Tag: compost

I’m reading Real Simple at lunch and and glancing at their article on How Green Are You. There is a chart of greenie activities, one being “Compost A Fifth Of Your Garbage” which I do, maybe 1/2 of my garbage. But part of the reasoning, struck me as stupid:
“..Plus, composting food scraps, like apple cores, keeps them out of landfills, where they can break down to release a potent greenhouse gas.”
….so what is that apple core doing in my composter if not breaking down? And I’m sure it is off gassing something, particularly when I haven’t balanced it with the browns. Maybe I’m missing something. Does an apple core become dangerous in a landfill but not so in my backyard composter?
My other problem with the article is there is no mention of mercury in CFLs bulbs. You gotta be careful with them and dispose of them properly when the day comes when they burn out.
While I’m on the topic of compost and gardening. I did not realize how wonderful my soil is until I started hacking away in someone else’s yard. Over the years I’ve been living at my house, I have amended the soil, put down lots of compost and other organic matter and after the rains it is soft and rich. The other yard, a big mass of heavy wet clay.

I just asked my boss to throw her apple core in my little compost pail.
There are enough coffee drinkers in the office that justified bringing in my compost pail from home and just leaving it at work. I introduced the idea to my office mates who were fine with throwing the coffee grounds into the pail and not the trash. The problem was the cleaning staff. They kept throwing my collection in their trash until I got them to understand that I wanted the coffee grounds and the tea bags. What’s ‘compost’ in Spanish?
But now it is all good. Every other week I take my pail home, dump it in the compost bin. I’m happy. The worms are happy. It’s all good.