9 Changes for 2009- #9 Composting

1. Cut out commercial breakfast bars
2. Cut out canned beans
3. Ditch premade hummus (and all those containers)
4. Use only environmentally friendly dish detergent
5. Shop Used First
6. Use only environmentally friendly laundry detergent
7. Stick to green toiletries
8. Ditch plastic grocery bags
   
   
9. Compost food scraps
   

We have almost made it through a year of composting! Here are some of the ups and downs…

Summer & Fall 08
Read about it here.

Winter 08-09
Virginia winters aren't bitterly cold, but the ground certainly freezes, as does the top of the compost pile. As the cold settled in, digging in the pile became more difficult. It took some real effort to pierce the frozen surface of the pile, then the dirt within would clump together making it tough to amply cover up the food (and thus shield it from the foraging squirrels, deer, foxes, etc. that live in the adjacent woods). To keep my fingers warm I added gardening gloves to my composting kit.

Happily, the pile never completely froze, which meant we were doing something right. I was tickled one day to dig into the pile and see steam rise out! But, the pile could have been hotter. There were many days where I would come across old food. I try not to reuse dig holes so that the greens in the pile are well distributed among the browns and thus the decomposition will continue, so when I'd find food it meant I needed to cover it back up and then dig another hole in another place on the mound. Extra work and extra time in the cold—yuck!

I don't care for extreme temperatures—hot or cold—so the cold winter days and the increased difficulty with digging in the food tempted me to give up for the winter, but on days where I would see steam…that made it worth it. As a compromise, I started bringing my food scraps in less often. Instead of twice a week, I moved to once a week and sometimes even less often. That resulted in some slime in the compost crock and needing to use some supplemental plastic containers to hold the overflow scraps, but the smell was always pretty well contained.

Spring 09
As winter transitioned into spring, the pile defrosted and my work paid off. On several occasions I actually thought fleetingly to myself, "Where did my food go? Are animals taking it?" and "Who keeps putting dirt in the pile?" Silly me. This is the world of composting SUCCESS! Gross food scraps and bags of yard waste become rich, brown, crumbly, beautiful, amazing dirt. Yes, I just said that dirt was beautiful.

And that beautiful dirt came just in time. In February I sprained my ankle while…wait for the sordid, exotic, dramatic story…walking over grass. Yes, walking over grass. I only mention it because it took extra super-duper motivation to walk to pile with the pain of the sprained ankle, plush stretching it to squat down to dig, etc. And, I developed a small phobia of walking over grass since that is where the injury happened and uneven ground made the ankle hurt. But, watching the composting process actually work was great motivation to keep at it and get over my fear and pain.

With the frozen days distinctly behind me and completed compost taking over the pile, it was easy to see what was not breaking down along with everything else. Banana and apple stickers started popping out at me, which was kind of funny. Other than the stickers and the occasional banana peel, the biggest things I noticed were eggshells. While I knew that eggshells wouldn't break down quite like the other foods, I expected them to somehow crumble up and still be an enriching natural fertilizer that would blend in. But, nothing was happening. The eggshells looked like they were stuck in time, oblivious to the amazing changes happening to all of the other food waste around them. So, I decided to try a new eggshell approach. After making an egg-heavy lemon bar recipe (9 eggs!), I rinsed the shells and then pulverized them in the food processor. That left me with the question of how to store and then transport a lot of tiny, wet, eggshell shards. I decided that I would make a sachet out of newspaper, which I knew would decompose quickly, put the shells in that, and then plant the whole thing in the pile so that as the newspaper biodegraded the small bits of eggshell would scatter and blend in. The sachet method seems to be a success. Here is the sachet at one month next to an older eggshell.

With the nice warm weather and spring planting season upon us, I started to wonder what we would do with the pile since I was still adding food, yet much of the pile was clearly ready for use. I mentioned this to my composting partner, a coworker on the building/grounds team, but he didn't seem concerned. But, that is another story for another day. I'll have more on that to come, with pictures, in another entry.

