Webinar Resources – Composting at Home: An Introduction to the Basics

  • May 8, 2020
  • Virginia Streeter
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  • Presentations & Events
  • Composting for Community
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    Are you sheltering-in-place at home? Looking for a way to recycle your food scraps? Interested in producing your own “black gold” for your yard or garden? Need an activity to do with your children? Want to avoid greenhouse gases from landfills and incinerators and store carbon in local soils? 

    Learn how to home compost! 

    There’s never been a better time. By composting at home, you can protect the planet and improve your soil while practicing safe physical distancing. Watch our webinar recording to learn how to successfully compost at home. The speakers covered the basics of hot composting outside and worm composting (or vermicomposting) inside. 

     

    Related Resources

    Residential Composting During COVID-19 (US Composting Council Fact Sheet)

    From Rhonda Sherman:
    1. North Carolina State Extension Vermicomposting Homepage
    2. The Worm Farmer’s Handbook by Rhonda Sherman
    3. Worms Can Recycle Your Garbage
    4. How to Set Up a Worm Bin (video)
    5. Vermicomposting Curriculum
    6. Raising Earthworms Successfully
    7. Tips for Backyard Composting (video)
    8. Backyard Composting
    From ILSR:
    1. Home Composting Resources Homepage
    2. Successful Rat Prevention for Community-Scaled Composting Webinar
    3. Home Composting Dos and Don’ts
    4. Common Steps in the Composting Process
    5. Ingredients for Good Compost
    6. Cross-section of a Composting Pile
    7. Hierarchy to Reduce Food Waste and Grow Community
    8. Posters: Compost Impacts More Than You Think
    Sources for red wiggler worms (Eisenia fetida):
    1. Texas Worm Farm
    2. Lakeshore Vermicomposting
    3. The Worm Farm
    ILSR, Rhonda Sherman, and NC State Extension receive no commission or monetary benefit from sales.

    Presenters

    Rhonda Sherman

    North Carolina State University
    Extension Specialist, Department of Horticultural Science
    Raleigh, N.C.

    Rhonda Sherman is a leading authority on vermicomposting. Rhonda is the founder and director of a 2‐acre Compost Learning Lab (CL2) at NC State’s 1,500-acre Lake Wheeler Road Field Laboratory. The CL2 has a 40‐ft by 30‐ft Worm Barn, an equipment shed, and a covered teaching shelter. There are 26 types of composting and vermicomposting bins and areas for hands‐on training activities. She has taught composting and vermicomposting in Guyana, the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Chile, and throughout the United States. She has authored over 65 publications on vermicomposting, composting, recycling and waste reduction. More information available at the North Carolina State Extension website on vermicomposting.

    Brenda Platt

    Director, Composting for Community Initiative
    Institute for Local Self-Reliance
    Washington, DC.

    Brenda and her team at ILSR are supporting community-scale composters via forums, webinars, podcasts, guides, policies, trainings, and more. She has been a home composter for more than 30 years and is a lead trainer for ILSR’s Neighborhood Soil Rebuilders Composter Train-the-Trainer Program. In 2017, the US Composting Council awarded her its H. Clark Gregory Award for outstanding service to the composting industry through grassroots efforts. In 2019, BioCycle magazine featured Brenda as one of its organics recycling trailblazers.