composting

[dalebert]

there are some cool things you can do like at three bin system with compost at different points to get better results.

Oh, that sounds like a great idea. I 2nd that. Makes it easier to turn if you flip it from one bin into another bin.

[dalebert]

I have 2 plastic store bought composters that I think cost somewhere around $100 each.

Depending on how much you expect to have, I bet you could use big laundry baskets. As long as there are holes to breath and keep too much moisture from getting trapped, it should work. You could get three big baskets for the different stages and just dump from one into the other.

[Fragilityh14]

Sometimes Russell just buries our kitchen scraps.  Varrin's little garden has been happy with that arrangement.

I've read that there are a lot of people who swear by that method, specifically with soil of poor quality.



I will be in a good place for composting, being as I managed to get a pile of some reasonably decayed matter, some bags of sawdust, and there was a wind storm so there will be mulched fallen branches, and then ashes from a bonfire, and chicken manure. Then when the leaves fall that will add some brown matter. Stir it all up and it will be brilliant come spring.

[dawn]

My parents have been doing that (just burying the scraps in the garden) for over 30 years and they have awesome soil!

I wish more people would compost! It seems like I'm always hearing about too much trash and not enough space to put it all and it seems like such a waste to have so much organic matter being treated that way instead of going back to feeding the earth. So, of you're ever going to be in the neighborhood, feel free to bring me your watermelon rinds and apple cores to feed my composters!

[Fragilityh14]

I think the huge problem with too much waste is from plastics, though I guess things that decompose well haphazardly mixed with things at a dump would severely erode the decomposing rate.

Chickens can also make a good part of the reusing waste process, as you can feed them scraps then shovel manure into the compost pile

[dalebert]

I think the huge problem with too much waste is from plastics...

There's not really a "too much waste" problem in the big scheme of things. That's essentially a modern myth, but on a case-by-case basis, I think it makes sense to compost if it saves you personal trouble or cost on trash removal or if you just want it for gardening.

Still, if we want to make our landfills last longer, one of the biggest space hogs is paper- mostly newspapers. Recycling paper is actually not such a great thing because we don't really have an economic and clean way of doing it as of yet, but it seems like we could find a way to collect old newspapers and make it into kindling or something and just burn it. Nature is still way better than us at recycling carbon molecules. The best way to recycle paper is to just grow it- most efficiently via hemp, but until then, most of our paper comes from trees grown and farmed specifically for that purpose.

[Kat Kanning]

We burn most of the old Keene Free Presses we bring back in.