With a few food scraps, a bit of brown waste, and a handful of worms, you, too, can become a backyard alchemist and turn this mish-mash of otherwise trash into “black gold” for the betterment of your garden — and the world. That’s not an exaggeration. Composting diverts literally tons of trash from landfills. Here in Santa Barbara, organic materials compose roughly 37 percent of our waste stream, and keeping things like yard trimmings, stale bread, and coffee grounds out of our dump saves space and cuts down on the release of methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than CO2 when it comes to global warming.
Luckily for us, the Santa Barbara County government makes composting as easy as pie — a dark, rich, crumbly pie. Its backyard composting program has been around since the 1990s — much longer than those in other communities — and is headed by Sam Dickinson, who regularly hosts free public workshops and private how-tos for schools, church groups, and the like. His department also sells high-quality compost bins at half price, and on its website, lessismore.org, there is a quick-hit list of directions, recommendations, and resources.
Mostly, people want to make compost to nourish their garden and plants. But more and more often, Dickinson said, he’s hearing from folks who want mainly to reduce their environmental impact. “I think that’s awesome,” he said. “It’s great the public is really catching onto that message.” If you make compost but have nowhere to put it, give it to a friend or neighbor, said Dickinson. They’ll thank you for it.