Earth Day Studies: Compost & Landfill Science

 

The benefits of proper composting as opposed to dumping food waste in landfill, was demonstrated in this simple science experiment. The kids chose different food waste items (banana peel, cabbage and orange peels) to place in each bottle. Then they topped it up with water and capped it off with a balloon. Overnight, the changes already occurred, starting in the orange peel sample.

 

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Next the kids set out to create their own compost samples, with the proper formula of greens + browns + oxygen + water translated from the table of elements: N7 (nitrogen from produce) + C6 (carbon from paper, leaves) + O8 (oxygen to aerate the pile) + H2O (water). They included a layer of soil to add microorganisms and possible a couple of worms.