Yesssss I have sensory issues and also conditioned to think it was “wrong” so glad to not have that anymore. I started keeping mine in the freezer before I take it to the compost outside at the end of the week. But maybe I’ll be prepared to deal with the bugs 🐛 💚
Freezing your scraps before adding them is actually a great idea, I think! And prob does suppress their populations.
Not everybody is going to want to make friends with maggots, I do totally understand that, haha. Even I have a visceral reaction, at times, if I come across a bunch all of a sudden, hehe.
As you suggest, in my food scrap container I throw in my used paper towels and napkins. Helps with moisture control. I also line my container with a thick pad of newsprint.
A friend contracts with a company in Phoenix that provides customers with what appears to be bokashi bran to sprinkle on top of additions to their provided buckets. It helps with odors.
Oh wow, very cool to hear, re: Phoenix! I have some bokashi bran I use for a composting-at-home experiment I am currently running. It definitely helps. Thanks for weighing in!
Love this Cass. I’ve been chewing over offering some carbon inspiration to folks providing scraps as a part of the community composting project I’m dreaming up. I too get messages from people grossed out by maggots and ‘overwhelmed by flies’. I’ve had a fair few mouthfuls of the latter 😂 too, so I do understand in some ways.
Look forward to this newsletter. Thanks so much for writing it.
didn't mean to come across as too flip. very cool that you are cooking up a community composting project! reach out if you need any advice or help ever, always happy to chat!
Are you speaking generally when you say “your” — or are you misreading me as somehow advocating for green bins as a complete and perfect solution to waste management
Just don’t compost if you live in a place with nowhere to do so. The idea that people in apartments should compost is absurd. You’re basically saying “might as well waste money on maggot infested green bins maybe one day they’ll actually end up in compost” . Have you seen what people put in them? I would never use that compost. Even a lot of normal recycling ends up in landfills.
If you live in a small apartment just try bokashi or don’t compost. I’m not willing to light my (taxpayer) money on fire to shove food into a maggot infested green bin that will just end up in the landfill alongside AirPods.
(Might as well pay for some of it to end up in a composting facility - with the chance of an increasing percentage ending up there as we invest in infrastructure.)
I’m speaking generally that green waste is ending up in the same landfill as regular garbage so it’s essentially a complete waste of money to separate it. It serves no purpose other than to make people feel good that their food waste is going somewhere useful. It also makes someone less likely to actually compost at home. Plus maggots apparently
Curious what state/city you’re speaking from - i do know there are a lot of issues (currently) with organics recycling, but I’m also aware of a lot of investment in infrastructure and can see a future where this gets to a good place. At-home composting is truly very difficult for people living in small apartments and in densely populated areas, so some sort of bigger picture solution feels necessary. I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water here, as they say.
In LA they have free composting bins you can sign up for via the city. I did it in my last bldg and then everyone started composting. It’s cool to make change and envision a better future for us all :)
Yesssss I have sensory issues and also conditioned to think it was “wrong” so glad to not have that anymore. I started keeping mine in the freezer before I take it to the compost outside at the end of the week. But maybe I’ll be prepared to deal with the bugs 🐛 💚
Freezing your scraps before adding them is actually a great idea, I think! And prob does suppress their populations.
Not everybody is going to want to make friends with maggots, I do totally understand that, haha. Even I have a visceral reaction, at times, if I come across a bunch all of a sudden, hehe.
As you suggest, in my food scrap container I throw in my used paper towels and napkins. Helps with moisture control. I also line my container with a thick pad of newsprint.
A friend contracts with a company in Phoenix that provides customers with what appears to be bokashi bran to sprinkle on top of additions to their provided buckets. It helps with odors.
Oh wow, very cool to hear, re: Phoenix! I have some bokashi bran I use for a composting-at-home experiment I am currently running. It definitely helps. Thanks for weighing in!
Love this Cass. I’ve been chewing over offering some carbon inspiration to folks providing scraps as a part of the community composting project I’m dreaming up. I too get messages from people grossed out by maggots and ‘overwhelmed by flies’. I’ve had a fair few mouthfuls of the latter 😂 too, so I do understand in some ways.
Look forward to this newsletter. Thanks so much for writing it.
haha oh nooo - i do understand, too <3
didn't mean to come across as too flip. very cool that you are cooking up a community composting project! reach out if you need any advice or help ever, always happy to chat!
You didn’t sound flippant at all Cass 👍🏽(Heart & Soil Community Aim here)
Oh hi!!! Omg hahah hi - nice to see ya here :)
What to do with maggots? Good heavens, GO FISHING!
now that's what im talkin bout!!!!
It’s just going to end up in the landfill with regular garbage anyway but I guess whatever assuages your climate guilt
Are you speaking generally when you say “your” — or are you misreading me as somehow advocating for green bins as a complete and perfect solution to waste management
You’re not my friend and yea maggots are disgusting. I dunno maybe try a worm bin with red wigglers? In fact that would fit in an apartment.
Just don’t compost if you live in a place with nowhere to do so. The idea that people in apartments should compost is absurd. You’re basically saying “might as well waste money on maggot infested green bins maybe one day they’ll actually end up in compost” . Have you seen what people put in them? I would never use that compost. Even a lot of normal recycling ends up in landfills.
You seem really hung up on the maggots, my friend!
If you live in a small apartment just try bokashi or don’t compost. I’m not willing to light my (taxpayer) money on fire to shove food into a maggot infested green bin that will just end up in the landfill alongside AirPods.
Hmm. I don’t honestly see how “just don’t compost” is a plausible alternative. You’re paying for garbage service either way.
(Might as well pay for some of it to end up in a composting facility - with the chance of an increasing percentage ending up there as we invest in infrastructure.)
I’m speaking generally that green waste is ending up in the same landfill as regular garbage so it’s essentially a complete waste of money to separate it. It serves no purpose other than to make people feel good that their food waste is going somewhere useful. It also makes someone less likely to actually compost at home. Plus maggots apparently
Curious what state/city you’re speaking from - i do know there are a lot of issues (currently) with organics recycling, but I’m also aware of a lot of investment in infrastructure and can see a future where this gets to a good place. At-home composting is truly very difficult for people living in small apartments and in densely populated areas, so some sort of bigger picture solution feels necessary. I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water here, as they say.
In LA they have free composting bins you can sign up for via the city. I did it in my last bldg and then everyone started composting. It’s cool to make change and envision a better future for us all :)