New composting program a move in the right direction | Editorial
Published 12:12 pm Tuesday, October 6, 2015
As of Monday, islanders can take yard and food waste to the transfer station to be composted. The new program is a pilot to test whether the island can support its own composting program and take a step to reduce the costs of transporting some of the island’s waste off-island. It’s one step in the right direction of self-sustainability and environmental responsibility, but its success lies with the public.
In order to give the county and Zero Waste Vashon realistic numbers to base their study on, everyone needs to participate. This program applies to all, so there are few excuses that can be made about it not being relevant. We all eat food, and that food creates organic waste: banana peels, egg shells, tea leaves and tea bags and apple cores are some of the most common. Usually these things get thrown in the trash and sit in the landfill with everything else that takes years to break down. But, if these organic wastes are given mere weeks and warmth, they transform into rich, fertile, useful soil for growing more nutritious fruits and vegetables.
As a community of farmers and environmentally-conscious people, Vashon needs to jump on this and give its full support to those trying to make a difference by thinking outside the box of societal norms, to better the community and the greater world in which we live. A short drive down any of Vashon’s roads will greet you with some sort of farm animal or vegetable stand, proof that fertile soils are crucial to some islanders’ livelihoods. The community can band together and join the farmers who already compost to turn trash into treasure that can be used over and over again.
Zero Waste Vashon’s Gib Dammann said it perfectly last week when he said that the nutrients taken out of the soil need to be returned to it to increase the soil’s benefits. He said that we can learn from our ancestors and go back to the things that worked for them because “we somehow got away from that.”
While we’re at it, let’s save some of the money that the county spends transporting our waste. Dammann said $72,000 every year is spent taking the island’s trash to the Maple Valley dump. Let’s see how small that number can get by making sure we do all we can to take care of, and deal with, every part of our existence here on the island.
