General – Page 150 – Crazy About Compost

For Restaurants, Composting Is a Welcome but Complex Task

When Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s administration revealed this week that he was rolling out a plan to make New York City residents separate their food scraps for composting, chefs and restaurateurs with an interest in sustainability welcomed the news. Composting can help the city manage its huge trash output, and a growing number of restaurants already separate their scraps for organic-waste pickup. But many others, even some who are committed to recycling, say that finding ways to fit more bins, more staff time and more expense into their daily routines will be a struggle. While the mayor’s initiative will apply to residences and schools, and will be voluntary, at least at first, the administration says restaurants and other food businesses will also be required to compost eventually. Food waste makes…

Plastics in the Worm Composting System

After a few months of not adding substantial amounts of material to my Worm Inn (I slow down the feeding to my worms in the warmer months), I decided to take it outside and poke around in the castings. There was a good six inches of beautiful, crumbly castings...great stuff! However, there was also several pieces of plastic film...huh? Then I remembered, a few months ago I placed some waxed paper, an ice cream carton, and a chinese food container (without the metal handle)...and that's what's left! I don't recommend adding this kind of stuff to a worm composting system, but my curiosity got the better of me. What's sad is that a large portion of single use paper products have plastic liners embedded in them to keep the contents…

Piles, Pitchforks, and Perfect Learning Opportunities: Why Colleges and Universities Should Choose Small-Scale Composting (article)

(original content found here: http://www.compostory.org/2013/09/08/piles-pitchforks-and-perfect-learning-opportunities-why-colleges-and-universities-should-choose-small-scale-composting/ )By Jen Schmidt and Adam Long, Farm Manager at Pomona College, California In this blog post, Jen and Adam describe the composting program in place at Pomona College and shares his vision on low-tech campus composting. Shiny, expensive mechanical composters are increasingly popular at colleges and universities that want to compost their food waste, and rightly so. They offer a number of benefits, including reduced labor, minimal odor, and short composting times. At Pomona College, though, we have done things differently and we have come to believe that small-scale, low-technology composting is the way to go. A simple compost pile may not be glamorous, but the educational and environmental benefits of this method are more than worthwhile. Starting in the mid-1990s, Pomona College students and staff members…