Next time you’re headed out into the wilds (or the park) on a picnic, why not take along a hamper that’s 100% compostable? Tree- and petroleum-free in manufacture, everything in these party sets can be recycled and spread on the garden.
Party set pieces start at $5.00 from Real Goods.
Naturemill Automatic Composter Plus Edition $299 from naturemill.com also has a Pro Edition for $399
Food waste makes up some 12 percentage of waste in our landfills, According to the US EPA, food waste is the #1 least recycled material.
Modern landfills are sealed to prevent toxins from getting into the water supply and don’t allow for oxygen to penetrate the many layers which means food waste won’t biodegrade properly. However the food waste in landfills do break down to produce methane, Methane is estimated to have more than 20-times the climate change effect of carbon dioxide. This methane can eventually be released into the atmosphere to form yet another means of speeding up global warming. An article on MSNBC says “landfills are the largest source of methane emissions in the U.S.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25215428/
Garbage disposals aren’t a green solution as untreated food scraps often could end up in various waterways. This causes nutrient build ups and ruins aquatic ecosystems.
So the best solution for food waste is to compost. There are many ways to go about it, Check out our previous Great Green Gadgets article here on kitchen composting.
The Naturemill Automatic Composter is one of better indoor composters that can start to change our dismal statistics with food waste in the landfill.
The Naturemill’s Automatic Composter is a simple, odor-free, indoor automatic composter, all you have to do is toss in your waste, and then sit back at let it do its thing. About two weeks later you will start to get a limitless supply of organic compost. An upper section turns, heats, and aerates. Compost is then transferred to the lower chamber where you remove the compost so it can continuously work to make your compost. More than seventy percent of the initial waste disappears into thin air — literally — as compost cultures convert it into water vapor. What’s left is a very concentrated compost fertilizer.
They designed it to be odor, bug and hassle free. You can use it for almost all vegetables, coffee grounds, paper, dairy, and meat waste – I am not sure if coconuts compost readily but pretty much anything else should work. It only uses 10 watts of power – about 50 cents a month for the average family.
Even you you don’t have much of a garden or yard there are lots of ways you can make use of this rich source of nutrients for plants, from becoming an urban guerrilla gardener or just giving it to your friends, family and neighbors.
Kitchen Compost Crock $42.00 (white ceramic model) $75.00 (stainless steel model) at RealGoods.com
Maybe you compost in your yard, but what about your kitchen? An utterly depressing and amazing amount of useful nutrients are thrown out by most people everyday. Your banana peels, veggie peelings, etc could be put to far better uses than simply making more methane gas somewhere in some humongous landfill.
Consider the compost crock as one solution, the Kitchen Compost Crock looks great on your counter and is ideal for holding scraps of food that can eventually make compost for your garden plants. As food prices continue to grow through the roof, a home veggie garden is making more and more sense.
The crock’s interior is glazed so it won’t stain and the filtered lid leaves odors trapped inside. You will need to change the filters every few months, replacement filters are $10.00 for a set of 6. Some users complain of a loose handle on this ceramic model. For a bit more money you can spring for the stainless steel model. Speaking of money, The composting stainless steel crock we reviewed last year seems perhaps a better deal at only 39.00. Check out our previous Great Green Gadgets article here on kitchen composting.
RSVP Stainless Steel Compost Pail $39.99
from the Grist Store at Amazon
Food and paper make up the largest percentage of items in most landfills, food waste is considered the #1 least recycled material. The nature of today’s landfills are such that food waste often doesn’t break down properly and contributes to landfills producing methane – a harmful greenhouse gas.
Large urban areas often have to ship the garbage to distant, rural landfills, using fleets of trucks spewing tons of greenhouse gases into the air on a daily basis. At the same time farms use chemical fertilizers to grow their crops that contributes to pollution and soil degradation. Finding ways to reduce landfill waste and generate sources of rich, organic fertilizer is clearly the way to go.
I read Elizabeth Royte awesome book, Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash
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