Composting in your own neighborhood
Groen Kortenoord wants to start a pilot ‘composting in your own neighborhood’ this spring. On a small piece of land on the other side of the Nijlantsingel we want to collect garden waste, compost it and then distribute it again in the neighborhood for use in the garden. For example, we create a cycle with only local transport movements and we make the composting process transparent for everyone. We do all this with expert guidance.
We only want to collect garden waste and not organic waste. So it often concerns leaf waste. Garden waste is known not to smell when composted. (A continuous composting process of leaf waste is also underway in a forest.) For Kortenoord, it is important that there is no bay willow in the garden waste because it composts very slowly.
Groen Kortenoord is assisted in this by Suly Mutsaers. Suly is a professional gardener and arborist and knows how to convert garden waste into compost in two months. He trains one or two compost masters from the neighborhood, so that we can continue with this independently. Regularly it is necessary to ‘turn over’ the compost piles so that air can be added and the composting process is accelerated.
In consultation with BPD, we can use a location on the other side of the Nijlantsingel. BPD has indicated that it is important that the place looks good and tidy. That is why a small bank has been built around the composting site (of about 10 by 15 meters). The wall is sown with a mixture of herbs, so that we can be sure that the view from the neighborhood improves rather than deteriorates. As soon as BPD has a definitive destination for the location, the pilot location will be discontinued.
We want to partly organize the supply of garden waste by collecting it ourselves with a trailer or cargo bike. It is also possible to bring your own garden waste. We expect this to happen to a limited extent because there are not so many tall trees in the neighborhood yet. And we are also unable to receive huge quantities, as this is a limited-scale pilot.
Isn’t it going to stink, that compost? This is what Suly says about it. “Smell perception is indeed very subjective. Good composting, in this case aerobic, so well aerated and at high temperature will only smell in the first phase when the micro-organisms are most active with decomposition processes. It also depends in part on the recipe. So the ingredients and proportions. With only garden waste with little nitrogen, at most some ammonia will be released in the beginning. The end result can even be called (subjectively) smelling nice. A bit sweet. Also the fact that the place is in an open field in a windy place the chance of odor nuisance seems to me to be negligible.”
The great thing about collecting and processing garden waste is that as a result you have a valuable product in your hands, compost or the black gold. The compost is suitable for use in your own garden and neighborhood, especially for the vegetable garden because the raw materials are pure. We will distribute these for a small fee.
If you would like to regularly give gardenwaste and / or help with composting, please email groenkortenoord@gmail.com , so that we can contact you later, as soon as we start. Thanks in advance for your cooperation.