Some days are cold, especially lately. Most of the time it is dark. The backyard is often wet. My shoes are in the other room. There are only five grapes and a few carrot slices left over from dinner. What do I do?
The efficiency expert in me would just dump them and go build Legos with my kids, but the environmentalist in me says, "Deal with this."
So I make a trip to the green cone.
Green cones are easy to obtain from our fair city. They sell for $25 and you can reserve them on-line at seattle.gov.
They are easy to install. I found a shady spot not far from my back door, but also somewhat out of sight, dug a hole, dropped in the bottom cage (designed to keep out vermin), attached a few screws and my backyard compost bin was in the ground.
Now, about them leftovers.
I could leave them on the counter until they grossed me out too much, but that only works for a few minutes in my house. We could collect all of them on one plate and walk them out after every meal, but then I run into the shoe, cold and rain issue.
We tried a plastic recyclable container on the counter for daily collection. It worked well for a while. We would fill it while prepping for meals and scrape leftovers into it afterwards. Then the slime started to show through. Carrot peels, coffee grounds, brown apples and uneaten raisins don't really mix into pretty decorations on the kitchen counter. I was fine with it, but my Better Half, who uses the kitchen more regularly, was having none of it. I thought about under the sink, but my back didn't agree with that idea.
Then we found a stainless steel coffee container that matched the toaster and breadbox. This matching business wasn't crucial to me, but I am not the decider in such matters. This small compost bin sits nicely in the corner of the sink or in the back of the counter. It fills up a surprising number of times in a week, and the weight of this organic matter when I take it out to dump is quite satisfying.
I know I could put all this food waste in my yard waste bin, another cutting-edge Seattle creation, but I like the idea of dealing with my waste right in my Magnolia backyard. Besides, my bin is usually overflowing with other yard waste. I don't want to stop working in my yard just because I filled up my provided bin already.
Seattle Public Utility recommends two green cones so you can let one rest for six months at a time while you harvest the compost out of the other. This seems like a fine plan, but I am still too cheap to purchase the second.
What happens with one? Nothing. Every other day I dump our half-eaten sandwiches, coffee grounds, uneaten grapes and banana peels (no meat) into the green cone and close the lid. I have done this now for almost 3 years. It has never filled up, I promise! I don't know where it goes, but it goes. I make no guarantees, but I have seen no sign of rats, hedgehogs, raccoons or other creatures around my cone.
Do I make a dent? Do my efforts really matter in the face of the serious threat of global warming? I figure they must. If I dump a pound of waste into my bin every week (a small estimate), and do so for 30 years, then I save 46,800 pounds of waste from the landfill. And if you did it, and he and she did it-well, that is an awful lot of carbon kept out of the air from our simple acts.
According to seattle.gov, residents who also work in the city create 7.1 pounds of non-recycled garbage per day. This garbage not only wastes fossil fuels in getting it to Oregon landfills, but pollutes the air along the way, is destined to release tons of methane gas into our already polluted air and could possibly seep down to the Columbia River, which has plenty of problems already.
Even if I didn't care about my environmental impact on our world, my efforts still make sense. Pretty soon, we are going to be able to order the micro-sized garbage can from the city. Then my green cone will be saving me money. I love that.
Lyon Terry lives in Magnolia and is a member of Sustainable Magnolia, whose motto is "We are not experts, just neighbors who want to save the world." To comment on this column or speak to the writer, email mageditor@nwlink.com.
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