You want to change the world? Compose your trash

In addition to writing these columns, I run a route cafeteria and it is typical that when we take out the trash, the bags drip that liquid that smells like accumulation of washed yerba mixed with concentrated coffee. Not to mention that he is the number 1 caller of the famous fruit flies (those that even Raid does not affect). In the face of that situation, I had to do something. And that's how I discovered  compost .

Eons ago God,  Pachamama , BigBang or whatever you believe, had already invented recycling, a mechanism by which the remains of  the products we use go through a regeneration process turning into fertilizer fertile . The only thing they require from us is the simple effort to throw it all in one place and wait. Yes, as simple as you hear it,   nature  only asks you to keep a balance of these waste  and avoid animal and man-generated remains ( cardboard, paper, cleaning products, etc.).

As I like nice things, I bought one of those fancy composteras sold on Instagram (look at @HuertaMadre, if you want a more urban style it can be in @CompasComposteras).

With this I take advantage and invite the routeros customers not to make disgusts in the  trash dusts  or tie me with hot yerba to my beautiful jasmine that still can not give leaves (no longer flowers I ask them), and I take advantage this parenthesis to banish that weed is a fertilizer per se: first you have to go through this process that I tell you.

Awareness costs. Although it sounds strange, asking people to separate herba/coffee/fruit, paper/cardboard and animal debrise/cleaning products is the closest thing to Mission Impossible without Tom Cruise. If you live in a city and you don't have those hectares of plants you think necessary, don't worry: there are trees in every block that will know how to thank your compost contribution.

To encourage them more I'm going to banish some myths:

-IT DOESN'T THROW SMELL

-DON'T GAIN FLIES (I promise you, oddly enough)

-DO NOT NEED WORMS (help, but if they disgust you is not excuse)

-NO TONNES ARE GENERATED PER MONTH (my composter I have a year ago and it still does not fill)

-NO EFFORT REQUIRED (if it has a lot of moisture, at most you have to add a couple of dry leaves)

I also add a few tips:

- HAVE IT ON THE OUTSIDE FOR AIR TO CIRCULATE

-ALLOW IT TO DRAIN DOWN SO THAT SOLID COMPOST (SOIL) CAN BE SEPARATED FROM THE LIQUID (FERTILE WATER FOR WATERING)

-STIR IT FROM TIME TO TIME (ONCE A MONTH REACHES)

-KEEP IT COVERED (I'VE HEARD PEOPLE DOING IT ON TUPPER)

As always I leave you an infographic to generate more environmental guilt.

 The different stages of compost 

•  Fresh : From two or three months we can get a fresh compost. The process is not finished, at this stage it will be used mainly to provide protection to the soil, placing it on its surface and without mixing it with the soil (since nutrients are not yet ready to be assimilated by plants). At this stage the remains are still recognized.
•  Mature : Between six and nine months we can get a mature compost, which will already provide nutrients. We can apply it on the surface or slightly mixed. At this point, the remains will already be much smaller.
•  Old : After the year, nutrients are already mineralized and available to plants so we are already in the presence of an old compost. The remains will no longer be recognized, it will have a blackish-brown color, with an appearance and smell of earth, even if it is not earth.