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  • From: Paul Cereghino <paul.cereghino@comcast.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Municipal Compost
  • Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2007 14:10:42 -0800

Daimen,

A batch (or more) of Seattle municipal yard waste compost was contaminated by a preemergent herbicide that prevented seedlings from germinating. The city started screening for organic compounds, and have been very assuring (imagine that..), now that visibility has dropped I don't know if vigilance has likewise dropped. Without source control the toxic issue will not go away. I would prefer yard waste compost over sewerage sludge compost, But then I would prefer just about any other source of digested organic matter over those products (farm manures, mushroom compost, zoo compost, etc). I have found composts are typically very raw, rich in wood and should not be counted on for nutrient supply or as a replacement for topsoil (after the fine organics decompose/oxidize, with good growth resulting, what is left is cellulose which is harder to grow in). In urban sites i'd likely be more worried about lead and PAH contamination in soils, and if providing a professional service, I would test for lead - in some ways the crap in the compost might be the least of our worries. I have often used urban industrial composts in landscaping and restoration projects and from a project management/short term economic perspective have found them an effective source of organic matter.

I have always been amused by the idea that taking our organic matter putting it in a plastic can or paper bag, paying someone to drive it around town in a truck, so that someone can use a bunch of internal combustion engines to grind, irrigate, supplement, and turn, so they can put it in plastic bags so we can drive it around town once or twice more, so we can spend our family income to put it back in our garden, is considered a sustainable and 'green' activity.

Consider food waste burial (AKA bastard trenching and the like) and cover croping as a replacement to composting. Food waste streams are easy to find in cities (resturaunts and green grocers) but can be logistically difficult to secure. Neighborhood sources like grass clippings and leaves (or your neighbors food waste) can be retrieved using food energy and a wheelbarrow. I'd recommend annual leaf gathering and summer grass clipping mulch as part of an integrated organic matter program.

Paul, Olympia, WA

tonitime@juno.com wrote:

Greetings, Daimen!
Before moving to our remote farm in KY Appalachia, i lived in
Sacramento, CA - where they have a big muni compost project. We all put
our trimming, and garden debris onto the street and it was picked up and
hauled away weekly to the compost project thruout the whole city. One
time i did get some, tho i usually found i could make enough homemade
when i was a yard gardener, growing my family's vegies and ornamentals. I had one of two problems occur: Invasive weed seed from other places
that didn't decompose along with alot of wood chips that meant nitrogen
supplementing in my garden. Other folk have stated that we have no control over other toxic
substances used on the yards the stuff came from (herbicides, pesticides,
and non-organic fertilizers. As i chose to garden with organic methods, using stuff from other places
became unacceptable.
Toni
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