It's really about self interest!  An interesting thing happened about a week and a half ago-- I thought I would share it here, because self reliance involves a little self interest.

My stepson saw me doing one of my daily compost dumps and made a comment to me that his teacher says that composting is good for the environment . . . I turned around and told him he had my permission to tell his teacher that good for the environment has nothing to do with-- it's about self interest!  He looked at me funny, so I explained what I meant.

While our household composting program may be good for the environment, that was just a side benefit of my actions, behavior, and mindset.  The reasons I compost are:

• It saves me money
• It saves me time
• It improves my productivity and results

It saves me money in several ways:

• I don't have to buy enriched soil-- What I have is rocket fuel for a garden
• I don't have to buy certain herbs and vegetables in certain months-- Offsetting is a nice grocery bill savings
• I don't have to buy worms for bait-- Big and natural (Organic food for the fish [wink, wink])
• I don't have to pay for trash removal-- Surprised you with that one, I explain more in a minute

It saves me time:

• I don't have to go out and get enriched soil-- I already have it
• I don't have to put out the trash every other night-- I go to the dump twice a month 30 minutes round trip (The garbage doesn't smell because the juicy stuff goes in the compost with the exception of meat and bones)

It improves my productivity and results:

• My garden results are much better with the "Rocket Fuel"-- There's nothing like homegrown food
• My fishing is better-- Fresh bait seems to get better fish

Conclusions?  I think saving money by composting is a good thing, I don't like waste, I like to get more use and benefits out of things, and I view trash as a possible treasure.  As you can see, composting does quite a bit for my family.  So self interest isn't so selfish after all . . . it is part of the foundation of self reliance.

Oh yeah, did I mention that composting is a green activity that's good for the environment?  So what goes into my compost pile?  That's my next post.

This post originally appeared on Self-Reliance-Exchange.com, here is the link to the original post: Composting– Being Good for the Environment Has Nothing to Do With it . . . 

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Related posts:
Time to Return to Victory Gardening
What Goes Into My Compost Pile?
Disgusting Isn't It?
Spring is Coming: A Gardening Recap
Spring is Here: A Gardening Recap (Part II)