I hope that everyone had a safe and healthy holiday season and New Year. 2022 is going to bring big and exciting things to California. As of January 1, 2022, SB 1383 has been enacted in the State of California requiring waste diversion.
For more Information please see: https://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/organics/slcp/education
SustainSD would like to help reduce the miles that our food must travel from farm to disposal. It is important to note that disposal does not mean waste. Our form of disposal is turning the unused food and organic material to create beautiful compost.
What is compost?
Compost is a natural process in which organic material is broken down into natural fertilizer. This is done by mixing carbon (brown material) with nitrogen (green material) and letting nature take its course. It is recommended that a ratio of 25:1 carbon to nitrogen to create a beautiful compost. If there is too much carbon, the composting process will be drawn out and take a longer amount of time, too much nitrogen and you have a smelly compost. It is natural bacteria that is found in soil that does the process of composting, creating heat to break down the material into its constituent parts. Oxygen is crucial to the process; therefore, compost should be turned regularly (about every other week). There is also vermicompost which uses (red wiggler) worms to eat organic material, creating worm castings which is also known as ‘black gold’ because of its high nutrient density. There is no correct way to compost but it is important that carbon, nitrogen, water and oxygen are all considered.
What 2022 brings:
We are reaching out to schools to join our program! We have many grants and donation requests in that will hopefully bring some funding to our schools. We are currently sprouting many fruits and vegetables such as pattypan squash, cucumbers, tomatillos, and more! We are always looking for more sponsors, sources of funding, and volunteers. If you know anyone that would like to contribute to a good cause, we would love to speak to them. Thank you for taking interest in SustainSD. We hope by the end of 2022, we are actively gardening and composting at multiple schools around San Diego Unified School District.