Guest Author: Shawna McKinley, MeetGreenIt was the ickiest and best chore at my grandparents: taking out the compost bucket. Icky because the compost pile was a bit away from the house and more than a little stinky. The best because on your way back from the pile you could sneak into the garden and steal sweet peas, beans and strawberries right off the vine and gorge yourself until grandma came out looking for you and yelled you were eating her pie berries from under her.
Compost is the good stuff that makes garden thieving so tasty. Depending on your region estimates are that as much as 50-60% of our household waste is compostable. This includes food scraps, yard waste, paper, wood and other organic material.
Waste tracking data from events shows we can divert 20-30% of material from landfill through composting. This is well in excess of the 10% solution being promoted by the GMIC’s trash challenge to divert one million tons of trash.
Not only is it good for the earth, but for many facilities it represents cost savings. Filtering out heavy, wet compost from trash can reduce trash hauling which may be more expensive than organic waste pick up. In rare examples it can also present a business opportunity for facilities able to invest in innovative waste management projects, such as ExCel London’s Wormery. Harnessing the power of 300,000 worms that eat twice their body mass per day, ExCel has reduced waste by approximately 90%!
www.excel-london.co.uk/mediacentre/greencredentials/foodwaste