Change Your World Week Winter 2022 (Archived)

One of the world's biggest issues, is pollution. It happens all around us every day. People throw their trash not even thinking of the consequences it brings us. Our Earth is constantly growing. Our agricultural and industrial systems will need to be able to support such a large number of people that will unfortunately cause an accumulation of soil, water, and air pollution. Pollution as attributed pollution to 62 millions death each year, 40% of global total, while the World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that around 7 million people are killed each year from the air they breathe. There's an estimation that only 70% of industrial water is dumped into our water supply. However the world itself generates so much garbage per year that it is really becoming an issue for all of us that live on Earth. 

This issue isn't just for undeveloped countries. We, as an entire planet need to come together and stop producing or figuring out a way to reduce our waste. One way is simple, by recycle things that are plastic, cardboard, and glass. This will help a lot of trash that is left behind at places like the beach, that get into our oceans and then sea animals get stuck in or try to eat and then get injured or worse, they'll die. 

One solution that could control our pollution now and in the future is through bioremediation. Bioremediation is the use of microbes to degrade or detoxify harmful pollutants. We know that pollutants can be thrown into our environment through many different ways such as accidents, purpose, or by the convenience of disposal. Some man-made (synthetic) compounds are similar to what is found naturally in the environment and can be easily degraded, since organisms in the environment have enzymes that can recognize the compounds. Xenobiotics, such as herbicides, are synthetic compounds that persist in the environment for a long period of time. These persist in the environment since microorganisms can not recognize the synthetic compound as a source of food, and therefore don't have the enzymes that can degrade the compound. Biostimulation is adding nutrients to a contaminated area, these added nutrients would be the growth-limiting element nitrogen and other elements such as potassium and phosphorus, therefore, natural bioremediation is basically like applying fertilizer to a contaminated area. Another type of this is adding microbes not normally present in the population, known as bioagumentation.

Microbiologysociety.org states that "in order to control our pollution in the future, microbes may be the answer for us. Bioremediation is the use of either naturally occurring or deliberately introducing microorganisms or other forms of life to consume and breakdown environmental pollutants, such as plastic, in order to clean up a polluted site." 

Bioremediation is an option that offers the possibility to destroy or render harmless various contaminants using natural biological activity. As such, it uses relatively low-cost, low-technology techniques, which generally have a high public acceptance and can often be carried out on site.” Bioremediation uses living microorganisms to breakdown the environmental contaminants into less hazardous waste. This article goes into the principles of bioremediation and states how it is uses naturally occurring bacteria and fungi or plants to degrade or detoxify substances hazardous to human health and/or the environment. It uses indigenous microorganisms to a contaminated area, or they may be isolated from elsewhere and brought to the contaminated site. (Degruyter)

Composting is a technique where you combine contaminated soil with nonhazardous organic materials such as a homemade fertilizer from waste or manure. This would really help lower waste in landfills and make your backyard garden bountiful. 

My action plan is to start composting throughout the year to help reduce waste in the landfill. On learn.eartheasy.com, it mentions that "composting can divert as much as 30% of house hold waste away from the garbage can. Which is important because when organic matter hits the landfill, it lacks the air it needs to decompose quickly. Which, then creates harmful methane gas as it breaks down, increasing the rate of global warming and climate change." Benefits of composting is that you're creating a rich fertilizer for your garden or lawn. This will add many nutrients to plants and retain a lot of soil moisture. So, if we're ever having a rain drought, this would surely benefit you, so you're not out watering your lawn or garden twice or more a day from the sun's heat!

What should you compost?

Anything that is carbon and nitrogen based. It is beneficial if you can find a happy medium between the two. Some carbon based items that can be composted are things like dried leaves, bits of wood/sawdust, shredded brown paper bags, corn stalks, coffee filters and grounds, egg shells, and straw to give you an idea! Some nitrogen materials to be composted could be manure, food scraps, lawn clippings, and typical kitchen waste. These in particular provide raw materials for making enzymes. 

How to Compost

1. Start your compost pile on bare earth. This allows worms and other beneficial organisms to aerate the compost and be transported to your garden beds.
2. Lay twigs or straw first, a few inches deep. This aids drainage and helps aerate the pile.
3. Add compost materials in layers, alternating moist and dry. Moist ingredients are food scraps, tea bags, seaweed, etc. Dry materials are straw, leaves, sawdust pellets and wood ashes. If you have wood ashes, sprinkle in thin layers, or they will clump together and be slow to break down.
4. Add manure, green manure (clover, buckwheat, wheatgrass, grass clippings) or any nitrogen source. This activates the compost pile and speeds the process along.
5. Keep compost moist. Water occasionally, or let rain do the job.
6. Cover with anything you have – wood, plastic sheeting, carpet scraps. Covering helps retain moisture and heat, two essentials for compost. Covering also prevents the compost from being over-watered by rain. The compost should be moist, but not soaked and sodden.
7. Turn. Every few weeks give the pile a quick turn with a pitchfork or shovel. This aerates the pile. Oxygen is required for the process to work, and turning “adds” oxygen. You can skip this step if you have a ready supply of coarse material like straw. Once you’ve established your compost pile, add new materials by mixing them in, rather than by adding them in layers. Mixing, or turning, the compost pile is key to aerating the composting materials and speeding the process to completion. If you want to buy a composter, rather than build your own compost pile, you may consider a buying a rotating compost tumbler which makes it easy to mix the compost regularly.

1. Vidali, M. (2001). Bioremediation. an overview. Pure and applied chemistry, 73(7), 1163-1172.
2. Azubuike, C. C., Chikere, C. B., & Okpokwasili, G. C. (2016). Bioremediation techniques-classification based on site of application: principles, advantages, limitations and prospects. World journal of microbiology & biotechnology, 32(11), 180. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-016-2137-x
3. Ojuederie, O. B., & Babalola, O. O. (2017). Microbial and Plant-Assisted Bioremediation of Heavy Metal Polluted Environments: A Review. International journal of environmental research and public health, 14(12), 1504. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14121504

4. Society, Microbiology. “Bioremediation: The Pollution Solution?” Microbiology Society, https://microbiologysociety.org/blog/bioremediation-the-pollution-solution.html.

5. MICHAEL, S. W. A. R. T. H. O. U. T. A. U. D. R. A. P. R. E. S. S. L. E. R. (2020). Applied Environmental Microbiology. In Microbiology: Theory and application (Third, pp. 253–254). essay, KENDALL HUNT. 
6. https://learn.eartheasy.com/guides/composting/