Ventura Hopes Residents Will Save Scraps for Compost Heaps

It may be rotten and smelly. It could be crawling with worms. But it’s the kind of organic soup that Ventura residents should have cooking in their back yards--at least that’s what city officials say.

On Saturday, Ventura recycling planners kicked off the newest phase of the city’s waste management program: composting.

Nearly 80 residents attended a sunny morning workshop at the Cornucopia Community Garden to learn how they could turn their food scraps and yard clippings into a useful organic material for gardening and landscaping.

“Think of yourself as brewmeisters,” said Bill Roley, a composting consultant from Laguna Beach. “Throw in the browns, then the greens. If it was made on the earth organically, you can compost it.”

Of the 140 tons of trash generated each day by Ventura’s 20,000 residential customers, about 33% is garden waste such as grass clippings, and another 8% is food waste--all of which could be broken down in the household heaps.

Plus, families who compost their food and lawn waste could cut their regular trash service from two barrels to one, saving themselves $8 to $10 per month, officials say.

Eric Werbalowsky, Ventura’s recycling coordinator, said he likes to think of composting as an almost bottomless garbage can for organic waste.

A properly managed compost heap can decompose food scraps and grass clippings almost as fast as they are added to the pile, Werbalowsky said.

With an occasional sprinkle of water and an occasional raking, insects, worms and microorganisms break down the organic garbage into dark, loamy compost.

Added to gardens or dug into the soil around tree roots, compost provides microorganisms for plant growth and helps soil retain air and water, he said.

Werbalowsky said he won a blue ribbon at the Ventura County Fair this summer with a five-pound onion he grew with compost and fish emulsion.

A compost heap is easy to build. The organic material can be thrown into bins or onto an open patch of ground no larger than three feet square, Werbalowsky said.

A compost heap can be as simple as a pile of grass clippings that is regularly mixed to aid decomposition. Or it can resemble a garbage layer cake, made of yard trimmings, kitchen scraps, dry leaves, livestock manure and sawdust.

And the mulch-munching insects living in the pile provide an interesting science lesson.

“You get the most amazing array of insects you can imagine,” Roley said. “I call them my army.”

But some people are not so fond of bugs. In fact, officials say, Ventura residents’ skittishness about handling organic garbage is the main obstacle to persuading them that composting is a good idea.

Many people wrongly fear that compost attracts flies and rodents, he said, but it does so only if food scraps are left uncovered or if the mix contains meat or grease.

“Some people are going to come back with, ‘I’m still not gonna put garbage in my back yard,’ and certainly, that’s their choice,” he said. “But if people are looking for an environmentally safe way to get rid of their garden materials, this is the way to do it.”

Jean Bramer, who attended the workshop with her 5-year-old son, said she has been looking for another way to dispose of leftovers.

“I’ve been feeling guilty about throwing away my vegetable scraps,” Bramer said. “I wanted to figure out a way to put back into the earth.”

Phil Megenhardt, who also attended the seminar, agreed. “You’ve got to do stuff like this to stop trash from piling up” in landfills, he said.

Ventura Mayor Richard Francis, who has been composting his yard clippings for more than a year, told residents at the conference that he was surprised at how easy it is.

“It does not take any time,” Francis said. “You take your clippings, and in a couple of weeks, there is nothing left. It works. That’s the incredible thing.”

Ventura’s compost-education program may save the city money in the long run on landfill costs, but it will not bring a trash rate increase to Ventura homeowners, as the recycling program for glass, metal and plastic did last year, Werbalowsky said. The composting program is already funded through the recycling program that the City Council approved in July, 1990.

Additional composting workshops are scheduled for Oct. 19, Nov. 16 and Dec. 14 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at the community garden on Telephone Road, just east of Johnson Drive.

Composting--A New Wave in Ventura Recycling?

Composting is like cooking--with many variations and recipes, here is a basic approach.

1. Collect leaves, grass, yard clippings, fruit and vegetable scraps, tea bags, coffee ground, etc.

2. Place in a heap or bin. Cover food scraps with soil. (Note: to avoid attracting unwanted animals, don’t compost meat, bones or oily foods.)

3. Sprinkle with water. Maintain dampness.

For quicker composting (1-3 months) * Alternate layers of green and brown materials

* Aerate the pile by turning and poking

* Chop materials into smaller pieces

For slower composting (3-6 months)

* Just keep adding materials to your pile or bin