend was the work started in 1942 by J.I. Rodale, a noted pioneer in the development of the organic method of farming. Rodale was one of the first to see the hazards of relying on synthetic fertilizers and the benefits of using compost derived from natural sources. Composting got a short-lived boost during the environmentally conscious era of the 1960s, but it wasn't until the 1980s when it became a big business. This surge wasn't the result of a renewed awareness of the positive aspects of compost, but rather a growing concern over the negative aspects of refuse. In short, in our efforts to get rid of our refuse, we were polluting our air, poisoning our rivers, and quite literally burying ourselves in it with our landfills.

In order to divert some of the municipal refuse away from landfills, several cities established recycling centers in the early 1970s where people could bring cans, bottles, and newspaper rather than throw them in the trash. This was followed by curbside recycling, where people could place these recyclable materials in separate containers for pickup in front of their houses. Finally, many cities added additional curbside containers for yard wastes to be composted. By 1992, almost 1,500 cities had yard waste composting facilities.

At the same time, tough new environmental laws mandated that industries could no longer simply dump their waste products onto the surrounding land or discharge them into nearby rivers. To meet these laws, many industries began their own recycling and composting programs. Environmental concerns also affected farmers, who were being blamed for the negative health effects that chemical fertilizers and pesticides had on humans and wildlife. As a result, many farmers decided to cut back or eliminate chemicals in favor of using compost.

Today, most compost is processed in large facilities designed to handle a specific type of raw material. Agricultural compost is usually produced and used on the same farm that generated the raw materials. Industrial compost may be bagged and sold to individual buyers, or the raw materials may be sold in bulk to other composting facilities. Municipal yard waste compost is usually produced in facilities operated by the city or the refuse collection company and is sold to local landscaping companies and garden centers.

Raw Materials

Technically, compost may be made from any organic material. That is, it may be made from any part of an organism, plant or animal, that contains carbon. Compost also requires a source of nitrogen, oxygen, and water, plus small amounts of a variety of elements usually found in organic material, including phosphorus, copper, potassium, calcium, and others.

In order for the organic materials to combine with the other materials and decompose into compost, several living organisms and microorganisms are needed. These include sowbugs, which help digest the materials and transport bacteria; earthworms, which aerate the materials with their tunnels; a variety of fungi, which help digest decay-resistant cellulose; mold-like bacteria called actinomycetes, which attack raw plant tissues; and many others.

The most common raw materials used to make compost are yard wastes such as grass clippings, leaves, weeds, and small prunings from shrubs and trees. Most home garden compost piles and municipal compost facilities use yard wastes exclusively because of the large volume of materials available.

Industrial compost facilities tend to use waste materials generated within a particular plant or region. For example, sugar beet pulp is mixed with other materials to make compost in an area where sugar refineries operate. Spent hops and grain from breweries also make excellent compost materials. Other materials include sawdust and wood chips from lumber mills, fish waste from canneries, and dried blood and pulverized animal bones from slaughterhouses.

Agricultural compost facilities use materials readily available on nearby farms. These include animal manure, used stable straw, spoiled fruits and vegetables, field refuse, vineyard and orchard prunings, rotted hay, and other agricultural waste products.

Some of the more unusual raw materials used to make compost include seaweed, chicken feathers, peanut shells, and hair clippings.

The Manufacturing
Process

The production of compost is both a mechanical and a biological process. The raw materials must first be separated, collected, and shredded by mechanical means before the biological decomposition process can begin. In some cases, the decomposition process itself is aided by mechanical agitation or aeration of the materials. After decomposition, the finished compost is mechanically screened and bagged for distribution.

There are several methods for producing compost on a large scale. The methane digester method places the raw materials in a large, sealed container to exclude oxygen. The resulting oxygen-starved decomposition not only produces compost, but also methane gas, which can be used for cooking or heating. The aerated pile method places the raw materials in piles or trenches containing perforated pipes that circulate air. The resulting oxygen-rich decomposition produces a great amount of heat, which kills most harmful bacteria. The windrow method places the raw materials in long piles, called windrows, where they are allowed to decompose naturally over a period of several weeks or months. It is the least expensive method of all. Here is a typical sequence of operations used to convert municipal yard wastes into compost using the windrow method.

