{"id":656,"date":"2010-05-17T10:55:20","date_gmt":"2010-05-17T14:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uncommongoods.com\/?p=656"},"modified":"2011-11-12T14:43:30","modified_gmt":"2011-11-12T19:43:30","slug":"a-composters-dilemna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.com\/blog\/2010\/a-composters-dilemna\/","title":{"rendered":"A Composter’s Dilemma"},"content":{"rendered":"

In preparation for Compostapalooza<\/a>, our partnership with Quirky<\/a> to create the ultimate composting product, we\u2019re running a series of compost education posts. Read up, then put those brainstorming caps on for kick-off on May 17!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"compost\"<\/a><\/div>\n

I got into composting in 2008. \u00a0I had never seriously considered doing it until I read the Omnivore\u2019s Dilemma (by Michael Pollan) earlier that year \u2013 it helped me understand the food cycle and how throwing organic material into landfill was a lousy solution. \u00a0Sanitation departments waste a lot of energy, money and land carting away food scraps that could otherwise be enriching the soil.<\/p>\n

However, like recycling, composting is more work than just throwing something away, especially if you\u2019re an urban dweller like me. To start with, you have to take the food waste and put it in a separate bin (no big deal). \u00a0But you also need to cut up the food waste into small pieces to help it break down faster and then put the compostable material into some vessel outdoors. We were lucky to have a few friends and neighbors that were interested in the same thing and were able to convince our building to provide us with an outdoor space to place a compost tumbler.<\/p>\n

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that our sons knew all about composting from school and were only too happy to tell daddy everything he was doing wrong, which was plenty. There was nothing they enjoyed more than catching me putting compostable material into the trash. \u00a0I then had to dig through the garbage to find the food scraps and move them to the compost bin. \u00a0I learned the messy way that tea bags, coffee grounds and egg shells were all fine for composting.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Compost\"<\/a><\/div>\n


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We started out using a half-gallon OJ container as our compost holder. \u00a0Then we\u2019d dump it into the outdoor tumbler when we had time. \u00a0We didn\u2019t have time every day, as you can see, but we did it throughout the winter .<\/p>\n

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\"Compost\"<\/a><\/div>\n

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\"compost\"<\/a><\/div>\n

I learned that it took about 72 hours for the fruit flies to begin swarming our kitchen, which was about the same amount of time it took for the mold and \u201ceau de compost\u201d scent to kick in. \u00a0Sometimes we\u2019d stick the container in the freezer or fridge, but putting food waste with our regular food was not too appetizing. Our boys critiqued my compost mix \u2013 they instructed me to add more \u201cbrowns\u201d (such as leaves) to the tumbler, which I stubbornly resisted until I realized that you can\u2019t make dirt without it.<\/p>\n

The OJ container was not a thing of beauty on our kitchen counter, so we decided to try a more hidden method. The bokashi<\/a> or fermentation system<\/a> worked fine under our sink, but it\u2019s designed for then putting the pickled food scraps into the ground, not a great option in the city. So, we recently switched to Beth Mueller\u2019s ceramic holder<\/a>. \u00a0While it looks great and the bio bag means that we don\u2019t have to return it to our apartment for reuse, it has a small capacity and the bag is a bit too big for the container. \u00a0I\u2019ve yet to find a system I really love, but I now can\u2019t imagine not composting. \u00a0When I travel, I feel guilty when I throw food scraps into the trash. \u00a0\u00a0I think it\u2019s only a matter of time before composting is viewed like recycling, which is now the case in Seattle and San Francisco, where composting is the law<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m really looking forward to seeing what ideas come out of our Compostalooza<\/a> design competition with Quirky<\/a> \u2013 if we can make composting easier, more of us will do it.<\/span><\/p>\n

For our family, even with our struggles, we\u2019ve produced a good amount of compost that\u2019s been used in a community garden and a local park. \u00a0It\u2019s also been a great way to meet our neighbors, as the compost tumbler has become something of an outdoor water cooler. \u00a0Who knew garbage could bring us together?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CEO Dave Bolotsky tests not one, but three composting methods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[20,29,30,21,31],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}