Recently I’ve thought up this experiment that I think would be interesting. If all of us were required to carry around all the trash we created throughout the day in trash bags, would we produce less garbage? I think most people aren’t even aware of how much they throw away in a day. Ever since leaving undergrad, I have been more conscious of the hideous volume of trash I create. It was kind of hard to fathom actually; last year I was living alone and still taking out full trash bags to the dumpster way more often than I’d like to admit.
At the University of Pittsburgh, the options for recycling were quite limited as far as I could tell. Sure, there was a nice bin on each floor of the engineering building with different slots for paper, plastic, and trash, but I will never forget the time I saw a janitor emptying all of the contents into the same dumpster. Ugh. I mostly gave up on bothering to recycle on campus after that.
Now, living in Ithaca, I can recycle my cardboard boxes, magazines, newspapers, glass, plastics... Also, NY state has a great incentive for recycling. When you buy beer bottles they actually charge you per bottle, but you can get the cash back when you take them to the grocery store to recycle. People respond to incentives - that’s the Freaknomics authors’ catch phrase.
As Alex and I eat more and more fresh foods, the amount of waste we produce in the forms of vegetable peelings and egg shells has increased dramatically. Every time I threw out vegetable scraps, I just kept thinking about them decaying in a landfill, probably taking 100 times longer than it would if I just buried it in a hole in the ground, especially if there were no access to air and moisture. (Over-exaggeration? I think not! Wikipedia says it could be forever) My parents never composted, but I vaguely remember my grandparents collecting scraps for their compost, and so I at least knew the basics. It seemed like the logical next step in my “Operation: Less Garbage” phase, but there was a problem: don’t you need a yard to keep the compost? Thanks to the 7th Annual Compost Fair held by Cornell University Cooperative Extension, I now know that the answer to that is NO! I wasn’t ready to handle the worm bin, common among the green city folk, but I learned about a beautiful thing called a Stealth Compost, which is possible to do in an apartment with a porch area (and some “access” to dried leaves, hay, branches, etc).
Basically, it’s a regular layered compost bin with a bunch of holes for aeration, set inside a larger bin lined with wet newspaper, saw dust, branches, etc, with the lid ajar.
Here is the smaller one with Swiss cheese holes, courtesy of Alex and his Awesome Wedding Registry Tools:
At the University of Pittsburgh, the options for recycling were quite limited as far as I could tell. Sure, there was a nice bin on each floor of the engineering building with different slots for paper, plastic, and trash, but I will never forget the time I saw a janitor emptying all of the contents into the same dumpster. Ugh. I mostly gave up on bothering to recycle on campus after that.
Now, living in Ithaca, I can recycle my cardboard boxes, magazines, newspapers, glass, plastics... Also, NY state has a great incentive for recycling. When you buy beer bottles they actually charge you per bottle, but you can get the cash back when you take them to the grocery store to recycle. People respond to incentives - that’s the Freaknomics authors’ catch phrase.
As Alex and I eat more and more fresh foods, the amount of waste we produce in the forms of vegetable peelings and egg shells has increased dramatically. Every time I threw out vegetable scraps, I just kept thinking about them decaying in a landfill, probably taking 100 times longer than it would if I just buried it in a hole in the ground, especially if there were no access to air and moisture. (Over-exaggeration? I think not! Wikipedia says it could be forever) My parents never composted, but I vaguely remember my grandparents collecting scraps for their compost, and so I at least knew the basics. It seemed like the logical next step in my “Operation: Less Garbage” phase, but there was a problem: don’t you need a yard to keep the compost? Thanks to the 7th Annual Compost Fair held by Cornell University Cooperative Extension, I now know that the answer to that is NO! I wasn’t ready to handle the worm bin, common among the green city folk, but I learned about a beautiful thing called a Stealth Compost, which is possible to do in an apartment with a porch area (and some “access” to dried leaves, hay, branches, etc).
Basically, it’s a regular layered compost bin with a bunch of holes for aeration, set inside a larger bin lined with wet newspaper, saw dust, branches, etc, with the lid ajar.
Here is the smaller one with Swiss cheese holes, courtesy of Alex and his Awesome Wedding Registry Tools:
Here is how I prepped the bin with moist newspaper:
Here is the whole contraption:
I am very, very new to composting and am still learning. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Most of what I know I found from some helpful websites (1, 2). The basic idea for this type of composting is layering greens and browns and letting the microbes take care of the rest. Greens are food scraps chopped up small (vegetable peelings, fruit cores, egg shells, coffee grounds, etc - NOT any meat scraps) and browns are the dry stuff (sawdust, moist newspaper strips, dried leaves, hay, etc). You need to alternate layers, making sure that each brown layer completely covers the green layer, which will help control any smells. I have also been reading about troubleshooting, where you can learn if it needs more moisture, thicker brown layers, etc.
I haven’t quite figured out what I do about not being able to sift or stir the compost as one normally would in a yard. The neat handout I got at the fair didn’t indicate that it was necessary. Perhaps it will just take longer for the microbes to do their magic? Also, I haven’t quite figured out what to do with the finished product - right now we are planning to dump it in the woods. If anyone knows someone in the area who wants some awesome, nutrient rich soil, let me know! I cannot wait until I have a garden to use it myself.
I've been longing for a compost pile myself. We do have a yard, but it's tiny. I don't know where to put it. I don't want the stench wafting right in my kitchen window all day! And also - what would I do with all the compost then it was done? My "garden" is laughably small...But thanks for the links. When I have more time, I hope to look them over and see whether it would be a possibility. I hate just throwing all the compostables in the trash!
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