Although composting is a simple and relatively safe activity, you should take some precautions to avoid disease, pests, and problems with neighbors. As with any gardening activity, you should ensure that you have the correct gear. For outdoor composting, you should wear sturdy footwear and gloves to protect your feet and hands. When working outdoors, a good hat and sun block is also recommended. Proper and careful use of your tools (rakes, pitchforks, garden spades, hoes, etc.) will also go a long way to keep you healthy and free from injury. The advice below deals with specific illnesses and problems that might arise while composting.
Diseases
Composting puts you in close touch with the soil and all the organisms, good and bad, which live in it. While most of these bacteria and fungi are harmless to healthy people, a few that can cause serious illness. If you have a compromised immune system for any reason, you also should take extra precautions to ensure that you stay healthy enough to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Farmer’s lung
Farmer’s lung is a respiratory infection similar to pneumonia.
Cause. Farmer’s lung is caused by inhaling bacterial and fungal spores that are present in rotten hay, sugarcane, or mushroom compost. The actinomycetes that are so good at composting paper and that give clean healthy soil its distinctive smell are the culprit here. You can identify them in compost by their gray or white webs that resemble fungal strands.
Prevention. Wear a dust mask while working with rotted hay or dry compost because the spores can quickly become airborne as you stir and turn the compost pile. Change and wash your clothes after working with compost.
Treatment. Farmer’s lung is treated with antibiotics.
Histoplasmosis
Histoplasmosis is a respiratory infection.
Cause. It is caused by Histoplasma capsulatum, a fungus found in bat and bird manure. It is common in soil, especially throughout the Midwest and the upper South (Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia). While this fungus does not pose a problem for most healthy people, inhalation of large quantities can cause illness.
Prevention. Wear a dust mask when working with bird manure or bat guano.
Treatment. Histoplasmosis is treated with anti-fungal medication.
Legionnaires’ disease
Legionnaires’ disease is a respiratory infection similar to pneumonia.
Cause. The common type of Legionnaires’ disease is associated with the bacteria Legionella longbeachae and is affiliated with air conditioning and cooling systems. This bacterium is found in some commercial potting soils in Japan and Australia. The first American cases of disease this bacterium caused were found in 2000.
Prevention. Wear a dust mask when working with commercial potting soils. Also, ensure that your compost reaches a temperature of at least 110 degrees to kill the bacterial spores. Always moisten potting soil and dry compost with water before using it to reduce the likelihood of inhalation.
Treatment. Legionella longbeachae infection is treated with antibiotics or respiratory therapies.
Paronychia
Paronychia is a painful infection of the area surrounding the fingernail. It can manifest as redness, swelling, or blisters.
Cause. Variations of this disease include fungal, bacterial, and candidal, all of which can infect gardeners. It is more common in people who have damp hands for much of the day and in those with diabetes.
Prevention. Always wear clean, dry gloves that are in good repair. Never wear wet gloves or gloves with holes in the fingertips. If you have open wounds on your fingers, including hang nails, paper cuts, and other minor injuries, cover the wounds and wear latex or nitrile gloves under your gardening gloves.
Treatment. Treatment depends on the type of infection. Fungal infections will be treated with anti-fungal medication, and bacterial infections can respond to warm water soaks several times a day. Antibiotics may be prescribed and, if infection is severe, the skin may be lanced to drain pus.
Tetanus
Tetanus, also called lockjaw, is a disease that causes a painful tightening of muscles all over the body. It is fatal in 10 to 20 percent of cases.
Cause. Tetanus infection results from exposure to the Clostridium tetani bacteria, which can occur any time an open wound is exposed to the soil.
Prevention. A vaccine is available, and adults should receive a booster shot every ten years. If you get a cut or puncture while working outside, get vaccinated right away to ward off the disease.
Treatment. If caught early enough, tetanus can be treated with immune globulin injections. Bed rest is advised, and if spasms become severe, the patient may be sedated, medically paralyzed, or placed on a respirator. Antimicrobial drugs can be used to eradicate the bacteria.
Toxoplasmosis
Toxoplasmosis is a disease that presents with symptoms like a mild flu and sometimes has no symptoms at all. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is the third leading cause of death attributed to food-borne illness in the United States. While the disease is normally not a problem for healthy people, pregnant women can pass the disease along to their fetuses, causing blindness and nervous system disorders. People with suppressed immune function can also catch the disease.