Separating

• Yard wastes are deposited in separate containers by homeowners, and the containers are placed at the curb for pickup on the regular refuse collection day. Homeowners are instructed that only certain yard wastes are acceptable for collection. These include grass clippings, leaves, weeds, and small prunings from shrubs and trees. Short pieces of tree limbs up to about 6 in (15 cm) in diameter are also acceptable. Homeowners are also instructed that certain other yard wastes are not acceptable. These include rocks, sod, animal excrement, and excessive amounts of dirt. Palm fronds are prohibited because the frond spikes do not decompose and carry a poison. Food scraps, fruits, and vegetables are also prohibited because they can attract rodents, carry unwanted seeds, and contribute to odors.
• The yard wastes are collected by separate refuse trucks and are transported to the processing center where they are dumped in piles. The piles are visually inspected, and any oversized or unacceptable materials are manually removed.

Grinding

• A large, wheeled machine called a front loader picks up material from the piles and dumps it into a tub grinder. The tub grinder has a stationary vertical cylindrical outer shell with a rotating cylindrical inner shell. As the material passes between the two shells, it is ground into smaller pieces and thoroughly mixed. The ground material falls out the bottom and through a screen where the larger pieces are screened out. The remaining material is transported by a conveyor belt to a holding pile.
• The larger pieces are sold to landscaping companies for use as mulch or ground-cover without further processing. The rest is loaded into large dump trucks and transported to the composting area where it is dumped in long rows, called windrows. Each row is about 6-10 ft (2-3 m) high and several hundred feet (m) long with a triangular cross section. A flat space about 10 ft (3 m) wide is left between each row to allow vehicles to move along the length.

Composting

• The composting area may cover several acres (hectares). After a windrow is laid in place, the material is dampened by a tank truck that moves along the row spraying water. The water aids in the composting process and helps minimize wind-blown dust.
• Every few weeks, a special machine straddles each windrow and moves along its length to turn and agitate the material. This breaks down the material into even smaller pieces and exposes it to oxygen, which aids in the decomposition process. After the windrow is turned, it is sprayed with water again. This process continues for two or three months. In hot, dry weather, the windrows may have to be watered more often. During decomposition, the internal temperature of the pile may reach 130° F (54° C), which helps kill many of the weed seeds that might be present.

Curing

• The raw compost is scooped up with a front loader and moved to a large conical pile where it is allowed to finish the decomposition process over a period of several weeks. This process is called curing and it allows the carbon and nitrogen in the compost to adjust to their final levels.

Screening

• After the compost has cured, it is scooped up with a front loader and dumped into the hopper of a rotary screen. This device consists of a large cylindrical screen rotating on an axis that is slightly inclined above the horizontal. The openings in the screen are about 0.5 in (1 cm) in diameter. The compost is fed into the raised end of the rotating screen from the hopper by a conveyor belt. As the compost tumbles its way down the length of the rotating screen, the smaller material falls through the screen and is moved to a storage pile by a conveyor belt. The larger material that cannot pass through the screen falls out the lower end of the cylinder and is either returned to the compost piles for further decomposition or is sold as wood chips.

Distributing

• Much of the finished compost is loaded into large dump trucks and sold in bulk to landscaping companies, municipalities, nurseries, and other commercial customers. Some of it is sealed in 40 lb (18 kg) plastic bags for retail sale to homeowners. Using the windrow method, a typical suburban yard waste processing facility can produce as much as 100,000 tons (91,000 metric tons) of compost a year.

Quality Control

Composting companies regularly have their finished compost tested to ensure it is free of harmful materials and contains the proper amounts of plant nutrients. The tests measure the size of the particles, moisture level, mineral content, carbon-to-nitrogen ratio, acidity, nutrient content, weed seed germination rate, and many other factors. For example, waste particles should be between 0.5-2 in (1.2-5 cm) in diameter in order to encourage the flow of oxygen within the compost. Likewise, the level of moisture should be above 40% to facilitate the compost process. Moisture levels that dip below 40% slow the process and present the risk of spontaneous combustion. Also, the ideal ratio of carbon to nitrogen should average 30 parts carbon to one part nitrogen by weight. The ideal balance maintains a healthy microbial population that speeds decomposition and minimizes odor.

Harmful Materials

Compost made from yard wastes, such as leaves and grass clippings, rarely contains any harmful materials. Problems can occur, however, when compost is made from partially sorted municipal refuse, certain industrial wastes, or sewage sludge. In those cases, unacceptable levels of toxic metals, chemicals, or harmful bacteria may be present.

