The Compost Bin

Image by Walter Parenteau via Flickr

San Francisco recently approved the most aggressive recycling law in the United States. Residents will now be required to separate their garbage into three color-coded bins, blue for recycling, black for trash and green for composting. You read that right. San Francisco now has mandatory composting.

I think this is definitely a step in the right direction. Keeping this waste out of the landfill will cut down on landfill methane.

They’ve found that around 30 percent trash that goes to the landfill is compostable. But in landfill conditions, that waste is composting the same way it would in a home compost bin. In the landfill the piles don’t get to breath as much and the decomposition is Anaerobic. And the number one by-product of anaerobic decomposition is methane, a very potent greenhouse gas. If the production of methane can be reduced it would definitely help reduce our carbon footprint.

Just wanted to share this TED video with everyone. It's about dramatically improving indoor air quality to the point where it benefits your health. And it's done very easily by adding three very common houseplants to certain rooms.

• Areca Palm
• Mother-in-law's Tongue
• Money Plant

"Compost is the silver bullet that may allow Denver and the Democratic National Convention Committee to slash DNC trash to just 15 percent of the waste stream, their stated goal."

Source: Rocky Mountain News

DNC Composting Factoids:
- A1 Organics collected the DNC waste to be turned into compost
- They used special cups from cornstarch that could be composted
- Cardboard and sandwich boxes were composted
- A1 uses a special predatory wasp to control flies in their compost piles

Only 15% of the DNC waste stream wound up in landfills. The rest was composted or recycled.

If you've been following me on Plurk you may have noticed that every few weeks, I pack the wife and kids into the car and head off to my parent's house in CT. The kids love spending time with Grandma and Grandpa and I enjoy checking out my father's wacky projects. My father has become a mad scientist since he's retired and is always working on something that seems way too hard for a retiree to get done by himself.

But he does get them done. For example there was the 20'x40' post and beam style barn (two stories) that he built last summer and the 250 grape vines and trellis that he planted/built also come to mind. And be sure to check out his Dandelion Wine recipe that I posted a while back. But I think that his latest project, the 40 Foot Tall 2 Kilowatt Wind Turbine will look the most impressive on his mad scientist resume.

This project was a long one though. Getting all the permits, pouring the 4 foot deep concrete slabs for the turbine and the 4 guy wires (and a few months to cure) digging the trenches and running the power line to the house, getting all the inspections and getting the 40 foot tall pole in place have taken about a full year.

Most of the time was spent waiting for a missing inverter or something that was being shipped from China. I'm guessing the people shipping his missing wind turbine piece must have been busy preparing for the Olympics. Probably one of those people running around the stadium on wires actually worked at China's version of UPS.

All that's left now is to connect the blades and tail piece, do some final electrician work (and get it inspected) then hoist it up. He could be spinning his electric meter backwards within a few weeks.

Besides the obvious green reasons for doing this, he's also going to be saving lots of money by reducing his energy bills. And I'm sure that money will be better spent on projects that he can add to his mad scientist credentials. Hey if this is what retirement is all about, then sign me up. Go Dad go!


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Here's a cool composting project that my wife would never let me try in a million years.

What's that honey? You ran out of hot water in the shower? Okay, let me go throw some coffee grinds on the compost pile and that'll get it cooking again.

Ideas like this are still way too raw to actually benefit anyone. But hopefully some enterprising inventor will stumble across this and come up with a way to build a compost bin that can be used to heat water and make it look nice enough that home owners associations won't come knocking on your door once you start using it.

Just think about all of the problems that a home composting system that could also heat hot water would solve.

• Less waste - Most of your garbage would be composted


• Free compost - No more buying fertilizer and the garden will look great


• Free hot water


• Free heat

I think people are starting to catch on that compost has a lot of potential and not just for gardeners.

Kermit knew what he was talking about when he said that it's not easy being green. Sometimes the most environmentally friendly choice isn't always obvious. Everyday when I get a cup of coffee at my 9-5 job I'm reminded of this. We have Styrofoam cups at the office and you'd think that would be the worst environmental choice for a coffee cup that you could make, right? Well not always.

Making a Styrofoam cup consumes less resources than when you make a paper cup. And what about bringing in a ceramic mug and washing it everyday. Well according to this study, it would take about 1000 uses of a ceramic cup before it becomes more environmentally friendly than Styrofoam cups when you factor in the hot water used to wash it. And then there's all the variables that these types of studies don't take into account. What if I rinse out the ceramic mug and have a second cup of coffee without washing it. What if I rinse out the Styrofoam cup and do the same. How about if I make a few cups of coffee and put them in a thermos at my desk and then pour them into a ceramic mug with a picture of my kids on it. What if the picture of my kids was taken at a nuclear power plant. And why am I drinking so much coffee anyway?

These are the kinds of questions that people are asking about Seeds of Change new plastic seed packages. I've included a snapshot from their newsletter where they announce the reasons why they're switching to the new seed packages (click to enlarge). They're obviously a very green company and I'm sure they've done lots of research into what the best solution for them.



The paper or plastic question isn't as cut and dry as you'd think anymore. My advice is to weigh your options and do what's best for you as well as what's best for the environment. And if I wind up making some of the wrong choices, well I'll make up for it by composting.

Now here's a good idea that's almost ready for prime time. You may have heard that they can now make biodegradable plastic using corn. So the whole supermarket paper or plastic argument may be going away sometime soon. But did you know your next picnic or BBQ could become more green too? All you need is some compostable cutlery.

How cool is this? These knives, forks and spoons are biodegradable and can be composted. They're made from corn starch "and other biodegradable fillers".

If you explore around this Eco-Products site, you'll see they also have compostable cups, plates and other cool things. The containers and plates are actually made from Sugarcane.

Unfortunately, these green products are probably a little too expensive for me. I think I can get a package of 500 forks from Costco for under $10. These compostable forks are sold in cases of 1000 for $45. But as they become more popular I'm sure the price will come down. And then I'll be the first on my block to have a Zero-Waste BBQ.

No, I didn't make a typo in the title of this post and I didn't leave any words out either. It's the odd name of an article about composting on the new MSN Green website.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm very happy to see more and more green/environmental sites that talk about compost but this article just feels a little bit off. Like maybe it was run through a translator program or something. How to start a compost? Listen to this part too ...

Composts need constant attention. Your pile should be wet, warm and mixed regularly. (This is why some bins come with a handle!) Like we said, the perfect recipe is hard to get right off the bat, but once you master it, you’ll never look back.

Once again there's an confusing choice of words (composts), but I really don't agree with the constant attention part either. As I've written many times here on this blog, compost will happen all by itself without any help from you. Make a pile of leaves and grass and next year the bottom of that pile will be compost.

Now if you want it to happen quicker than it naturally does, then that's when your pile will need some attention. Your constant attention can be saved for your newborn baby or for your stock portfolio. Your compost bin will be just fine if you only check on it every couple of days.

Overall, MSN Green is worth checking out. But in the future, I'd like them to fix their translator or whatever caused the confusing jargon and perhaps they could make composting sound a little easier if they want people to actually try it.