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And this finally brings me to the end of the 9 Changes for 2009 series! Coming up I've got tips for shopping used, price comparison on eco-friendly toilet paper (one of my splurges), my verdict of Siggs and Kleen Kanteens after a year of use, and, of course, the dramatic conclusion to my year of composting. What will happen to the pile? How will it be used? Will it reach a noble end? Will I continue to compost?

9 Changes for 2009- #8 Reusable Bags

1. Cut out commercial breakfast bars
2. Cut out canned beans
3. Ditch premade hummus (and all those containers)
4. Use only environmentally friendly dish detergent
5. Shop Used First
6. Use only environmentally friendly laundry detergent
7. Stick to green toiletries
   
   
8. Ditch plastic grocery bags

American Beauty made the plastic bag seem ethereally beautiful, but the truth is that plastic bags are anything but beautiful.

As you probably know, reusable grocery bags are hot, hot, hot and a great alternative to disposable plastic bags. Reusable bags are everywhere! At my house, our favorite bags for the grocery store are large plasticy ones from Trader Joe's that my brother-in-law gave me for the Christmas before last (pictured). We also have a good-sized stash of those $1 ones that every grocery store has. We have gotten all of those for free at fundraisers or as gifts. In fact, we've spent a grand total of $1 out-of-pocket for our entire reusable grocery bag stash and that was on the red, white, and blue one in the picture that was Old Navy clearance that was too cute to pass up for that price (pictured).

So, barring generous family members and fundraiser freebies, how can you build your bag stash for cheap? Start with your own home. See what you have around. Our reusable bag collection started off as collection of logoed canvas totes that I'd gotten for free at various events. Haven't been to any conferences, on any sport teams, etc.? Good news, other people have. Logoed canvas bags are a dime a dozen at yard sales and thrift stores. Okay, actually they are usually a quarter to a buck a piece, but you get my point…used is cheap! True, a canvas tote or messenger bag may not be the trendy, new, typically seen reusable bag, but it is a great, cheap, uber green option. You can spend a bundle on cute, matching bags from some great sources or you can buy used, locally for almost free. Plus, buying used means you can totally avoid debates on production cost & eco-friendliness of the materials used in reusable grocery bags. Used is always the greenest option!

Though we've spent almost nothing for grocery bags, we have ponied up for reusable produce bags. I am seriously obsessed with these from AMK Designs.

We not only use them ourselves, but I have bought many sets to give as gifts. No volume discount, no "in" with the vendor, I just love the product THAT much. The carrying case for the mesh bags is brilliant. It keeps like feather-light bags together when not in use and clips to my grocery bag, so I take the produce bags with me by default. And the fabric choices are just so fun!

Yes, the reusable produce bags are smaller than the voluminous plastic ones at the store, but really—does a head of lettuce really need a bag? We use our produce bags for things that really need to be gathered like green beans, apples, and potatoes. But celery, tied herbs, bunched carrots, broccoli, an eggplant, etc. are already self-contained so there is no need to package them just for check out. It takes a little bit of a mental shift to buck overuse of the produce bag, but it can be easily done. And, you've got to wash the produce at home anyway, so it's not like a shopping cart touching the lettuce for five minutes really matters, right?

Oh, and a final warm fuzzy: reusable bags save money. I love that some grocery stores give a bag credit of $0.05 per bag when I bring my own. It is a small amount, but if I figure five bags a week for a year, that is $13 I wouldn't have otherwise had. Free money is always good in my book! Plus, at the farmer's market the vendors are often so tickled by my reusable produce bags that they cut me a discount.

A few reusable bag tips:

• Take your bags out to your car the next time you go out. They don't do you any good at home! Go and hang them on the front door handle right now.
  
• Always forget your bags in the car? Keep one bag on the front passenger seat so you see it, or if you usually drive with a passenger in the front with you, keep one in the storage area in the driver's side front door.
  
• Make yourself go back to the car and get a bag if you realize you've forgotten it, even if it means leaving your full cart for two minutes. This broke me of my forgetting habit very quickly!
  
• Don't just limit your reusable bag use to the grocery store. They work at the library, Target, clothes & retail shopping, yard sales, etc. My favorite for retail shopping is one that folds up into purse-size (white bag on left in top picture).