To protect the public, the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets acceptable levels for thousands of materials that might be present in compost. Each state may have its own standards as well. For municipal refuse, source separation—that is, having homeowners sort their yard wastes into separate containers rather than throw them away with the rest of their trash—is felt to be one of the most effective way to produce clean, safe compost.

The Future

By separating home yard wastes and turning them into compost, it is estimated that municipalities can reduce the amount of trash going to landfills by about 20%. While that is a significant reduction, it is expected that even more trash will have to be diverted from landfills in the future. Materials such as soiled food packaging, disposable diaper padding, food scraps, natural fiber rags, pieces of wood, and other organic materials could all be composted. To do this, municipalities may have to establish municipal solid waste (MSW) treatment facilities to separate the compostible materials from the harmful materials, such as discarded batteries, motor oil, asbestos, and many household chemicals.

Eventually composting may also provide a means for handling and neutralizing even the harmful materials. For example, at several older military ammunition factories and storage facilities the surrounding soil is contaminated with the explosive material trinitrotoluene, also known as TNT. Researchers are using a specially formulated compost mix of vegetable wastes and buffalo manure to neutralize the soil through a simple biological composting process that converts the explosive organic components of TNT into less harmful compounds.

Where to Learn More

Books

Christopher, Tom and Marty Asher. Compost This Book! Sierra Club Books, 1994.

Hansen, Beth, editor. Easy Compost. Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, Inc., 1997.

Martin, Deborah L. and Grace Gershuny, ed. The Rodale Book of Composting. Rodale Press, Inc., 1992.

Periodicals

Raloff, Janet. "Cleaning Up Compost: Municipal waste managers see hot prospects in rot" Science News (January 23, 1993): 56-58.

Other

The Compost Resource Page. http://www.oldgrowth.org/compost/ (June 7, 1999).

Composting Council. May 1999. http://www.compostingcouncil.org/ (June 7,1999).

[Article by: Chris Cavette]

A mixture usually consisting largely of decomposed organic material; used for fertilizing soil.

Decomposed organic matter, often referred to as “brown gold,” that has the crumbly texture and feel of good garden soil. It is both a fertilizer and a soil conditioner. Materials suitable for a compost pile include leaves, grass clippings, dead plants, and vegetable kitchen wastes, as well as cow and horse manures. See also cold compost; hot compost.

Tutor's tip: "Composed" is the past tense of compose, "composite" is something made up of separate elements or pieces, "compost" is a mixture of vegetable materials decomposing to make fertilizer, while a "compote" is a dessert composed of several cooked fruits.

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with composting. (Discuss)

An example of compost soil

Compost (pronounced /ˈkɒmpɒst/ or US /ˈkɒmpoʊst/) is a combination of decomposed plant and animal materials and other organic materials that are being decomposed largely through aerobic decomposition into a rich black soil. The process of composting is simple and practiced by individuals in their homes, farmers on their land, and industrially by industries and cities.

Compost soil is very rich soil and used for many purposes. A few of the places that it is used are in gardens, landscaping, horticulture, and agriculture. The compost soil itself is beneficial for the land in many ways, including as a soil conditioner, a fertilizer to add vital humus or humic acids, and as a natural pesticide for soil. In ecosystems, compost soil is useful for erosion control, land and stream reclamation, wetland construction, and as landfill cover (see compost uses).

Contents 1 History 2 Ingredients 3 Uses 4 As alternative to landfilling 5 Standardization of the products 6 See also 7 References 8 Literature 9 External links

History

Composting as a recognized practice dates to at least the early Roman era since Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79) who refers to compost in his writings. Traditionally, composting was to pile organic materials and let them stand for about a year, or until the next planting season, at which time the materials would be ready for soil application. The main advantage of this method is that little working time or effort is required from the composter and it fits in naturally with agricultural practices in temperate climates. Disadvantages (from the modern perspective) are that space is used for a whole year, some nutrients might be leached due to exposure to rainfall, and disease producing organisms, some weeds, weed seeds and insects may not be adequately controlled.

