C is for Compost

Living in the city makes composting difficult if not impossible. But I know that it doesn't have to be this way.

Growing up in the Seattle area, we had amazing recycling. I can only barely remember a time when we didn't recycle at home, at school, in public places... it just made perfect sense. It felt wrong, horribly, horribly wrong not to do it. Somewhere along the line, the city started collecting compost as well. We'd had a compost bin of sorts in the backyard for years but it was more for yard waste--it was all the browns--and not for food waste--the greens. So I'm not sure it really qualifies as true composting. But then we got a white plastic bin with a biodegradable bag that sat on the counter and became the depository for all food matter and napkins. My mom calls it the "worm bin" though, unfortunately, no worms are actually involved. Maybe we should just dump the bin out back with the yard waste but instead the city comes and picks that up along with our mixed paper, glass, and aluminum. And it's wonderful.

When I first moved to Madison, recycling was in its prehistoric stage here. I was shocked. Recycling bins stood alongside garbage cans on State St. but they were equally filled with trash--and I read in the newspaper that they all ended up in the landfill anyway. Things have improved since then but still no city composting program.

After a recent visit to Growing Power, my annoyance at tossing out corn husks and stems boiled over and I built a compost bin out of a Rubbermaid container that I drilled holes in for drainage and air flow. We put a bowl on the counter to collect the daily offering to the bin. And we're so thrilled with it. I even suggested that we could have people toss handfulls of compost rather than rice at our wedding. Why not? Compost is a beautiful thing.