This green pail was on our doorstep when we got home from work yesterday. And it made us love Berkeley even more than we already do.
It's a food scrap recycling pail. A free one -- courtesy of the Alameda County Waste Management Authority's StopWaste program.
We're thrilled! Food scrap recycling is an awesome, green alternative for those who don't want to compost on their own ... or for those who simply don't have the room for it. This pail easily fits under our sink.
And the directions make it all sound very simple.
• Put food scraps and food soiled paper products in the pail.
• Empty the pail into your yard waste receptacle.
• Put the receptacle on the curb on trash pickup day.
As per Grub (book)'s suggestion, I started keeping my food scraps in my freezer last year so I wouldn't need to worry about rotting/timing. This works well in the summer months. I have 2 non-city-recyclable plastic containers that I use to put them in until they're full and then I bring them over to public composting.
At one point I was vermicomposting for a few months and doing an in-house job for 25% of it but when it got warmer, I didn't have a suitably cool place to fit the worm bins and I ended up killing a lot of worms by accident - twice. So now I just stick to a public composting program in Brooklyn near my apt.
I am hoping to get an airtight one for when it gets a little cooler. I've also discovered that my gf's pet domestic rats will eat a lot of the scraps so my chain is now: rats, freezer, compost.
view jesse@humanerecipe's profile
My council has implemented food recycling bins too. I'm doing it, but washing the container on Monday evenings is grim...
view Lesley - London's profile
It would be so great if this were offered nation-wide.
how much guidance do they give about what can and can't be put in there? i know for regular composting there are certain things you wouldn't put in, like meat, corn cobs, eggshells, just because they take too long to break down.
Lesley; what about a bin liner? it's maybe slightly less green, but you're still reducing tons and tons of garbage. My parents have a compost that they've used forever, and they always line their under-sink container (and then reuse the plastic bag, sometimes... i think.).
view phoebe (silk felt soil)'s profile
Indeedy, what ABOUT a bin liner. Not allowed up until now, Phoebe - but the council's latest magazine promises it will start to sell recyclable biodegradable ones we can buy from them. My neighbour and I nearly wept with relief (and he's a bloke).
view Lesley - London's profile
- I got carried away, its just biodegradeable
view Lesley - London's profile