Burning Compost

Leaves that fall from the trees in Berlin are mostly “cleaned up” and increasingly used in biogas plants where they are burned to produce electricity for our uses. This process of burning disrupts an essential ecological cycle that remains invisible to most of us in urban environments made of concrete. Usually, the falling of leaves in autumn is nature’s method of protection and preparation for spring. The leaves mulch and protect the soil over winter, and decompose into valuable micronutrients that feed our plants and trees in the spring.

Compost is nature’s treasure. Removing leaves and burning this valuable resource for our human needs, echoes the invisibilization of domestic labour (represented by paper bags used to prep and store food) that makes women disproportionately vulnerable to the consequences of climate change.