It's not garbage, it's gold
Yellowknife gardeners share the goods on Northern composting
Daniel Campbell
Northern News Services
Published Friday, April 18, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
For a city that spends more than half the year frozen, one might wonder if composting is actually possible in Yellowknife.
Lone Sorensen says it's important to have a big enough compost that will fit scraps saved up over the winter. She suggests putting it somewhere it will get enough sunlight to keep warm. - |
"The quick answer to that is absolutely yes, it is possible," said Shannon Ripley, a waste reduction specialist with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
The longer winters, she says, are manageable - and the rewards can be felt not only in your garden, but in the community as well.
According to a city study, up to 40 per cent of household garbage can be diverted by composting organic material. That saves taxpayer money, as each cubic metre of space in the city's landfill goes for around $150, Ripley said.
But organic matter in the city's landfill not only takes up valuable space, it can be harmful to the environment as well.
Ripley said organics in landfills create something called leachate - a liquid that peculates through a landfill. Leachate can pick up other contaminants like heavy metals and fuels, letting them seep out of the landfill and into our environment.
Household scraps left at the dump can also be deprived of oxygen, Ripley said, meaning when they decompose they produce methane - a greenhouse gas 30 per cent more potent than carbon dioxide.
Compare this with composting at your own home, where the environmental impact is a positive one.
Nutrients from food scraps improve the structure of the soil and make it harder for diseases to harm plants.
"It's hard to think of any negative aspects of composting," said Ripley.
Lone Sorensen knows all about the benefits of compost for her soil. She's been composting and gardening in Yellowknife for 25 years and is the founder of Northern Roots - an organization that helps teach people how to grow their own food.
Getting the right balance of materials and waiting for your compost to become soil can be difficult up North, but Sorensen says the effort is worth it.
"It is work, but I think it's a very important piece of work because compost is gold for the soil fertility," she said.
"Over time we've been lulled into thinking that it's garbage. It's not; a lot of it is gold!"
Sorensen said composting is an important way to balance what we're taking out of the environment from farming and gardening.
"We can give to the soil in an equal amount that we receive. That's composting. Then we can begin to take."
In a place where good soil can be hard to come by, Sorensen said it's important people stay positive.
"People think we can't do much because we're so far North," she said.
"But we need to focus on what we can do and be in awe of that."
Fact file
Tips on Home composting in Yellowknife
1) Volume: have a big enough container (or containers) to hold scraps over the whole winter - it won't decompose when it's frozen.
2) Access: shovel off snow in and around the bin, making it easier to access on cold winter days.
3) Location: keep your bin in a sunny spot so it warms up quickly in the spring, helping to decompose matter inside.
4) Moisture: hot, parched summers in Yellowknife can dry out compost. Water your pile until it feels like a wrung-out sponge.
5) Avoid: meat, bones, fish, dairy products and weeds - they attract animals and smaller compost bins won't kill the diseases or weeds.
6) Include: "brown matter" like leaves, twigs and grass clippings - they help balance out the wetter "green" matter like kitchen scraps. Shredded cardboard/paper works well when brown matter can't be found.
7) Be patient: it can take up to two summer seasons in Yellowknife until your compost is ready for the garden.
Source: Lone Sorensen and Shannon Ripley
