Compost Your Veggies

[Portia]

The recent City of Sebastopol Community Newsletter carried confirmation of what I have been happily saying for months. You can now put all of your fruit and vegetable kitchen waste in the yard waste bin!

I call it a vegan composting program - no animal products. You can add food-soiled paper like pizza boxes though all other clean paper should go in the regular recycling. Also, Sonoma Compost, the service provider, doesn't want any plastics - even biodegradable plastics, in the food or yard waste.

Please consider a storage system that minimizes leakage and odor - in warm weather food waste can get pretty rank. Some people place a newspaper or paper bag lined container on the counter and put the paper wrapped food waste in the compost when full. I prefer to keep my bucket in the frig, freeze the surplus and don't add it to the yard waste until collection day morning. I know this may be a bit much for some but it works for me.

Some studies report that 1/3 of our trash is food waste. Let's see if we can divert that 1/3 to the green waste can and make a major reduction in our trash. Now that the landfill is closed, trash related costs are just going to keep going up and up. (I may turn this into a campaign!!)

Good luck and feel free to ask me questions or call the Eco-Desk at 565-3375. For general recycling info look for the Sonoma County Recycling Guide in the AT&T yellow pages under "R" or visit www.recyclenow.org though I didn't find anything there about food.

Portia
The Green Mentor
A program of LITE Initiatives

[nicofrog]

Thank you Portia; few people seem to realize how wonderful and important composting is!

TRUE food waste is 1/3 of our garbage,and when they say that they don't mention that it is more than half the WEIGHT of the stinky stuff! Weight translates to more diesel fuel to haul it around.

For years waste management agencies have fought composting because it would lower the amount of money they make. Finally the environment is starting to take hold as a possible priority. STILL Supermarkets and restaurants throw out TONS of food waste.
Food waste in the landfill gets buried TOO DEEP to compost well. Anaerobic putrification causes large quantities of methane gas to work its way to the surface,a significant contributor to global warming.

I have done 20 tears of research on composting, I set up systems in peoples back yards, and I have composted wastes from stores,restaurants and big parties for years.

One of the problems with composting is the urban mythology about RULES concerning what you can compost. Meat,Dairy,eggs, citrus,and ALL organic materials are perfectly compostable. Sure meat can carry salmonella, or E.Coli but so can SPINACH as was shown so nicely by a recent news scare. A well operated compost facility can handle nasty bacteria easily. WORMS are pure magic when it comes to cleaning up unfriendly bacteria.

I have working worm bins for sale,I have worm "starter kits"and will instruct folks on worm composting at home for free. If you have room '"Hot"composting is fun and good exercise I can help with that as well. And by the way,worm compost, dried, screened and bagged goes for as high as $20 a pound.

Nico [email protected]

p.s. Dig a hole in your backyard get an old weber top, presto instant worm bin(If no worms show up give me a call!)if you have coons or dogs you may have to weight down the lid with bricks, and NO it's NOT o.k. to feed coons. or any other wild life if you don't know what you are doing.

The recent City of Sebastopol Community Newsletter carried confirmation of what I have been happily saying for months. You can now put all of your fruit and vegetable kitchen waste in the yard waste bin!

I call it a vegan composting program - no animal products. You can add food-soiled paper like pizza boxes though all other clean paper should go in the regular recycling. Also, Sonoma Compost, the service provider, doesn't want any plastics - even biodegradable plastics, in the food or yard waste.

Please consider a storage system that minimizes leakage and odor - in warm weather food waste can get pretty rank. Some people place a newspaper or paper bag lined container on the counter and put the paper wrapped food waste in the compost when full. I prefer to keep my bucket in the frig, freeze the surplus and don't add it to the yard waste until collection day morning. I know this may be a bit much for some but it works for me.

Some studies report that 1/3 of our trash is food waste. Let's see if we can divert that 1/3 to the green waste can and make a major reduction in our trash. Now that the landfill is closed, trash related costs are just going to keep going up and up. (I may turn this into a campaign!!)

Good luck and feel free to ask me questions or call the Eco-Desk at 565-3375. For general recycling info look for the Sonoma County Recycling Guide in the AT&T yellow pages under "R" or visit www.recyclenow.org though I didn't find anything there about food.

Portia
The Green Mentor
A program of LITE Initiatives