I've been eager to try composting for a year now but keep running into roadblocks when it comes to Howie. He's against it, I'm not exactly sure why. First he said it was too expensive to get a bin. Then he said it would attract animals and finally he fessed up that it was just too big of a pain in the ass.
Whatever.
I finally convinced him (with incessant badgering and maybe a little bit of sugar love) to give it a shot. You know, women...the best time to bargain ANYTHING with your husband is the moment just before you crawl down towards his nether region. I used to think it was heinous to play such mind games but recently I figure, what's the harm? Everyone's happy, right! I shudder to think of what I will have to do to get him to agree to put up a clothes line!
So anyway, I got the green light for the composting. We decided that it was a waste to spend money on a bin mostly because of the sheer amount of stuff we need to compost. We have a huge area of woods to the side of our house and we dug two trenches instead.
I started collecting kitchen scraps and between that and the grass clippings from the backyard and left over leaves from the fall, it didn't take much to get the thing set-up. I was a little concerned about attracting animals but it turns out, if you make sure to cover everything with an adequate amount of "brown" material, it tones down the smell and keeps the rodent problem at bay.
I've also done a little research as to what can be composted and recycled. Did you know that you can put paper and dryer lint and egg shells and tea/coffee grounds, paper towels and the contents of your vacuum bags in a compost pile? Who knew!
Today I decided to call my recycling center to ask very specifically about what I can recycle. Turns out there were a lot of things that I can recycle that I haven't been. Things like juice boxes and small yogurt containers and cereal boxes. They won't take pizza boxes which often contain sauce and oils which can contaminate an entire recycling load. If contaminated they end up taking the entire thing to the landfill, so it's just plain not worth it!
I decided to go through my trash, item by item and divide it into either trash, recycling or compost. Turns out that my heaping full trash bag was only 1/4 full when I was done dividing it. I've been wasting WAY too much which is surprising because on recycling day we always have a full to the brim can. I chucked the recycling stuff in our bin, dumped the kitchen waste (including what I swept off the floor) into the compost bin, put all paper bags in a bin to take back to the store (the store will take them back and recycle them) and I was left with a very empty trash can. The only thing un-accounted for were the phone books so I will have to drop them at our local transfer station.
If I make sure to turn it frequently, I should have a pretty nice heap of rich compost by the fall which will be perfect for when I divide all of my perennials and plant my bulbs. It will also be perfect for mulching. If we have a little extra, we can add it to our lawn and hopefully begin an organic regime. I get giddy at the prospect of having a giant pile of nutrient rich compost for when I do an actual garden next summer.
I think it's just a matter of thinking ahead. It's going to take a while to get used to where things go. I think the kids will pick up on it pretty quickly, especially Birdie. Now Howie, that's another story. It's going to drive him batshit. Which is reason enough to do it :-)
well good luck with it, i am as far from a gardening person as you can get, so am not tempted, my daughter is showing some interest, and i am happy to go along with her ideas on the composting...
ReplyDeleteWe are big composters - all year 'round. We have a compost container in our kitchen (it has a filter to stop any smell) and empty it straight into a hole in our garden (which rotates all year round) once or twice a week - in the summer, when we eat a lot more fruit and vegetables, we empty it once a day. Dog fur, lint from the dryer, coffee grounds, egg shells, it's all good for the garden. And, if I do say so myself, the soil in our garden is magnificant.
ReplyDeleteOur pizza boxes go in the yard waste bin...which then goes to the local "industrial" compost company where they make mountains of compost to then turn around and sell right back to us.
ReplyDeleteI think you can put your pizza boxes in your compost heap too.
Good luck with your continued ventures into suburban farming. ;) Next thing you know, you'll be telling us all about ZooDoo.
Sally-I'm quite a novice myself but feel a great responsibility to live green. And I'm a bit of a cheap skate and will do anything that will save me money in the long run ;)
ReplyDeleteMaureen- I've been using the tupperware container that's for storing potatoes. Do you remember that one? It's square and has a little lid. I've been filling it every day or two which astounds me. I might have to have Lee over next summer to help me cultivate my hill for a garden. He seems to have green fingers.
Fairy- I never thought of that but I bet you are right. I've recently taken to making my own pizza with home made dough so we rarely get pizza boxes but I bet we could totally break them down and compost them, or at the very least, put the majority of the cardboard into recycling and compost the rest. Smart!!
We don't compost over the winter (the ass deep snow this year hindered the urge). As we started it up again, I was appalled at how much was going into the trash. Our coffee grounds alone, yikes! I have avoided the container as well, though it might be our best bet for winter.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think the Dora yogurts and such were recyclable, no symbol on them. Hmm. A rare treat for the kids, but I hate pitching the cups away!
MM- Perhaps it depends on the recycling center? They said it was okay but now I'm worried that they thought I meant the large yogurt containers?? I need to check again.
ReplyDeleteI think we are definitely going to splurge for a bin for the winter months! It will be well worth it although I worry about the smell. Lets home the lid is really tight!!
I had no idea that you can compost dryer lint and paper towels, I'm excited to add those to our pile. My husband was only composting grass clippings and leaves for a long time. He fought the idea of the kitchen stuff, but once I started sneaking it in, he noticed an improvement in the quality of the compost.
ReplyDeleteI can turn into a total sl#* if there is something that I know I want and it will just take a bit of convincing. So, don't feel bad about that.
ReplyDeleteThe compost project is awesome. Something we have thought about, but the cost of a bin has kept us from it. We don't have the land for the trench system. Yay for you. Thanks for doing something grand for the environment!