What is Compost?

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Mo: Courtney! What questions do you have for me now?

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Courtney: So what is composting vs. community composting? What’s the difference?

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Mo: Okay, well let’s do first ‘what is composting?’. So there’s a noun and a verb for composting. The noun of composting is the finished product that comes out of the verb composting, which is the act of recycling organic material. So all these little stems I’m cutting off from this chamomile, that I don't want to eat but still contain vital nutrients, will be composted, and they will return those vital nutrients to the soil via the ‘noun’ - the finished product of compost. Why that’s important to think about - the verb and noun - which, by the way, I got from LA Compost who conceptualized the verb and the noun for me. Shoutout to Michael Martinez and his team! Anyways, when most people think about compost, they think about landfill diversion. They think “let’s get organics out of the landfill because of dun dun dun… methane”. Which is true - organics in a landfill create methane because they break down so slowly in anaerobic conditions, the only bacteria that can live are anaerobic bacteria which create methane as a byproduct. So, that’s why most of us think of this ‘verb’ of landfill diversion, the act of recycling of organic materials. But what most of us don’t think about is the ‘noun’ of finished compost, which is the soil amendment, the thing that heals the soil. And I think if we’re not thinking about the noun, we’re missing a 20 for 1 deal of composting. The noun, the finished soil amendment that is created through the act of composting, is what is going to sequester carbon long-term. It’s what is going to help with effective rainfall, drought, floods, fire prevention, food sovereignty, and economics for farmers. There is so much power in the ‘noun’ of the finished compost that I am on a mission to connect people with both of those umbrellas - landfill diversion and soil amendment creation.