waste reduction | Crazy About Compost

Compost Window at Tyler School of Art

I was sifting through a few months' worth of pictures on the camera, and I found this gem: Can you tell what it is? It's a sideview of an indoor compost pile in action. Pretty cool! I spent some time at Tyler School of Art's "Coffree Mondays" hosted by Robert Blackson a few months ago, and it was a great vibe. I was asked to hang out and talk about waste and environmental issues. I thought there would be people to speak to, but the majority just wanted to get their free coffee and get the heck out of there. I couldn't blame them, I'm not an early riser and I definitely wasn't during my hellish time in school. The coolest thing they had besides encouraging the reusable lifestyle with…

Begich Middle School Composting (video)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIvpiUFms_Q I love seeing the kid in this video explaining the process, and he definitely gets it. We need more of this! Know of any schools that are composting near you? This is one of those things that I foresee really taking off in the coming years. Why? It's simple ownership of the students' (and staff's) waste that can merge nicely with an Environmental Science or Home Economics class that most if not all kids have to take at some point. Plus, these behaviors can make their way home and just like that our landfill impact drops. While Newt Gingrich made those extra-strength ignorant comments about replacing a custodian's job with students as young as 9 years old, maybe this is a little more realistic. Kids can take turns collecting…

Composting Opportunities at School (video)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNx3_qJU8G0 I posted this video recently on my other website, tylertalkstrash.com, and then I realized it had some crossover here. Schools are a blaring example of composting potential, and you teach the kids about it and hold them responsible for its success. This came to mind as I was taking a stroll downtown earlier and walked in front of a shoe store that had its trash on the street. It didn't take long to realize that they are yet another industry that could easily compost their waste with little to no contamination. All they have is cardboard boxes neatly flattened, shoe boxes smooshed into garbage bags along with the tissue paper you put inside and around the shoe. Check it out: It's hard to think of an industry that couldn't…