About a year ago I paused as I was about to toss my vegetable "trimmings". Wait a minute...green bin. It had been instilled in me since elementary school to separate my recyclables but why hadn't I been putting my fruits and veggie refuse into the green/yard trimmings bin? So when you enter my kitchen you will see 3 different receptacles: one for trash, a second for recyclables (it's the round one for those confused guests. Round...Recycle...Rrrrround....Rrrrecycle), and my lone blue bucket for, well, anything that is grown/compostable (veggies, fruits, tea leaves, coffee grounds, and the occasional eggshells). Every few days I just carry my bucket out to the green bin and toss everything in. The city of LA is going to turn the yard clippings and the like into compost and mulch anyway so why not re-route my rotting fruit and vegetables from the trash bin and turn it all into nutrients for someone's garden someday.
My bucket really is my more inexpensive (read: free) alternative to actually having a backyard composting bin (since I live in an apartment and have nowhere to put my it) or owning an indoor composter by Bokashi (for the urbanite who wants to keep a mini composter in their humble abode). I like it because I wouldn't have to deal with composting worms. It's funny how I've been ogling this item online lately instead of the usual cute dress or shoes. A green girl can dream...
In the meantime, I will continue to use my trusty bucket, eventually get a Bokashi, and ponder how to get my neighbours to join in on a communal backyard composting bin.
My bucket use is actually really fun for me because I like to monitor how much stuff I throw out in general. (I've got environmental impact guilt as powerful as my Catholic guilt!)
I feel good when I see my recycling bin and bucket overflow and I barely have any trash to take out ( find myself taking out my one trashbag every 2-3 weeks. This is good but not great). I would, however, like to get to a point where I have less waste all together and I only have to make bucket trips. Happy to report that I am getting there.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Trash, Recyclables, and "Other"
Posted by
Liza P.
at
9:35 PM
Labels: composting, fruit, product, recycle, trash, vegetables
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1 comments:
look out for fruit flies. yuck
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