Incorporation of organic matter for composting

[Stevie342000Member]

This it is hoped relates to how organic is organic. There are a number of issues that we have come across with it being an post industrial urban environment. Number one being contamination.

Much of our land is contaminated through past industries over the last few thousand years and more recently the industrial revolution.

Today again I was tempted to speak to the gardeners as they were cutting the grass and collecting lots of leaves at the same time. Let me clarify gardeners, these are people who are employed by my housing association to maintain the grounds.

My temptation lies in that all the grass cuttings and leaves throughout the year are taken to the municipal dump as far as I know by the contractor at cost to them as well. Not sure if they use it to make compost but here in lies the rub.

Not so many years back at the end of my street there was a huge fire c1985 which made the national news, as I remember it. The site in question to this day still has not had anything built on it, it is fenced off, it lies next to the river and the whole area was covered in a white powder for 10 years. I think the last bit is stretching it a bit as housing was being built on part of the area by 1993 which is the year I moved into my current home.

Here in lies the rub, the site which burnt was an electronics factory, which would have contained some nasty chemicals. Now given that the area is next to the river which has flooded on a number of occasions. Much of the land will be contaminated A from the fire and B from flooding.

Now ask yourself the question that many of those chemicals will take over 100 years to be removed from the soil. Would you wish to use that organic material to make your compost?

What the gardeners are doing is taking that waste away. Are they aware that it is contaminated? I doubt it but what they are doing is known as phyto-remediation.

This is not a real matter for concern but more of a heads up for being aware of where your organic matter is coming from. A couple of years back there was a problem with the herbicide which made its way through to manure.

This is not really a question but more a case of sharing information and knowledge.

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