Confessions of a Reluctant Composter and the Yuck Factor

 What happens to all those fruit and vegetable peelings we discard every day?  You know, the slippery, somewhat unsavory leftovers that we routinely shovel into the garbage to mix it up like a giant party with everything else.  Californians may or may not put them in the green recycling bin reserved for garden cuttings but more likely not.  It’s because we have not been conditioned to come to terms with the millions of gallons of waste we routinely pour into an overcrowded and problematical landfill somewhere far, far away. 

A recent visit to my Canadian relatives was an eye-opener for those of us who see the kitchen trash can as a one-stop waste solution.  The Ontario government there mandates recycling, ok they can’t really mandate except for businesses and apartment buildings but they’ve made it very easy to do by supplying all the necessary equipment for home kitchens.  Very high tech – a divided recycling bin for paper and plastic, and a small white lidded, under-the-counter container for organic waste. Recycling has become serious business in Canada after years of buy-in and behavioral conditioning. Almost everything paper or plastic is recyclable but if you put the wrong thing in your blue bin you get a note from the garbage collector with the offending item or items left behind. Organic waste goes into the under-counter container with a plastic liner and these and are collected curbside too. Interestingly, these containers did not smell, even when full. It was hard for me to remember what went where at first but eventually it became second nature.

The challenge here in the Southland is what to do we do with our recyclables when all we get is one giant blue and one green bin with very little explanation as to what is deemed recyclable and what is not? And no, a pizza box complete with globs of cheese and pepperoni stuck to it does not qualify.  In fact, most commercial recycling companies that purchase paper and plastic to ship around the world refuse our recyclables – they call it a ‘dirty stream’ because we put so much junk in with the good stuff.  And the very idea of a kitchen container for all those wet peelings seems foreign to us, and decidedly unsanitary.  I tried for a while to use a lidded ice bucket on the counter where I put all the peelings but every time I opened it the smell was, shall we say, hardly worth the effort.  Then there were fruit flies and even the occasional maggot invasion which was not for the faint of heart.  Still I plowed on, dumping my container in the green bin and wondering if it was really going to end up somewhere useful.

On my last visit to Ontario I discovered a composting system that the Japanese manufacturer, Bokashi, calls the ‘urban composter’.  My gardening cousins use it in their home and after a short lesson I found it online once I’d returned to Los Angeles.  This system uses a square plastic container that holds about 3 gallons and has an airtight lid.  A slotted shelf about a third of the way down allows for the liquids to pass through where it can be collected from the spigot and cup provided.  Layers of fruit and vegetable peelings, and even cooked meat and cheese, are added whenever there is a sufficient amount and then covered with a sawdust-like material that is provided. This material contains beneficial bacteria to break down the waste and to prevent odors.  A special spatula is used to compress the layer to get out any air and then the lid is popped back on.

When closed, there is no smell and the container is small enough to be kept in the kitchen or laundry room.  So far no fruit flies or maggots, and I’ve already collected what the company calls ‘compost tea’ from the spigot and put on my newly planted vegetable garden.  It takes about two weeks after the bin is filled for the compost to be ready  to put on your garden and then you start again.

There are larger versions for outdoors but the kitchen version is manageable for the first-timer.

With this model there is no giant and intimidating behemoth of a composter out back that you have to rake and shovel.  Just a simple, compact system that is both convenient and practical.  Now I know that everything I use is coming back to us in one form or another, nourishing strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes, and lots of herbs.  Satisfaction, guaranteed.

To check out Bokashi products click here:
http://store.bokashicycle.com/Household-Composting-Bins-Fermenters_c_17.html