As the son of hippieparents, I grew up throwing our dinner scraps into a compost pile in the backyard or feeding them to our chickens. Things changed after I left home. During my twentiesand most of my thirties, I found myself too distracted and lazyto deal withwaste, so everything went in the trash. I grimaced every time I tossed leftovers but never did anything about it.
Then I came across the ($40).The container’ssleek design caught my eye, because itdoesn’t look like a small trash can filled with old eggshells and rotting vegetable bits. Thanks to two built-in carbon filters, it never stinks, even if food has been sitting in itfor days. Made entirely from bamboo, it can go in the dishwasher when it gets dirty, and the handle makes for easy transport.
Once I started using this bin,I looked up some stats about composting to remind myself why such an easy thing can make a big difference. The list is long, but one fact in particularjumpedout: food remains makeup nearly 30 percent of all landfill waste, according to the . By composting,you can keep your share of rubbishfrom letting off methane—a greenhouse gas—while it sits at the dump. (Your waste will still decompose in a landfillbut generally at a much slower rate compared to already composted material.) When you spread rich compost in your yard, it replenishes healthy bacteria and keepsyou from needing synthetic chemical fertilizers. As a side benefit, this processtamps down the smell of your trash.
Once you start collecting scraps in a container like the Countertop Composter, you have to find a placefor a permanent compost pile. Usually, this takes the form of a bigger bin orheap in the ground where your refuse can decompose.There are hundreds of online that will help you choose the right spot or container and then walk you through the steps needed to create a healthy pile. It requiressome workat first, but as I found out growing up, it’seasy to maintain once you have it going.
If you don’t want to start a compost pile, your other option is to find a neighbor with chickens. My mom still collects all her scraps, saves them in a plastic bag or ceramic jar (I’m going to buy her one of these bins), andwalks them up to her neighbor’s house a few times each week. His chickens feast, and in return, my mom gets a dozen farm-to-table, cage-free eggs with lovelyyellow-orange yolks every week or so. I’d call that a good deal.