green movements

[meganursula]

Seattle is moving towards a waste free society.

Seriously, its an initiative. Recycling is availabe for most recyclable products, and yard waste bins are available not only for yard waste, but also for kitchen scraps and food soiled bio-degradeables.

I think this is a great idea, and i have been trying to be conscientious about recycling what can be. Josh doesn't seem to be so enthusiastic, and is drawn to the waste basket for most things. And i must admit my own laziness on occasion.

One thing that seems to stand in our way is that the compost bin and recycling bin reside in our driveway, outside, and on the other side of a fence. Technically we have a recycling bin on our back porch, but its awkward, gets filled up, and not emptied. Food is the worst - since its not nice to stand in the driveway while peeling carrots, perfectly good food scraps get put in our trash. Stupid, i know, but i'm a big believer in making things as convenient as possible, because that is how you make them a part of your daily life going forward.

In that vein, which do you like better:
http://www.mastergardening.com/too-1006.html
or
http://www.gardeners.com/Country-Compost-Crock/default/StandardCatalog.20707.36-480.cpd?SC=XNET8035

Have any other comments for me to fascilitate kitchen composting?

I still need to work out a better recycling situation. My ideal world would have us having four bins in our kitchen - garbage, recycling, glass, and compost. But we don't have that kind of space. I may get away with the compost bin on the counter, but not a recycling bag, and our new cabinets certainly won't accomodate both a recycling bin and a garbage bin.

Comments

[katybeth]

I keep a container for food waste under the sink. Small stuff goes in there, and I take it out to my yard waste bin periodically. If you collect food waste in a paper bag or paper milk carton, you can just drop the whole thing in the bin. Keep in mind that napkins and paper towels can also go in yard waste now.

My indoor recycling bins get taken out every other week when I take out the trash, or less often if they're not very full. (Er, trash is picked up every week; recycling is picked up every other week.) It's just part of the routine of putting the trash cans out for pickup.

[mh75.livejournal.com]

Our recycling bins (both glass and other) came with our house, and are less than ideal. I wonder if i'd do better if i just replaced those bins, and kept them where they are (on the back porch)? mmm...

[katybeth]

Definitey get yourself some bins that are easy to use and easy to empty. I use a plastic wastebasket for plastic recyclables, and a paper grocery bag for paper. The bag is nice because I don't have to empty it; just recycle the whole bag when it gets full. Obviously you couldn't keep a paper bag outside, though. :)

[bhudson.livejournal.com]

Most towns have recycling classes where they teach you composting tricks for an hour and hand you a good bin for a steeply discounted price.

We just made our own by buying the cheapest yard trash bin we could find at Home Despot ($10) and drilling holes in it ($fun). Works like a charm except for being a pain to empty.

[bhudson.livejournal.com]

In winter, our indoor compost bin (just a standard trash can; put a bit of paper waste in the bottom so it all comes out easily, and make sure it has some kind of lid) can build up a week without issue. In summer, we empty it daily and once a month bleach it clean to kill bug eggs.

[mh75.livejournal.com]

good suggestions, thanks!

[mh75.livejournal.com]

I have an outdoors composting bin, actually. But we don't use it much anymore, because Seattle is cool and collects compost to compost centrally. This is more space efficient for us, and still allows all the compostables to be composted appropriately, and then sold back for use. In fact, its better, because the scale of the composting means they compost things like empty pizza boxes!

My big problem, specifically, is that the yard-waste bin is one of those huge out-side gabarge pails, so i'm looking for something that i can peel onions over, or put an egg shell in. Thus the kitchen counter model that i'm considering.

The recycling bin from the city is the same way, except we also need to maintain a milk-crate for glass (i checked, it has to be this crate), and i still have a problem with intermediate collection. Single items (a juice bottle, say) don't get brought all the way out to the bin right away, so they either get thrown out (cardboard cereal boxes), or left on the counter until the stack gets too big.

But i think for that i may need to re-org my back porch and make an intermediate bin more accessible that way. I don't think it will fit in our kitchen. =(