Composting benefits are not limited to the soil and plants alone. Composting also benefits the environment in many ways some of which are explained below:
1) It Eases Landfill Strain
With composting, vegetable matter is kept out of landfills and so, prevents the landfills from filling up prematurely. Apart from that, it also minimizes the pollution created by such landfills.
Take for instance, plant matter which does not decay cleanly when placed in landfills. The layers of trash burying the plant matter produce an anaerobic environment which makes the plant matter to produce methane gas as it decays. In short, with composting, there is a minimization of landfills’ contribution to climate change.
2) It Improves the Soil
The soil which is part of the environment is improved by composting. Through composting, nutrients are returned back to the soil bank. Apart from that, it helps in loosening the compaction of heavy soils and helps sandy soils trap and hold water.
It also, acts like a sponge, holding water where it is most needed by the roots and reducing the amount of irrigation needed by a crop. The benefits do not end here as composting is quite known to minimize wind and water erosion both and this is done by holding on to moisture in the soil and encouraging healthy root growth.
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3) It Reduces Chemical Needs
Apart from providing the basic nutrients produced by chemical fertilizers which are: nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus, compost also provides a wide array of trace minerals as well as other nutrients which are absent in chemical fertilizers.
The constituents of compost and the usage causes less use of chemical fertilizers and also reduces their associated environmental problems, including water pollution. The less usage of chemical fertilizers ultimately reduces the algae blooms in lakes and oceans when these fertilizers are washed into the water bodies.
Not only that, the rate at which the chemical fertilizers also leach into groundwater and contaminate drinking wells will also be reduced.
4) It extracts Carbon from the Atmosphere and returns it back to the Ground
Applying compost on the soil sequesters carbon dioxide already present in the atmosphere. Compost is known to be home to a variety of friendly beneficial microbes which are beneficial to plants.
To keep them around, plant roots will release carbohydrates from their roots to attract and to feed the microbes under the soil. Plants extract carbon dioxide from the air and water from their roots and through the process of photosynthesis, they turn it into carbohydrates or sugars.
The sugars and the microbes create humus which is the part of the soil that helps in retaining soil structure, moisture, as well as nutrients. Not only that, it is also the part of the soil responsible for keeping the recently-stored carbon beneath the soil.
Conclusion
Composting gives the chance to create the perfect environment for beneficial microbes to thrive and to contribute to the decaying process. Composting is simply an easy and manageable way of making a huge difference in your environment such as lowering greenhouse emissions, revitalizing water sources and other benefits which have been explained in this article.
