The Benefits of Composting
Hello! My name is Adrian and I am an Environmental and Garden Educator at Explore Ecology. What really lured me to working at Explore Ecology was the opportunity to garden as much as I want!
I studied hydrology at UCSB and have a love for the environment that also complements Explore Ecology’s themes and my work at the Watershed Resource Center quite nicely.
In late May I had the opportunity to go to San Marcos High School and talk to a couple of classes about composting- one of my favorite subjects. We talked about how composting helps to minimize the trash going to our landfill, creates new healthy soil, but most importantly doesn’t contribute methane to our atmosphere.
When trash is in our landfill, an anaerobic condition is created and the bacteria that live in that environment create CH4 or methane as its waste.
When we compost, an aerobic condition is created and the bacteria that thrive create a waste product of CO2. Yes, carbon dioxide is a a greenhouse gas, however methane is over 20 times more powerful in contributing to greenhouse gas effects.
At the conclusion of our lesson we made compost buckets out of 5-gallon buckets stacked on top of each other.
The kids had fun using the drills but had quite a laugh when it was time to grab the worms. Which of course, I made them scoop up by hand. :-)
The children are our future and so is composting.
Josh was born and raised in Santa Barbara, where his passion and curiosity for the environment began and has continued to grow. During his undergraduate studies, Josh pursued this interest at the University of California at Santa Cruz, receiving a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Studies.
Melissa Dodos developed her passion for creative reuse as a mother of four and elementary educator over the past 25 years. She loves to inspire creativity by connecting people with resources and ideas.
Veronica grew up in San Diego and spent four years in San Luis Obispo studying Animal Science at Cal Poly. As an undergrad she learned lots about livestock, agriculture, and wildlife.
Stephanie began her journey as an educator over twenty years ago working as a preschool teacher in Washington state for a cooperative preschool program affiliated with Whatcom Community College. She loved observing the wonder and curiosity of the children and bringing them out into nature to explore the natural world. She continued her love for learning and got her teaching license and then her Montessori certification and worked as an elementary teacher in Tribal, Public, and Montessori schools. She collaborated to create a school garden and her students loved it so much that it became a special place where they could garden, read, explore, play, and it provided a safe sanctuary for students to calm down and reset when they were having difficult moments.
Morgan’s mermaid soul is always seeking adventure—swimming a relay across the Santa Barbara Channel and taking the first photo of a newborn orca off Anacapa Island being standout experiences close to home.
Lindsay Johnson