Let there be Compost!

    

Soon after I bravely decided to drag (!)  my boyfriend into this lifestyle experiment, he was quick to introduce our first major behaviour modification. #30 on the list- how I have stubbornly refused to recycle our organic waste (even though the collection bin is right by the regular container).

My reasons for doing so were mainly because I was fearing that it would be stinky to keep our organic waste in the house for a few days, rather than dumping it in the big trash bag, which we then would take out more frequently. Then, I was also too lazy to think about finding a solution for storing our organic waste.

After we made decision last Monday, we debated for a while on how exactly we ought to go about it, and even considered *gasp* using a plastic bag. In the end we decided to use a plain old bucket, which we lined with a little newspaper in the bottom and keep it on the balcony. I also debated whether dumping the newspaper in the compost bin was acceptable, and then decided that it was, since apparently it is common to add newspaper in home composting.

We started our little bucket last Tuesday, and on Saturday I took out a healthy amount of 3,5 Kg of organic waste. Yay! Because of that, my ordinary waste bag is still going strong since Monday, no smells. Another nice thing about recycling food scraps – we don’t have to take the trash bag out as many times, which means we can save on plastic trash bags and a little money (we had to buy them). Unfortunately there are no alternatives to trash bags, for now…

And now for the bad BAD news. Now that I recycle all my paper, glass, and bio-waste, I was made aware of this shocking conclusion when I looked into the regular trash bag- it was all PLASTIC!!! Oh crap… What am I going to do about all this plastic? Especially in this @#$%^& country, where you can’t even recycle it?!!!

So it looks like our next challenge for sustainable living has become clear – trying to get rid of all this over-packaging. I’m not quite sure how to go about it yet…. I fear it will require a lot of sacrifices at the supermarket… *sigh* Maybe we can just shop more at the market and less in Alberthein… And still have my litter cleaning dilemma – I use the plastic bags from the market for that…

On the plus side – I noticed I just ran out of plastic wrap and I am boicoting buying any more of it. We still have tinfoil though…

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Update:

I have just learnt that biodegradable (“afbreekbaar”) trashbags exist at C1000, the “other” supermarket (Albertheins’ scrubby cousin). I will investigate whether I can afford biodegradable bags if I subsidize them with the money I save by not having to buy so many of them…