Community Composting

Since we've taken the effort to be vigilant about recycling the amount of trash my family produces has been greatly reduced.  It has, however, gotten heavier in regards to its volume.  This makes sense because light things like plastics, cardboard, etc, are no longer included.


Recently I was wondering why our trash was so heavy, and I realized that a lot of it is produce or food waste.  Cucumber ends and peels, apple cores, asparagus stems, coffee grounds, half eaten preschooler meals, the odd apple that went bad before we had a chance to eat it.  Individually they are light, but they add up fast, and since most produce contains a fair amount of water so it makes sense that they are heavy.  However, I do not have the room to compost in my yard, and I also do not have enough space in my yard to use any compost were I to start, especially considering the sizeof my family compared to the size of my property.  So we throw it out in the regular garbage.


Then I read about Portland Oregon.  They do composting pick up along with trash pick up and recycling pick up.  Yes, this costs money, but if the trade off is keeping volume out of landfills or incinerators it could be worth it from an environmental standpoint.


Obviously just saying "Let's do this" isn't a well thought out statement.  But how about "Let's look into this and see if it could work for us."


P.S.  This isn't posted in Plants and Garden because this isn't about gardening, but about residential waste.

P.P.S.  This isn't listed under Maplewood Specific because though I would love for Maplewood to look into this option, I don't think we are the only town that should consider options that have the potential to reduce the amount we put into landfills.


A few concerns:

Would this form of recycling attract unwarranted attention from local wildlfe?

Would there be health concerns, especially during the warm weather months?

What would be cost financial and environmental in transporting this waste to a central location?


Most forms of collection have wildlife issues, there are workarounds...

I can't see any health concerns in warm months that haven't been addressed with the old style garbage pickup.  



For those who do compost, what kind of container do you use inside and how often do you take it out?  I tried for a while, but we just got too many bugs or had to take the stuff outside daily or even more often.  So I gave up and we really only compost garden waste rather than kitchen waste for the most part.  (If I'm making a big salad or shucking corn or something like that and have a lot at once, I sometimes take it to the outside compost bin.)


We use this one inside:  http://www.amazon.com/Exaco-ECO-2000-Kitchen-Compost-Collector/dp/B0017WOFSI/ref=sr_1_6?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1431109874&sr=1-6&keywords=compost+pail

With bio-bags as liners: http://www.amazon.com/EcoSafe-Gallon-Compostable-EcoBio-25-Count/dp/B001F9QW16/ref=pd_bxgy_lg_text_z

When I am cooking, I will often just use a large plastic bowl which goes right out to the composter after dinner.  The inside bin needs to be emptied twice a week at the least even with the liners, and really wet waste needs to go straight outside.

Outside, we have two of the composters the DPW sells tucked in beside the garage (between our garage and our neighbors) because with garden waste and my not being to faithful about turning the pile, well, we fill them up. I try to rotate (fill one, then let it cook while I fill the other) but that is also often better in theory than practice.  We compost some of the paper used in the kitchen, especially paper towels and napkins if they have not got meat of too much fat on them.  We do not have problems with critters but we appreciate the closed composters outside.


Oh, and starting now and through the fall I keep a fruit-fly trap next to the indoor pail.


These are the containers that NYC uses for its compost collection.  I think the biggest problem cities that collect for composting have is that the places that accept the compost are usually pretty picky, and residents are bad at following directions so a lot of stuff makes it into a landfill anyway.

Also, at some point in late 2014 I think the place NYC sent things to (which was known for being able to not have to be quite so picky) got shut down, so at some point (and I don't know if that's still happening) all the compost stuff ended up going to a landfill instead.

It seems to me that with the tiny size of most NJ municipalities, it'd be hard to do something like this until enough larger cities do it to get a reliable market of places where stuff can be brought to effectively.   




I love the idea of doing this, but also get stopped by critters/bugs risk inside and keeping away from bin outside. Also always felt needs to be placed far away enough from house. Wish there was a town option and that you could then pick up compost for use in gardens. Challenge is whether anyone will take on process to consider it.


Really, bugs and critters are not an issue if you follow some simple rules -- no meat, no fats, empty the inside bin regularly.


Especially with a closed bin like the ones the DPW used to sell.  Anyone know if they still sell them?

http://www.amazon.com/Tierra-Garden-600012-Polypropylene-74-Gallon/dp/B0001IP1NC/ref=sr_1_132?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1431122614&sr=1-132


e.t.a. they didn't charge nearly as much as Amazon does!  they were $50 about 5 years ago when I got my second one.


