First time composter - need help

[Becky]

if anyone needs any and is in eastern TN feel free to come help me clean my chicken stall!!!

What an offer!

 

[roadrunner]

So it does not have to get hot to turn into dirt. That's good, I've probably got a very large misconception about compost lol!

Thanks for all the help, and if anyone needs any and is in eastern TN feel free to come help me clean my chicken stall!!!

The most important ingredient is water. Look at mulch, the leaves on the top layer will be there for a very, very long time, but dig into the lower level and the leaves are in the process of breaking down (provided there's moisture). You can even compost without air, it's called anaerobic composting (vs aerobic -- with air); however, take away water and everything stops.

My kitchen scraps turn to dirt in very quick order, because I've been doing it for long enough that my mulchy areas are full of soil organisms that break down the materials -- they breakdown just as fast as a hot pile.

All compost is, is the crap of organisms, in hot composting it's entirely a type of micro-organism, because things like worms and other animals can't stand the heat. But in cold composting the animals (and fungi) get involved and if you have a healthy biome (which will build up over time) it will break it down just as fast, because you have so many things working on it. Worms, for example, eat about half their weight in food -- every single day.

 

[MaryMary]

If you are taking any medications, even allergy pills, you have to decide if you want to have the remnant of the medications in your compost.

I saw a video about this, and I thought I bookmarked it, but I can't find it now. (Which is really a shame, it had that nice looking scientist from Racing Extinction .in it...{{swoon}} )
They've done more research and it isn't as much of a problem as they used to think. As I remember it, the medications get diluted as they filter through your body, further broken down in the compost, then diluted again when you add it to the dirt, so there really are only traces left by the time your plants uptake any nutrients.

Overall, the environmental scientists think it's better to use almost any urine in a compost heap than to flush it. (Medicated urine added to the compost heap and then put in the garden keeps it from affecting the water supply. Fish on Prozac! ) The added nitrogen and phosphorous in any urine is at least partially responsible for harmful algal blooms, and there are no filters to take meds out of most water. There is a denitrification process, but it is very expensive, so...

Just to play the devil's advocate, I decided to go out and exercise my google-fu.

Spoilered to shorten post -

Spoiler: Nitrogen, phosphorous, and medications in the water

EPA
https://www.epa.gov/nutrientpollution/sources-and-solutions-wastewater
Most homes and businesses send their wastewater to a treatment plant where many pollutants are removed from the water. Wastewater treatment facilities in the United States process approximately 34 billion gallons of wastewater every day. Wastewater contains nitrogen and phosphorus from human waste, food and certain soaps and detergents. Once the water is cleaned to standards set and monitored by state and federal officials, it is typically released into a local water body, where it can become a source of nitrogen and phosphorus pollution.[/QUOTE]

Harvard University
http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/drugs-in-the-water
A study conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1999 and 2000 found measurable amounts of one or more medications in 80% of the water samples drawn from a network of 139 streams in 30 states. The drugs identified included a witches' brew of antibiotics, antidepressants, blood thinners, heart medications (ACE inhibitors, calcium-channel blockers, digoxin), hormones (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone), and painkillers. Scores of studies have been done since. Other drugs that have been found include caffeine (which, of course, comes from many other sources besides medications); carbamazepine, an antiseizure drug; fibrates, which improve cholesterol levels; and some fragrance chemicals (galaxolide and tonalide).

Sewage treatment plants are not currently designed to remove pharmaceuticals from water. Nor are the facilities that treat water to make it drinkable. Yet a certain amount of pharmaceutical contamination is removed when water gets treated for other purposes. For example, some research shows that conventional treatment methods result in a 90% decrease in the amount of ibuprofen and naproxen in the water discharged from sewage treatment plants. On the other hand, treatment doesn't seem to have much effect on the levels of drugs such as carbamazepine and diclofenac (a pain reliever).

Some aspects of sewage treatment may remove pharmaceuticals from the water, but as a result, concentrations in sludge increase. Some of that sludge is used as fertilizer, so the pharmaceuticals are getting into the environment in another way.[/QUOTE]
.

From an article put out last year:
QUOTE
With prescription drugs and antibiotics increasingly appearing in our drinking water or taken up by plants, Andersen wants to know whether the same tiny microorganisms that chew up your coffee grounds and apple cores, can also be used to destroy drugs so they don’t wind up in our environment. (...snip...)

