Make your Deen Green: Composting

Every day we hear about the negative impacts human beings are having on the environment. It is so important to take care of and preserve one of the greatest gifts Allah has given us: the planet.

Composting is one of the most daunting but easiest ways to make your home eco-friendly.  It reduces your garbage and produces a rich supplement for your garden soil.

Fact: The U.S. is the #1 trash-producing country in the world at 1,609
pounds per person per year, 3/4 of which is organic garbage that can be composted.

Fact: In the UK households throw away 8.3 million tons of food every year.

Make your Deen Green Tip: Compost.

Ever thought about composting your trash, but never followed up because it seemed too hard? Composting is good for the Earth and we will be held accountable for our actions- even the seemingly small ones like throwing away banana peels.

Take your:

-tea bags

-grass clippings

-dryer lint

-hair clippings

-houseplant trimmings

-shredded newspaper

-fruit and veggie peels and scraps

-egg shells- crush them first

-cardboard egg crates- wet and crush

Wet and crush 

Get your kids involved-my daughter is my composting buddy. She helps me crush up the egg crates and throw it all into the heap.  Composting is the best way for children to witness how Allah has created the cycle of life.

Crushed egg carton

And put it in THIS:

My poor little composting container  It is just a tall, plastic Tupperware container with a cover- I need to get a new one (sheepish grin). They have ones with carbon filters to keep the smell at bay.

Our trusty compost bin

We save the scraps and dump it in here. I have the gardener put the grass clippings in it.  The soil that you harvest from it is so rich, and smells so good – like EARTH.  I don’t ever buy soil amendments.

Do not add:

-meat

-bones

-grease

-bread (sometimes attracts rats or too many bugs)

There will be bugs but when you turn it once in a while, it’s not that bad.

This is where the kitchen scraps go- you can cut it into smaller pieces to compost faster

Layer it with old newspapers

Turns into rich humus earth - use it as mulch, as soil amendment, or fertilizer 

Doesn’t this remind you of the ayah in the Quran:

“See you not, that Allah sends down water (rain) from the sky, and causes it to penetrate the earth, (and then makes it to spring up) as water-springs and afterward thereby produces crops of different colors, and afterward they wither and you see them turn yellow, then He makes them dry and broken pieces. Verily, in this, is a Reminder for men of understanding.” (Sūrat’l-Zumar, 39:21)