For this reason I think it would work better if it were a voluntary system.  When you have a mandatory system, like recycling, some people don't care and think it is too much hassle so they throw contaminated items into the recycling bin soley because if they throw it in the trash they run the risk of their trash not being picked up.  With a voluntary system the people participating would be more likely to follow the rules.

qrysdonnell said:

These are the containers that NYC uses for its compost collection.  I think the biggest problem cities that collect for composting have is that the places that accept the compost are usually pretty picky, and residents are bad at following directions so a lot of stuff makes it into a landfill anyway.


 


A couple thoughts, I think this is a great idea.

A long time resident told me the town used to collect and compost all the leaves and then drop off compost for people at very little cost by the yard. I think this was a great idea and if any one knows more about this please share.

There could be a centralized drop off somewhere in town, maybe kings? I am sure much of the spoiled produce is going into the dumpster. Restaurants and households who want to participate could drop off their compostable food scrap. Maybe a collection at the farmers market or community gardens.

Then we need a place to compost the material. Which ends up being the challenge. There are places, a long distance away. Ideally it would be local and local residents would be served by this compost. Look at all the gardens and lawns that could consume this compost! We wouldn't need to buy it by the bag from the depot or truck it in from far way!

Those are a couple thoughts, there are many details to work out, mainly space, money, and volunteers if it was to be a community effort. But I think it would be a worthy thing to try out if we could over come those challenges.

Kurt


Maplewood DOES compost all the leaves and give the compost away at the DPW yard. Wood chips, too. Just bring your own container. As for delivery, I think our guys have other things to do, but perhaps as a contract service or through a lawn care company?


Thanks Max, does the town still do the composting, or is it purchasing the compost? I have heard we stopped composting a while ago. But I haven't dug into this yet to find out.

Thanks,

Kurt


When I lived in Astoria I was a member of Two Coves Community Garden and a couple of the local CSAs at different times. There was a burgeoning apartment based vermicomposting movement, which took root in the garden and became the Western Queens Compost Initiative. Beginning with composting in TCCG, it expanded to collect organic food scraps at CSA pickup locations, so members could freeze their scraps and bring them when they picked up their vegetables. Members of WQCI would then collect the scraps and bring them to the garden for composting. It had some issues in the beginning, but ultimately seems to have grown into the model for the city program. It's still going strong with Build It Green as their partner. 

I think keeping the process local is key, as is having experienced composters to supervise. It took an enormous amount of commitment and dedication to work through the trial and error process with an entire community, but I believe the WQCI had a lot to do with getting citywide composting off the ground. Anyone interested in getting a similar program going could benefit from talking with them. 

http://www.twocovescommunitygarden.org/western-queens-compost-initiative

Here's a link to some information about vermicomposting, which is great if you don't have space for a full compost pile, and a good 'gateway' to full scale composting. 

http://lancaster.unl.edu/pest/resources/vermicompost107.shtml



khkiley said:

Thanks Max, does the town still do the composting, or is it purchasing the compost? I have heard we stopped composting a while ago. But I haven't dug into this yet to find out.

Thanks,

Kurt

 Department of Public Works, 973-762-1175, dpwdir@twp.maplewood.nj.us


Why don't you give a call and find out, Kurt?  Then you can come back and update us all.



max_weisenfeld said:

Maplewood DOES compost all the leaves and give the compost away at the DPW yard. Wood chips, too. Just bring your own container. As for delivery, I think our goys have other things to do, but perhaps as a contract service or through a lawn care company?

 Our "goys?"



Steve said:


max_weisenfeld said:

Maplewood DOES compost all the leaves and give the compost away at the DPW yard. Wood chips, too. Just bring your own container. As for delivery, I think our goys have other things to do, but perhaps as a contract service or through a lawn care company?

 Our "goys?"

 Fixed.  Thanks.


Is it possible to have an independent (not town DPW) source pick up the food waste? It wouldn't have to be composted in the town borders necessarily. Out sourced? The food waste still gets composted and made into dirt but our small towns (I am in S.O.) might not be able to integrate this just yet. It makes more sense for the town to do the pick up, compost and then use the resulting humus, but just thinking outside of the box a little.



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