July 22nd, 2009 Dreaming of Composting
Posted by
Bruce in
Ecoathlete I’ve been thinking a lot about garbage recently. Actually, to be more accurate, I’ve been thinking about the composition of my weekly garbage and the amount of organic waste present. As a devoted recycler and someone who tries to avoid buying many packaged goods, most of the landfill waste that I produce is in the form of the discarded food scraps (egg shells, peels, used coffee grounds, etc.).
The fate of my food waste is a pretty dismal one, as its nutrients end up in the dead end of a landfill. The EPA estimates that food residuals, combined with yard waste, contribute a whopping 24% of the municipal solid waste stream in this country. A great, efficient alternative for this organic matter is that it be composted, creating a useful product.
Like most people, I have some misgivings about composting, based on childhood memories of the sprawling, stinky compost pile in the corner of our property. Our monstrously overgrown zucchini would be tossed among layers of rotting grass clippings, left to brew in the summer heat. At the end of the growing season, my dad would distribute the resulting sludgy organic matter to his various flower and vegetable beds. His gardens were always lush and highly productive; partly the result of the ideal growing conditions of Upstate New York, partly due to his inherited “green thumb,” but also due to the stinky compost.
In order to have the beautiful, non-odoriferous compost that gardeners dream of (sorry, Dad!), I have always assumed that the process was highly labor intensive and complicated. Fortunately, composting is pretty easy if you follow some basic guidelines regarding composition and conditions. And there are some really neat composting bins currently available on the market that make the process even easier.
While other folks might drool over Italian shoes or carbon bike frames, I am currently dreaming about my future composting bin. Maybe I shouldn’t admit this in public, but I can’t wait for the day that I get my very own indoor composting bin, complete with wiggly earthworms! Massive zucchini will be optional.
