Waste Is An Unused Resource- Permaculture Principles and Gardening

In Permaculture Design waste is an unused resource. In this short video, Part 2 in our Permaculture Principles and Gardening Series, Permaculture Designer and Teacher Loren Luyendyk talks about waste and how everything is food for something else.

Waste created in the garden and home can be seen as opportunities for re-use. Using waste onsite is a low-tech solution that will save you money, improve soil quality, and stop organic matter from going to the landfill.

Green Waste on a One Way Trip to the Landfill

The “problem” of garden and kitchen waste is a solution for the our depleted soils. By feeding the soil your waste, you can revitalize and enliven the soil food web. Green waste and food scraps can be sheet mulched directly into the ground, chopped and dropped for mulch, put into a compost pile, or fed to animals.

Food scraps can be fed to worms and other decomposers who will turn it into a premium soil amendment. By using your vermicompost on your garden, this waste will eventually be transformed into food, veggies, fruit and, if you have animals, eggs and meat.

Premium Vermicompost Created by the Decomposer Gang

Re-using waste like cardboard and newspaper doesn’t require as much energy, water, or processing as recycling does. When waste is recycled offsite, it’s often melted, ground, or pulped in order to make a new product. Before you send materials from your home and garden away, it’s a good idea to see if there are hidden opportunities for reuse. Cardboard can be used for sheet mulching and newspaper makes good bedding for a worm bin.

Both recycling and reuse can divert and permanently remove items from the dead end waste stream that leads to the landfill. A good goal is to keep waste streams cycling on your property as long as possible.