A Greener Kitchen Needs Composting (Let it rot!)
I was pleased to see the article, “Top 10 Steps to a Greener Kitchen,” written by the Atlanta Journal Constitution, but was disappointed kitchen composting didn’t beat out eating less meat.
WHY YOU SHOULD
According to the US EPA, food scraps make up 12.4 percent of waste sent to landfills (far more than plastic grocery bags). When food biodegrades, it makes a great fertilizer for your plants. Think about all those fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, lettuce and dead flowers you see daily. There’s no good reason for that to take up space in a landfill. The less we all send to the landfill, the longer it stays open. The longer its open, the less need we have to find somewhere else in town to build a new landfill in someone’s backyard.
WHY YOU DON’T
You probably send a lot of your food scraps down the kitchen sink disposal, but you probably shouldn’t. It more expensive to treat wastewater with solid food in it, and a lot of the greasy food clogs wastewater lines, which cost more tax dollars to clean out.
Most people think composting is hard, but trust me I wouldn’t do it if it was. Maybe you think it’s too messy or takes too much time. There are many new products on the market to fix that.
WAYS TO GET STARTED
You need to make, or purchase a couple of things: a compost bin in the yard and a handy transport pail to keep next to the kitchen sink.
I personally use an Envirocycle® compost tumbler that you spin occasionally (around $175).
You can also make one from chicken wire. Be sure you learn the right recipe for compost, which includes yard trimmings and brush.
This stainless steel compost pail is perfect for collecting food scraps for your compost pile . You won’t be embarrassed to have it sitting next to your sink, and you’ll find yourself telling visitors about the benefits of composting when they ask what it is.
The pail has a carbon filter to keep any smells contained when the lid is closed, and a handle to easily carry it outside to the compost bin. To keep it extra clean, use a Bio Bag® to line the compost pail. It holds in any moisture from fruit scraps and then you simply toss the biodegradable bag into you’re your compost bin.
Go ahead, Let it rot!
Tags: Bio-bag, compost, Envirocycle, green, kitchen
EnviroTweets
January 18th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Your suggestions are great for people that have yard space for an outdoor composter, but for those of us who live in appartments with no outdoor space it’s not feasible.
However there is an option, there’s a new indoor composter I’ve seen just in the past year or so. I’ve seen it advertised as the “Bokashi composter” or the “Indoor composter” or various other names. This actually does 99% of the composting in the unit indoors without smell (though you do have to drain off the fluids, just use them to water your houseplants). One link I have is http://www.cleanairgardening.com/kitchen.html .
I haven’t tried it out yet, but plan to soon, just want fellow apartment-dwellers to know there’s an option.
January 19th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Excellent — excellent information regarding composting. I wish MORE people would understand what they are doing by not composting. There is only so much space for landfills.
January 29th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Don’t forget worm composting for kitchen leftovers. It is my humble opinion that they can even be kept indoors (apartments). They are fun pets and earn thier living by making a useful product. I also chicken compost, which works for my family and the chickens. It is fun to give them the delicious left overs to add to their diet and their creations, eggs and manure are beneficial for food and even better composting in the back yard.
June 20th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Its all over rated. I’m for protecting the environment as much as we can but the go green thing is 1/2 look at what I did and political vs actually protecting the environment.
I was brought here by the Kitchen tag.
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Composting is good however, my family grew up on a farm and composting leaves and left overs just make sense.
Keep up the work!
September 1st, 2008 at 12:31 am
check out can-o-worms … its an Australian product made from recycled plastic and perfect for ‘apartment- dwellers’. No bad smells and super easy to use. ENJOY =)
January 1st, 2009 at 6:41 am
Post (GRD) great republican depression America will compost most certainly, just to survive. They will also humanure, garden, raise chickens, live in title-less (fear of foreclosure) Shanties in Shanty-towns outside city limits, and run hard to get occasional part-time work! The Uber-rich have spoken, and they prefer to have 85 cent an hour Chinese peasant women in China man their factories over the very expensive American workers they have now, and with international shipping as good as it is, they have a choice! This means the total loss of jobs for a whole section of Americans, never to be replaced, an ethnic (working class) cleansing of the American stock, an internal, business orchestrated, genocide for corporate convenience, if you will! Composting will not save you! Getting into another social “layer” will! but most of us will die by the wayside as the Uber-Rich turn the screw of investment returns into our souls!