Cause. Toxoplasmosis is spread by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, which is sometimes present in cat feces, meat, and unwashed produce. People can be exposed to this parasite if they handle or compost cat litter, or eat improperly cooked meat or unwashed produce.
Prevention. You can avoid catching toxoplasmosis by avoiding cat litter and not including it in your compost. If there are feral or outdoor cats in your neighborhood, always wear gloves and wash your hands well after gardening. Always carefully wash all fruit and vegetables before consuming them.
Treatment. Healthy people usually do not require treatment as their immune system kills off the parasite. Those who do develop an infection are treated with the drugs pyrimethamine and sulfadiazine, plus folinic acid (which is a form of folate similar to folic acid). The parasite cannot always be completely eradicated and those with suppressed immune function may sometimes require treatment for the rest of their lives.
Common Compost Problems and Solutions
While less traumatic than an illness, problems with your compost can cause you grief. A number of things can potentially go wrong with a compost pile. For example, it may begin to smell bad and may attract vermin. It may fail to heat up as it should, or may heat up only in the middle. Each of these problems has a simple solution.
|
Problem |
Possible Causes |
Solutions |
|
Animal pests |
If a compost pile attracts vermin such as rats, raccoons, and possums, it is most likely because animal products such as fat, bones, or meat have been introduced into the compost. |
Switch to a type of compost system such as an electric system that heats the material artificially, a digester system where the waste is buried underground, or a completely enclosed system like a Green Johanna™ that can decompose meat and animal products. Try to bury animal products in the middle of the pile where they will be less likely to attract vermin, but this will not discourage determined animals. Switch to an enclosed and elevated tumbler system. Leave out meat and animal products altogether. |
|
Odor |
If a compost pile smells bad, it is probably due to poor maintenance: either the wrong balance of materials is being used, or the pile is not being turned often enough to allow oxygen to flow into the material. An offensive odor can also occur if the compost is allowed to get too wet. |
Make sure the compost is properly aerated. Turn it frequently until it dries out. Ensure the compost is not too wet. Add brown material to soak up the liquid, if necessary. Make sure that you are maintaining a proper balance of green and brown materials in the compost. |
|
Flies |
Flies are commonly attracted to compost piles. They eat the compost and lay their eggs in it. While they do introduce beneficial bacteria to the compost, they can also use it as a breeding ground. |
To prevent breeding by horseflies, houseflies, and mosquitoes, keep garbage covered and cover the top of an open compost pile with dry grass and leaves, flakes of hay or straw, or a piece of window screen to prevent these insects from landing and laying eggs. If fruit flies are a problem in an enclosed outdoor bin, leave the lid ajar for a few days. Beetles will soon move into the compost and eat the fly larvae, taking care of the problem for you. Never use pesticides in a compost bin because these poisons linger in the environment and will persist in the soil, possibly being taken up by food plants. If fruit flies are a problem in your kitchen where you are collecting food scraps, there are a few ways to get rid of them. Keep the scraps covered as much as possible. Buy fruit fly traps, such as those sold by garden supply companies. They usually come with an attractive box made of ceramic or soapstone and include replaceable traps that fit inside the box, out of sight. For a do-it-yourself method, try poking holes in a plastic bottle or small plastic tub with a lid. Bait the trap with apple cores, bits of banana, or other smelly fruit. Add enough water to make the fruit float and put a few drops of dish detergent in the water. The flies will drown because the detergent will break the surface tension of the water. Re-bait the traps daily until the flies are gone. |
|
Ants |
Ants may be attracted to an outdoor compost pile because it contains food. If the pile is too dry, they may try to take up residence in it. |
To deter ants, make sure to keep the compost properly moist. Ants prefer to live in dry areas. If you do get an infestation, you can kill ants with Spinosad, which is an over-the-counter, biologically based insecticide. The bacteria in the insecticide are naturally occurring, and this product has been approved for use on USDA-certified organic produce, so it is safe to use in your compost or on your vegetable garden. |
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Pile not heating |
A pile may fail to warm up if it lacks nitrogen, is too dry, needs to be turned, or is finished composting. |
If the pile lacks nitrogen, add grass clippings, fresh manure, or blood meal. Mix the items in as well as you can and wait a few days, checking occasionally to see if it has warmed up. If the pile is too dry, water it. If the compost is compacted and the water is not sinking in, poke holes in the pile before watering it, and then mix the pile up to distribute the moisture. If the pile has already gone through one heating cycle, you will need to turn it before it will heat up again. Mix the materials well with a pitchfork or aerating tool. If the pile is done composting, which you can tell by the rich, dark appearance and earthy aroma, use it and make a new batch. |
|
Pile is warm only in the middle |
A pile that only gets hot in the middle is too small. |
This occurs most often in piles or heaps, but can also happen in smaller containers. Add more material to create a larger pile, if possible, or resign yourself to having a slower compost pile. |
Problems with Neighbors
Non-gardeners sometimes have an erroneous view of composting, thinking that it is a smelly, nasty business. This misunderstanding can cause problems between neighbors, but most people will see reason if you can educate them about composting. In fact, it might be a great opportunity to discuss starting a community compost club or shared garden. These myths might also make you hesitant to try composting. If that is the case, read this list of common myths about composting, and see if it changes your mind.
