Urban Composter (one-month-old)

After one month, is it that I’m just used to it or is the smell really nearly gone? Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but I really think once the compost starts “cooking” the smell issue comes under control.

I probably should throw away my first “batch” of compost (and might end up doing that) because of some of the initial mistakes I made.

Lessons learned:
1. Don’t compost broad leaves from bushes and trees. The leaves from the rose bouquet aren’t anywhere near to composting.
2. Be sure to take off those little sticky labels from vegetables and fruits; they live on forever.
3. Hoard black-and-white newspaper to use for dry filler because most newsprint has color inks.
4. No need to spend a lot of money to buy fancy equipment (although it is a little fun to see what’s being marketed).

Things I did right:
1. Aerate (mix the compost up) about once a week.
2. Compost predominantly uncooked vegetable waste (I do throw in egg shells, coffee filters, laundry lint). I will probably start introducing some cooked food (non-meat) waste now that the composting process is going smoothly.
3. Keep two containers: one that can age quickly for 4-6 weeks; the other that holds cumulating compost.
4. Reduce odors by making sure liquids don’t accumulate at the bottom by layering filler (thin leaves and shredded newspaper); also use filler on top to keep the heat in and the bugs and smells away.

Let me know what you think, if you have any tips to share, or if you want to get started.

Perpetually Reclaiming (the) World

Dirt pies not pie charts

I was jumping the gun and did an early weigh-in anticipation of my three-week status report on my apartment composting efforts.

Aaargh! My compost did not gain weight even though I have been regularly feeding it. Yes, it only gets a very low-cal, extremely high-fiber diet. But, none-the-less I was picturing charting a seasonally adjusted time series with a cumulative running total graph or maybe pie charts over time showing the changing distribution of household waste – recycled, reused, reduced (composted). No, this is not going to work. I’m going to have to find another way to measure success.

Well, I can get qualitative satisfaction in reporting that some of the compost is now a sum of undistinguishable parts rather than just moldy incarnations of their previous selves. The Valentine roses and baby’s breath and even some of the stems are no longer distinct. The used-up lemon and egg shells are well integrated.

But, there’s an elephant in the room that I’m trying to deny or ignore -- it is the smell. My cute little composting bucket has a nice filter but that doesn’t do any good when I open the lid to throw compostables in. Also, I am trying regularly to aerate (stir up the compost to get air into the mix) and that process also releases the odors into the apartment. So, I find myself drinking a lot more aromatic teas, orange-scented mate, etc. so that the discarded leaves can act, albeit in vain, as a neutralizer.

The other thing I found myself doing is purposefully buying produce that will produce more compost. I will buy radishes with greens to compost rather than loose radishes, similarly with carrots. Nevertheless, without grass cuttings it’s hard to find a good source of easily breakdownable dry matter to mix with the wetter kitchen wastes. Leaves take forever to decompose. One thing that is working better is that I’m shredding newspapers into finer strips so that they don’t clump up as much.

The goal is to get to a state where my compost process is efficiently breaking down before summer so that there won’t be any flies/bugs/odors with the warmer weather and to do this without chemicals or creatures. (Sorry, Alisa, the mere thought of vermicomposting gives me nightmares of worms escaping during the night and tracking me down.)

Anyway, charts or not there is still satisfaction in being able to nurture garbage to a hopefully more blissful future.

Persistently Reducing Waste