Food scraps and other organic waste material don’t belong in the garbage; it costs us in several ways: it adds to the cost of waste disposal, and when enclosed in plastic and compressed in a garbage truck or landfill, it creates methane. The onus is on us to sort organics and recyclables from trash and dispose of them in separate streams.
Metal is easy to recycle, and municipalities get money back for those items. Many
plastics are easy enough to recycle, although it requires facilities not available locally, so they’re collected and sent elsewhere. These systems are already in place and operating.
Organic material is the most difficult to collect and transport, and therefore should be kept close to the homes from which it came. This is a case of “YIMBY”: yes, in my backyard. For those in rural areas, compost is no big deal. Town dwellers and people with busy lives may find tossing food scraps into a pile isn’t within their time budget. One of your neighbours is probably a gardener and may welcome your additions to their composting efforts.
For some households, a green cone (compostec.ca) may be the answer. I have two, 25 years old, still functioning well. You simply put your daily food scraps in, add some peat moss, dried leaves, etc. and it’s digested. Some people never have to empty theirs.
Another option is a worm bin. I put food scraps (except citrus and onion/garlic leftovers) into the bin, dig it under, add sawdust, shredded brown cardboard and eggshells, and my worms seem quite content. The worm manure at the bottom can be mixed with water for plant food.
There’s also an appliance that does a similar function; variously marketed as Lomi, Nomi, (Foodcycler.com). It’s about the size of a bread maker and goes on the kitchen counter. You scrape plates into the mow, close the lid, and overnight, it grinds and slow cooks the scraps to create a substance similar to worm poop. Use it as a soil amendment or compost booster.
Upper levels of government seem intent upon collecting organic waste door-to-door. This would be logisticallyunworkable, very costly, and wrongly treats household organic waste as a dangerous substance to be taken away rather than as a valuable resource to be easily processed and used as near to its source as possible.
So, separate your waste streams right away, and keep your compost local. Do it yourself, before a one-size-fits-all scheme is implemented, at your expense.
Robert Wills
SHAWVILLE/ THORNE