Addressing these issues before they become a problem will make your composting and gardening, not to mention relations with your neighbors, more pleasant. Here are some ideas for getting your neighbors to not just tolerate your composting, but also to join in the fun themselves.
• Offer to give them a free batch of compost. Yes, this will require some work on your part, but consider it an investment in neighborhood peace and quiet. Once your neighbors see what this free, natural resource does for their garden or flowers, they may decide composting is not so bad after all.
• Appeal to their better nature. Even the most jaded people care a little bit about nature. If your neighbor recycles, point out that composting is the ultimate form of recycling. If they drive an energy-efficient car, point out that composting can also help save the environment from further harm by keeping food and yard waste out of landfills.
• If they have children, point out that this is a healthy and fun way for kids to get involved in saving the earth. Offer to teach their kids how to compost either with your existing compost pile or on their own using worms.
• If your town or city does not already have a comprehensive composting program, start one. There is strength in numbers, and having an organized community composting group can help you find like-minded friends with whom you can share ideas and grow the group toward bigger and better things.
• If all else fails, build a fence. Good fences make good neighbors, and if they cannot see your compost pile, they may be less inclined to gripe about it. As an added benefit, the fence will add to your property value, and you can grow a row of beautiful, healthy compost-fed flowers along it.
How to Start a Community Composting Group
If you want to share what you have learned about composting, you might consider starting your own community composting group. Like any other effort, you will need two things above all — organizational ability and time. While composting at home is a leisurely process of gathering a small amount of scraps and waiting for them to break down, managing a group of people can be more difficult. If you do not have the people management and project management skills to do this on your own, team up with a friend who has the skills you need.
First, you need to answer some questions.
• What kind of composting will you do? If you want to encourage people to compost at home, have several options ready to suggest to them. Some people might enjoy vermicomposting while others will prefer the enclosed bin, the three-bin method, or the trench method. Be prepared to teach the members of your composting group each method. Perhaps your core group of organizers could divide the task and each master a different kind of composting. Teaching is the best way to learn any task, and you could hold a hands-on composting day in your garden for people interested in the method you have mastered.
• If you plan to compost on a large scale by collecting waste from your neighbors, you will have to decide where the compost will be made. You will need a location where you are allowed to pile up domestic waste from several households. Will this require permission? Find out from local authorities if you need a permit, and who issues the permit. If you live in a rural area, someone might be able to donate a few acres of their own land to the cause, but in small towns, you may need to make sure that you do not run afoul of zoning laws.
• Do you have someone with a truck who is willing to collect compost? You will have to schedule pick-up times and have rules about what can be included in the compost and what must be left out. You may also want people to use a particular kind of container that is easy for the collection crew to pick up and dump. Alternatively, you may want to have residents drop off compostable material at a designated site. Where will they bring it? When? In what sort of container? All this must be planned ahead of time and communicated to the people involved.
• How many people will you have in your composting group? The number of households you can support will depend on how much land you have available to compost on and how much waste each household can contribute. Of course, homeowners can continue to compost individually, so that might take some of the pressure off your group’s burden.
Once you know how and where you will compost, how you will collect the waste, and how many households you can accommodate, you have to get the word out about your new composting plans. Advertise a group meeting in places where gardeners go, which can be the local feed store, hardware store, or community garden, if there is one.
You may also want to limit the group to people in your immediate neighborhood to make it more manageable rather than opening it to the entire town. Is there a neighborhood watch group, homeowners association, community center, or other local gathering place or group where you can easily spread the word? If you want a larger group of people, try putting up fliers at the library, grocery store, coffee shop, or other frequently visited locations to advertise your first meeting. But if you have the resources to run a larger group, by all means, go ahead and try it.
