By Madison Butkus
Hometown Weekly Reporter
The Needham Department of Public Works (DPW) stopped by the Needham Free Public Library (NFPL) to put on a demonstration about how composting works. Little ones and their guardians packed into the “snack” room of the NFPL to not only hear about how composting works but also to try their hand at it.
Superintendent of the Needham Recycling and Solid Waste Division and representative from the Needham DPW, Matthew DeMarrais, started this presentation off by reading the story “Compost Stew: An A to Z Recipe for the Earth" by Mary McKenna Siddals. While reading aloud this book, everyone was able to learn how to compost as well as develop life-long habits that will protect the Earth.
After DeMarrais had finished this children’s book, it was time for little ones to get their hands dirty composting themselves! He had brought along some empty yogurt containers that he had washed out, some composted soil, stickers and green bean seeds.
To start off, everyone was handed a yogurt container, while DeMarrais or a guardian poked a hole in the bottom to allow for drainage when it came time to water the seed. It was then time for attendees to decorate their containers with the stickers provided. Little ones had a blast piling on as many stickers as they could, including faces, hearts and stars.
Once everyone was content with their decorating skills, it was time to scoop some dirt into their containers. DeMarrais provided spoons to help the young attendees and their guardians put the soil in. All that was left to do after this was to poke a hole in the middle of the dirt, drop in the seeds and cover them back up with dirt.
As an added surprise, DeMarrais led everyone outside to see the “big digger” that is used to help with composting within the town of Needham. DPW worker Chris drove over this machine for the children to take a look at. All were in awe of just how big this machine was as DeMarrais explained how it works and what it does.
“Chris turns huge piles of compost with the digger,” DeMarrais stated, “and the compost is about as high as the snack room and longer than the library. And we have about eight or nine of those stacks of soil. All summer long, we turn that into the screen compost and we send it off to places who do huge landscaping projects, like yards, businesses, and/or office parks. We are always making sure the compost gets reused again. And that is what we want to do, especially in terms of recycling. We want to have a cycle where the leaves come into the transfer station, they go into our compost pile and the compost goes back into the earth. This is the same thing with recycling. If you have a cup, you don’t have to throw it in the trash. Instead, you can send it to us and we will send it out and make it into something new. That is what we hope to do.”
This overall presentation/demonstration was an excellent way to showcase how easy it is for children and their families to compost/recycle. Upon leaving this event, all in attendance were eager to get home and water their seeds. DeMarrais mentioned that they would have to come back to the library and tell them if their seeds started to grow.
