An Overview Of Our Solution
Water pollution is most apparent in the many rivers and lakes across the world. The largest contributor to water pollution in water bodies is agricultural runoff. Agricultural runoff is excess surface water leaving farm fields filled with extra nitrogen, phosphorus, and chemicals. Research has shown that compost and composted products can drastically reduce agricultural runoff, minimize water pollution, remediate polluted water.
The most effective solution for this is the widespread implementation of composting programs and spreading awareness through social media. Organizations, municipalities, cities, state, and central agencies can mimic recycling programs and kick-off composting programs forming a public-private partnership and kicking of awareness programs. The key behavior change is preventing the trashing of compostable material.
- Population Impacted:
- Continent: North America
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Water pollution is a fact of modern life. According to the U.S. EPA, Over 40% of our assessed waters still do not meet the water quality standards states, territories, and authorized tribes have set for them. The largest contributor to water pollution in minor water bodies is agricultural runoff. Agricultural runoff is excess surface water leaving farm fields filled with extra nitrogen, phosphorus, and chemicals. Excess levels of nitrogen and phosphorus eutrophicate water bodies, creating exanimate water bodies. It also promotes algae blooms, which further pollutes water.
Research has shown that compost and composted products can drastically reduce agricultural runoff. Compost products in the agro-industry can directly minimize water pollution and remediate polluted water, indirectly replacing pollutive practices with less pollutive alternatives.
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Organic waste, such as manure, wastewater treatment solids, home & restaurant vegetable scraps, grass clippings, constitutes a significant source of nonpoint source pollution. Composting this material is an effective solution to put an end to the prevalent issue of agricultural runoff. The composting process stabilizes the material and takes the nutrients, such as nitrogen, and integrates them into the compost’s organic matter. The nutrients are slowly released over time, increasing the opportunity for plants’ uptake and reducing downstream water pollution. Compost reduces fertilizer usage, increases water retention reducing irrigation needs and associated leaching potential, filters other pollutants such as sediments, organic material, excess minerals and nutrients, and harmful microorganisms out of water. Natural microorganisms in compost protect plants, reducing the need for pesticides.
Jelaskan intervensi perilaku Anda.
The behavior change is preventing the trashing of compostable material. According to the US EPA, the yard trimmings and food residuals constitute 20-30 percent of municipal solid waste. Composting eliminates this waste. Almost everyone can contribute to the process by participating in various composting programs. Any organic material in lawns such as leaves, twigs, and grass clippings can be used for compost rather than being collected in a landfill.
Behavioral change of composting organic matter into trash needs to transpire, and composting programs have to evolve to incorporate partnerships with communities, municipality/city, and public organizations.
Produce compost: Feedstocks, community, workplace, college campus, and high school composting initiatives to divert organic matter from landfills can be supported with training and resources.
Use Compost: Programs advocating compost use, promote sellers of quality compost, educate on how to compost, initiatives like green earth, and partnership with organizations that further the use of compost.
Social media: Leverage social media with promotions from leading social influencers.
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Composting programs are dependent on community contribution. The easiest way to spread awareness about this program is through social media. Over 40% of the world’s population is active on social media. Using hashtags, information on social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook is quickly and easily spread. For these reasons, social media is the preferred platform to spread awareness and promote solidarity on all topics. Considering the remote situation due to the pandemic, people spend more time on social media, further increasing social media use. Using social media platforms, the benefits of composting can be shared worldwide. We can advertise the behavioral change on social media promoting composting programs.
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Compost programs are the most effective solution to agricultural runoff because it can stop non-point source pollution. Non-point source pollution is especially tricky to stop because there is no clear source, but compost can effectively stop the outcomes of this pollution without identifying the pollution source.
The most important factors to the composting program's success are the collaboration of the community and municipality or private companies. Without people's contribution, the program would not have any compostable material to give to compost centers. Although the idea of composting programs is straightforward, enacting a nationwide composting program would only be possible with municipalities and private organizations. Most people would have no incentive to collect compostable material separately and drop it off at composting centers. The involvement of municipality and private companies provides compost trucks, eliminating this issue.
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Our organization motto is "Selfless service" and promotes volunterism, leadership and service to High school kids. Diverse set of kids from various town participate in various works that promote sustainable environment practices like helping in community gardens, composting, planting trees, trail and stream cleanup.