Using compost to break down livestock and human waste quickly brought up the question of pharmaceuticals and antibiotics—the drugs we take when we get sick and the ones some farmers feed cows, chickens, and pigs to make them grow bigger and stay healthy. As a water researcher, Andersen knew that pharmaceuticals pose a major challenge at wastewater treatment facilities. After they’ve gone through our bodies and been flushed down the drain, they end up at treatment plants where, he says, “they go through relatively unscathed.” From there, pharmaceuticals wind up in creeks, rivers, and oceans where they get consumed by fish, shellfish, and bottom-dwelling marine creatures. (...snip...)

Compost microbes may not typically be attracted to chemical drugs, but in the right environment, that can change. “Say you’re a kid,” Andersen says, “and you have a whole bunch of Snickers bars.” For every thousand pieces of candy, you have a sprig of broccoli, he continues. Have those kids play all day long, until they’re ravenous, and then unleash them on the bounty of candy. They won’t take the time to separate out a few pieces of broccoli. Thus the broccoli, or in this case the drugs, are broken down and eaten by a trillion microorganisms.
http://civileats.com/2016/06/01/can-compost-recycle-our-drugs/
END QUOTE



This is really more science (chemistry) than I understand. I cut and pasted the bits I felt I had a good grasp of. It should be noted that they are not growing food for human consumption. A pharmaceutical company was disposing of drugs in a landfill, then they decided to use it. (Chunks of drugs, not filtered through a human body!) They composted the drugs to an acceptable level for using as compost in landscaping.

Co-composting of pharmaceutical wastes in soil
Aims: Soils at a commercial facility had become contaminated with the pharmaceutical chemical residues, Probenecid and Methaqualone, and required remediation.
(...snip...)
Conclusions: Co-composting was effective in reducing soil concentrations of Probenecid and Methaqualone residues to acceptable values.

Significance and Impact of the Study: Co-composting is a technology that has application in the remediation of pharmaceutical contaminants in soil.

(BIG snip!)
Site description
Expansion of facilities at a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in south-eastern Australia required the excavation of an area previously used as landfill. Out of date, waste or ‘off-spec’ product was previously landfilled on the site. Other materials, including some laboratory wastes, were also placed in the landfill. A portion of the excavated soil was found to be contaminated with pharmaceutical process wastes and these residues included Probenecid (4-[(dipropylamino) sulphonyl] benzoic acid) and Methaqualone (2-methyl-3-(2-methylphenyl)-4(3H)-quinazolinone or Methaqualone hydrochloride (Fig. 1). A quantity of fillers and binders (e.g. lactose) was also present. Solvents such as xylene, aniline, dichlorobenzene, fatty acids and fatty acid esters, including volatile fatty acids, were also detected at low concentrations in some samples.
(...snip...)
The contaminated soil was a silty clay. It contained a large amount of pharmaceutical contaminants present in forms ranging from extremely large lumps through small nodules of white chalky material to powder form.
(...snip...)
In the pilot study, initial concentrations of the major contaminant (Probenecid) in the compost, directly after blending operations, was measured at 1200 mg kg–1. The temperature of the compost piles rose rapidly after mixing (with a 0.25 m3 bucket excavator) and peaked at 57°C after 30 h. The temperature then declined slowly as the biodegradable material was decomposed. The soil rapidly changed from a light grey–brown clay containing obvious white powdery residues, to a dark, organic appearance soon after the composting commenced.

Probenecid concentrations were reduced to below the target concentration (100 mg kg–1) in a period of 2–3 weeks.
(...snip...)
The compost has subsequently been used for landscaping purposes across the facility.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1472-765X.2001.00992.x/full

In my research, I did learn that urine from cancer and HIV drugs probably should not be used.

Anyway, it's food for thought.

 

[marlingardener]

The things one learns here! I was working on outdated information and am glad to know that medications aren't going to ruin the compost. However, I am not allowing anyone to add urine to my piles!
"Food for thought"--MaryMary, you are a stitch!

 

[MaryMary]

However, I am not allowing anyone to add urine to my piles!

Oh! One other thing! I read somewhere yesterday that if you do use urine from other people, to let it sit in the compost for at least six months, just to be safe. It was more related to "what if they were sick?" and you'd catch their cold, or strep, or bronchitis, or...or...

I suppose if it were airborne, or you didn't wash your hands, you could catch it.

"Food for thought"--MaryMary, you are a stitch!

I see you caught that!