Composting was somewhat modernized beginning in the 1920s in Europe as a tool for organic farming.^[1] The first industrial station for the transformation of urban organic materials into compost was set up in Wels/Austria in the year 1921.^[2] The early personages most cited for propounding composting within farming are for the German-speaking world Rudolf Steiner, founder of a farming method called biodynamics, and Annie Francé-Harrar, who was appointed on behalf of the government in Mexico and supported the country 1950-1958 to set up a large humus organization in the fight against erosion and soil degradation. In the English-speaking world it was Sir Albert Howard who worked extensively in India on sustainable practices and Lady Eve Balfour who was a huge proponent of composting. Composting was imported to America by various followers of these early European movements in the form of persons such as J.I. Rodale (founder of Rodale Organic Gardening), E.E. Pfeiffer (who developed scientific practices in biodynamic farming), Paul Keene (founder of Walnut Acres in Pennsylvania), and Scott and Helen Nearing (who inspired the back-to-land movement of the 1960s). Coincidentally, some of these personages met briefly in India - all were quite influential in the U.S. from the 1960s into the 1980s.

There are many modern proponents of rapid composting which attempt to correct some of the perceived problems associated with traditional, slow composting. Many advocate that compost can be made in 2 to 3 weeks ^[3]. Many such short processes involve a few changes to traditional methods, including smaller, more homogenized pieces in the compost, controlling carbon to nitrogen (CN) ratio at 30 to 1 or less, and monitoring the moisture level more carefully. However, none of these parameters differ significantly from early writings of Howard and Balfour, suggesting that in fact modern composting has not made significant advances over traditional organic practices. For this reason and others, many modern scientists who deal with carbon transformations are skeptical that there is a "super-charged" way to get nature to make compost rapidly. They also point to the fact that it is the structure of the natural molecules - such as carbohydrates, proteins, and cellulose - that really dictate the rate at which microbial-mediated transformations are possible.

Ingredients

Compost educator displaying finished compost to student group

Given enough time, all biodegradable material will oxidize to "compost". One objective of composting today is to treat readily degradable materials that may otherwise enter landfills, and decompose anaerobically, releasing greenhouse gases. Most small-scale domestic systems are not maintained at the thermophilic temperatures required to eliminate possible pathogens and disease vectors, or deter vermin, therefore pet droppings, meat scrap, and dairy products are best left to larger scale high-rate, aerobic composting systems. A local organics recycling facility may operate such a system. However, hobby animal manure (horses, goats, sheep, chickens), fruit and vegetable food materials and garden materials are excellent raw materials for home composting.

Major types of biodegradable organic materials used:

Cardboard Paper Coffee grounds Coir (Coconut inner husk) Garden materials Humanure Leaves Seafood

Vermicompost being harvested Manure Mushrooms Spent mushroom substrate Tree bark Eggshells Fruit Vegetables Seaweed Crustacean shells

A handful of compost

Inorganic additives

• Sea shell
• Soil
• Sand
• Rock dust
• Agricultural lime

Uses

Compost is generally recommended as an additive to soil, or other matrices such as coir and peat, as a tilth improver, supplying humus and nutrients. It provides a rich growing medium, or a porous, absorbent material that holds moisture and soluble minerals, providing the support and nutrients in which plants can flourish, although it is rarely used alone, being primarily mixed with soil, sand, grit, bark chips, vermiculite, perlite, or clay granules to produce loam.

Generally, direct seeding into a compost is not recommended due to the speed with which it may dry and the possible presence of phytotoxins which may inhibit germination,^[4][5][6] and the possible tie up of nitrogen by incompletely decomposed lignin.^[7] It is very common to see blends of 20–30% compost used for transplanting seedlings at cotyledon stage or later.

As alternative to landfilling

As concern about landfill space increases, worldwide interest in recycling by means of composting is growing, since composting is a process for converting decomposable organic materials into useful stable products.^[8] Industrial scale composting in the form of in-vessel composting, aerated static pile composting, and anaerobic digestion takes place in most Western countries now, and in many areas is mandated by law. There are process and product guidelines in Europe that date to the early 1980s (Germany, Holland, Switzerland) and only more recently in the UK and the US. In both these countries, private trade associations within the industry have established loose standards, some say as a stop-gap measure to discourage independent government agencies from establishing tougher consumer-friendly standards. See: UK^[9] and for the US see ^[10]. The USA is the only Western country that does not distinguish sludge-source compost from green-composts, and by default in the USA 50% of states expect composts to comply in some manner with the federal EPA 503 rule promulgated in 1984 for sludge products.^[11] Compost is regulated in Canada and Australia as well.