High school students, Aniketh Byram, Mahahi Chitti, Rohan Sharma and Sanika Bane came up with this solution and leading the composting advocacy in the community.
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Our solution is just being materialized, we would pitch the solution to our existing partners in other initiatives (townships like Marlboro NJ, Chesterfield NJ, Bordentown NJ, and Metuchen. And organizations like Watershed Institute, Pennington NJ, Lower Raritan Watershed NJ, Sustainable Jersey)
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The concept of compost trucks has been implemented successfully in various cities and towns across the nation. San Francisco’s compost pickup system has reduced landfill use by 80% in the city. New York City’s compost system has collected about 43,000 tons of compost through their “brown bin” system. A few independent compost programs have proven effective in various cities, such as Blue Earth Compost, WasteNot Compost, and CompostNow. There are also many unique, yet effective composting programs in different cities. In South Jordan, Utah, EcoScraps takes organic material from stores and restaurants and composts them. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Compost Crusader provides consulting to organize low to zero waste events. In Montpelier, Vermont, Vermont Compost takes kitchen scraps from the community and distributes the resulting compost among farmers. These are a few examples of the many successful composting projects across the nation.
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As mentioned before, composting solves the issue of agricultural runoff. Compost increases the water retention and infiltration of soil, reducing runoff. Compost naturally boosts plant growth, reducing the usage of chemical fertilizers. Compost contains natural microorganisms that protect plants, eliminating the need for pesticides. Fewer chemicals used on plants means water from the small amount of runoff is clean. Added benefits of composting are reduced irrigation needs since soil can hold water better. Compost filters other pollutants such as sediments, organic material, excess minerals and nutrients, and damaging microorganisms out of water.
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Our solution is greatly beneficial to all the smaller, lower-income farmers in the nation. There is already a large financial burden on farmers to create profits from their produce. The added expense of fertilizer is extremely expensive, since the cost to fertilize 1 acre of land is $95. The compost program drastically reduces costs while improving crop growth and production, reducing the strain on the many small farmers in the nation.
Apa sajakah manfaat tambahan lingkungan?
Composting not only prevents water pollution but it improves other aspects of the environment such as the soil, plant life, and biological diversity. Compost naturally helps plants by providing the right amount of nutrients for growth and disease prevention. It also improves the soil structure, allowing plants to grow strong root systems. Since compost improves soil water retention, land erosion is decreased. Compost invites microorganisms and insects, improving biological diversity
Apa sajakah manfaat tambahan dari pembangunan berkelanjutan?
The entire concept of composting is a sustainable benefit. Compost programs take the natural resources of organic material and convert them into compost. Since this compost is sold and organic material is provided for free, there is always profit.
Keberlanjutan: Jelaskan keberlanjutan ekonomi dari solusi Anda.
The additional costs to startup would be provided by government subsidies from local governments. Grant funding from private donors in the community would also be beneficial to the original starting of composting programs. The program's resulting compost would sustain itself through sales. There would also be monthly taxes deducted on households to fund for the compost pickup services, similar to garbage pickup services.
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A compost truck would run on a schedule similar to garbage trucks. Garbage programs cost anywhere from $25-$100 a month for every household. Additionally, there is a setup cost of $30 - $50. Compost has a high bulk density and each ton will cover about 2 cubic yards of the field. The resulting cost would be $50 per ton. This ton could cover one acre of field. There are approximately 35.4 million tons of lawn clippings in the US, and 26 million tons of kitchen scraps are generated yearly, totaling 61.5 tons of compost from lawn clippings and kitchen scraps alone. This results in a $3075 profit.
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California’s compost allocation network (CAN) model was created to test the feasibility of a state-wide compost collection system. According to a study, California’s only difficulty with the CAN model would be the cost of transporting compost all across the state and keeping the cost to a sum farmers would be willing to pay. The study responded to the SB 1383 law, which promised to reduce landfill disposal of organic waste by 75%. California’s size creates the issue of transportation costs. However, the model proved that composting programs would prove useful in California, so the compost truck solution applies to all other states in the US. Farmers from agriculturally based states would benefit the most from composting programs with reduced costs and improved crop growth. The composting program would also help states with higher populations by reducing landfill waste and improving overall water quality in these states by reducing agricultural runoff.