Good City Compost

We've just moved to Berkeley, California, where the city runs a fantastic food waste recycling (that is, composting) program. Stephanie blogged about the little green bin that showed up on her doorstep about a year ago...

and while it might not be the prettiest thing, it's earned a spot on our kitchen counter. The lid snaps on tight—no odors seep out. But the best thing is that the city will pick up just about any kind of food waste you can generate, including:

meat scraps
food-soiled paper
paper towels

The only thing they don't want is liquids.

We've got a compost bin going in the yard for yard waste, but most of our kitchen food waste is going into the green bin because it's so convenient. We can't believe how much less recycling and trash we generate... and we even feel a teensy bit better about our paper towel habit. (We're getting better, we swear!)

The details on Berkeley's program are available online... if you're the political type, or even if you're not, this is worth getting started in your city or town.

Comments (1)

this is available in most if not all areas of alameda county that are served by WM (oakland resident here). my green kitchen bin did not snap tight and had some ant problems, so when i moved (and left it with my old roommate), i bit the plastic bullet and bought an airtight rubbermaid container that fits on my countertop. i like to line it with a sheet of newspaper - everything just slides out into the big green cart and i barely need to rinse the thing.

an amazing amount of stuff is compostable in this kind of large-scale system - meat, bones, pizza boxes, waxed paper coffee cups...

i have also heard that municipal wastewater treatment systems are having a hard time with all the undigested organic stuff people are sending down their garbage disposal (a la the one that will take a whole pineapple or something), so curbside composting is a good way to cut insinkerator use to just the necessary cooked-on rice or whatever :) i just wish more of my neighbors took advantage - they rarely put their green bins out.

posted by akostalas on June 26th 2008 at 12:17pm
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