Standardization of the products

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (July 2009)

See also

• Anaerobic digestion
• Composting
• Composting toilet
• Compost tea
• Gardening
• Good Agricultural Practices
• Home composting
• Olive mill pomace compost
• John Innes Compost
• Leaf mold
• List of composting systems
• Mechanical biological treatment
• Micro-organisms
• Mulch
• Soil conditioner
• Vermicompost
• Waste management
• Bokashi composting

References

1. ^ [http://www.trit.us/farming/history-organic-farming.html Heckman, J. 2006. A history of organic farming: transitions from Sir Albert Howard’s War in the Soil to USDA National Organic Program. Renew. Agric. Food Syst. 21:143–150.]
2. ^ Welser Anzeiger vom 05. Januar 1921, 67. Jahrgang, Nr. 2, S. 4
3. ^ [http://vric.ucdavis.edu/pdf/compost_rapidcompost.pdf (The Rapid Compost Method) by Robert D. Raabe, Professor of Plant Pathology, Berkeley
4. ^ Morel, P. and Guillemain, G. 2004. Assessment of the possible phytotoxicity of a substrate using an easy and representative biotest. Acta Horticulture 644:417–423
5. ^ Itävaara et al. Compost maturity - problems associated with testing. in Proceedings of Composting. Innsbruck Austria 18-21.10.2000
6. ^ Phytotoxicity and maturation
7. ^ Effect of lignin content on bio-availability
8. ^ A Brief History of Solid Waste Management
9. ^ British Standards Institute Specifications FAQ
10. ^ [1]
11. ^ U.S. Government Printing Office. 1998. Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. Title 40, part 503. Standards for the use or disposal of sewage sludge. Available at: http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c ecfr&tpl /ecfrbrowse/Title40/40cfr503 main 02.tpl. Accessed 30 March 2009.

Literature

• Insam, H; Riddech, N; Klammer, S (Eds.): Microbiology of Composting ,Springer Verlag, Berlin New York 2002, ISBN 978-3-540-67568-6
• Hogg, D., J. Barth, E. Favoino, M. Centemero, V. Caimi, F. Amlinger, W. Devliegher, W. Brinton., S. Antler. 2002. Comparison of compost standards within the EU, North America, and Australasia. Waste and Resources Action Programme Committee (UK) (see wrap.or.uk)

External links

• The Guide to Compost
• Good Gardener's Association - No Dig with compost
• Compost Manual
• Humanure
• Making Compost
• The Look of Compost
• Cré, the Irish Composting Association Information on composting in Ireland.
• Commission of the European Communities Landfill Directive Official Journal L 182 , 16/07/1999 P.0001-0019.
• UK Landfill Directive Information
• Compost Marketing in Switzerland, Schliess, K. 2002. Kompostvermarktung (in German) Report to the Swiss Agency for Environment, Bern.
• US EPA regulations for commercial compost use

v • d • e Topics related to waste management Anaerobic digestion · Composting · Eco-industrial park · Incineration · Landfill · Mechanical biological treatment · Radioactive waste · High-level radioactive waste management · Reuse · Recycling · Regift · Sewerage · Waste · Waste collection · Waste sorting · Waste hierarchy · Waste management concepts · Waste legislation · Waste treatment

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - kompost, blanding
v. tr. - kompostere, gøde med kompost

Nederlands (Dutch)
compost, mengsel, met compost bedekken, composteren

Français (French)
n. - compost, terreau
v. tr. - composter

Deutsch (German)
n. - Kompost
v. - kompostieren

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - κοπρόχωμα (κν. φουσκί), μίγμα, σύμφυρμα
v. - κοπρίζω, λιπαίνω

Italiano (Italian)
concimare, concime

Português (Portuguese)
n. - adubo composto (m)
v. - adubar

Русский (Russian)
удобрять компостом, компост

Español (Spanish)
n. - abono vegetal, abono compuesto
v. tr. - abonar, convertir en abono

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - kompost
v. - kompostera, gödsla m kompost

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
混合物, 堆肥, 施堆肥

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 混合物, 堆肥
v. tr. - 施堆肥

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 혼합물, 배양토, 퇴비
v. tr. - 퇴비를 주다, 회반죽을 바르다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 堆肥
v. - 堆肥を施す, 堆肥にする

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) مواد نباتيه متحلله لتسميد الأرض, سماد عضوي (فعل) سمد الأرض بهذه المواد‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮זבל אורגני, זבל, קומפוסט, קרקע שדושנה בקומפוסט, הפך לקומפוסט‬
v. tr. - ‮זיבל בקומפוסט, הפך לקומפוסט‬

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