FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

From:  Kristi Falco, Coordinator

Date: August 22, 2005 

Hard to Find Composters for Sale 

            Many of us plunk down hundreds of dollars each year for potting soil and mulch while we heedlessly throw away a goldmine of nutrients and organic material from our kitchens and yards.  The solution to this wasteful and costly cycle is composting.  Compost is a mixture of decomposing organic matter (e.g., food waste, leaves, and lawn clippings) used to improve the physical properties of the soil, such as texture and aeration; compost is not a fertilizer.

            “Most people think that composting is difficult work that results in a stinky mess.  At Keep Blount Beautiful we try to better inform residents about how easy and rewarding composting can be,” remarks Kristi Falco, Coordinator Keep Blount Beautiful.  “I have done my own experiment in my yard with homemade compost and store bought potting soil.  The compost produces the most succulent vegetables, largest flowers, and more foliage every time.”

            Another plus side to composting is the resulting decrease in land filled waste.  Yard trimmings (grass, leaves, and tree and brush trimmings) accounted for nearly 12% of the municipal solid waste stream in 2000. Source: U.S. EPA, “Making the Connection with Solid Waste Facts and Figures”  

            Many people wonder what they can and can not put in their compost pile.  You may add leaves, grass, weeds, small garden clippings, pine needles, wood ash, bark, nut shells, fruit and vegetable peels, skins or seeds, coffee grounds (including the paper filter), tea bags, sawdust, newspaper, paper towels, and napkins to your compost pile.  Things to avoid include:  meat, fish, bones, dairy products, vegetable oils, fats, poultry, human or pet waste, charcoal ash.

            To help residents get started, Keep Blount Beautiful is offering Earthmachine composters for sale at wholesale.  Each composter is $45 (Retail $90) and is suitable for an average size family.

            “Composters are difficult to find in retail stores and are very expensive.  Keep Blount Beautiful is trying to make it easier and more affordable for residents to compost.  We order the Earthmachines in bulk and resale them for what we paid.  We just want to encourage folks to compost,” comments Falco.

            Visit www.earthmachine.com to learn more about this compost system. To get your composter call 681-4809 or email keepblo@earthlink.net.