At that first meeting, you will want to make sure to communicate all the plans, gather ideas from the attendees, and schedule the next meeting. At all points, communication is vital. If people do not know what is happening or when events are occurring, they will not be able to contribute as well as they should. Regularly scheduled meetings will help keep people on track, but not everyone can make it to every meeting. A newsletter (e-mailed or in the form of a flier posted at an agreed-upon location) is one suggestion. You can also enlist the help of an Internet-savvy person to create a blog or website where people can stay up to date on happenings in the group. Whatever method you choose, be sure to ask for feedback from the members. They can tell you whether or not you are communicating in an effective manner.
After the initial planning and meeting, you will need to get down to work collecting waste and composting. You will need volunteers to collect the materials, build the compost piles, and turn the compost. Very large piles will require the use of heavy equipment, such as front-end loaders or back-hoes, to turn and mix the pile. You may be able to rent, lease, or borrow one, or perhaps have one donated to your group. While large piles can be turned by hand if you have a dedicated crew of people willing to lift a shovel on a regular basis, anything bigger than a standard backyard compost pile will probably need some kind of mechanical assistance to keep the job manageable.
By the time you need a bulldozer or backhoe to turn the compost pile, you are getting into large-scale compost management, which may or may not be your goal. An endeavor of that kind will require money — either from donations or through some kind of service fee — and now you are in a completely different realm, because running a business is outside the scope of this book. However, if you choose to do large-scale composting, you will not be alone. Several groups around the world have already made a head start in this direction. Below are some links to groups that have already done this in their own communities.
Community Composting Inc. (www.communitycomposting.ca) is a business in British Columbia, Canada, that provides services to make composting easy, clean, and affordable. It is owned and operated by Matthew Mepham and Kyle Goulet and was founded in 2005. Community Composting Inc. currently services more than 1,500 people in Victoria, British Columbia.
The Community Composting Network (www.communitycompost.org) is a group in the United Kingdom that supports and promotes the management and use of biodegradable resources. This organization of about 230 members is self-managed by an elected committee. The group provides many services, including networking between new and experienced composting groups, maintaining a lending library of composting books, acting as composting consultants, and keeping members informed via website, e-mail news list, directory of members, annual conferences, and training events.
Although there are a few things that can go wrong when composting, a few, very simple precautions can prevent them. Keeping safety in mind when working with tools, dirt, and unfamiliar equipment is the best way to remain healthy while happily composting.
Case Study
Carrie Bennett
Amateur composter
Berkeley, California
I am an amateur composter. I completed Master Composter Training at StopWaste.Org of Alameda County (www.stopwaste.org/home/index.asp?page=441). It was a wonderful experience. I think many communities are making this kind of training available these days.
I compost because it is fun to dig around in the decomposing organic matter to see all the life it supports, both within the bin and after it is put to use in the yard. I also enjoy diverting waste from the landfill and putting it to better use on my own property. I use my finished compost around my plants, especially any that look like they are struggling for nutrition. I add the compost to the surface of the soil, then water to help it soak in. I also add compost to the soil when planting new plants.
I have a Biostack compost bin, which is about 1 cubic yard capacity. I compost a variety of kitchen and yard scraps. I occasionally poke or turn the compost, but generally take a very casual approach and let it do its own thing. I also have a brush pile for bigger, woodier scraps that will break down more slowly.
I used to keep a worm bin outside, but it was hard to keep the moisture level high enough during the long, dry summers. I now keep a worm bin inside at work. It is the Wriggly Wranch™ brand, stocked with red wiggler worms. I feed them kitchen scraps. I like that the worms have a stable temperature and environment, but people tend to set things on top of the worm bin, sometimes making it a hassle to get into the bin to feed them.
I really like almost everything about composting. It can be quite a good stress reliever to go outside, add scraps to the bin, turn or poke the contents, and observe the life forms. It eases my mind to see the cycle of life played out so serenely. My favorite things about composting are watching the critters in the bin and seeing something that started out as garbage transform into a valuable resource. The only downside is that my Biostack is in a part of the yard that can get quite muddy during the winter, and I do not like tracking the mud into the house.
I want everyone to know composting is easy, fun, and beneficial. Adding more of one or more of the four basic ingredients — browns (carbon-rich organic matter), greens (nitrogen-rich organic matter), water, and air — can easily solve any compost troubles.