The Red, White, and Green

The BioBag MaxAir II Composting Bucket ($8.95)

Everyone’s been talking about San Francisco’s revolutionary mandatory composting law, and this is indeed a great thing, but why aren’t cities that already offer organic garbage waste collection doing more to encourage people to compost (even when it’s not the law)?

Los Angeles, for example, offers green “yard waste” bins alongside the familiar blue (recycling) and black (trash) ones,  yet I’ve only ever seen gardeners use them for tree and hedge clippings, and I personally don’t know a sole apartment-dweller in LA who actually collects food scraps for compost. I find this astounding, considering that we, in fact, pay for this service every month (take a look at that “Solid Resources” fee on your next trash bill). There needs to be some kind of local PR campaign to encourage people to start using those green bins.

Anyway, since I discovered this, I’ve been on the lookout for the perfect compost container for our porch-/balcony-less apartment. I don’t need one of those super-duper machines that actually makes the compost; just something to collect the scraps for a few days before I bring them out to the green bin.

Thanks to Robin on the Mother Nature Network comments board re this article about San Francisco’s new composting law, I now have my solution. She wrote:

To make recycling food waste a lot easier, a compost container on your kitchen counter is a must. I recommend the MaxAir II Compostainer. You can store food (even pretty wet food like coffee grounds, soup, or soggy cereal leftovers) in it for 5-7 days and it won’t develop a bad odor. The biodegradable liners they sell with it are made from corn, not petroleum. When your container is full, just take the bag out, tie a knot in the top, and carry your food waste outside to your bio waste can.

Thanks, Robin! Ordering mine today.

–Jennifer Grayson

Do this now: Americans waste almost 30 million tons of food each year — one-third of our total food supply — and almost all of that ends up in landfills, where it produces methane, a greenhouse gas 23 times more potent than CO2. Bottom line: Want to fight global warming? Forget the Prius and start composting (or at least use those green bins!).

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