General – Page 169 – Crazy About Compost

Nice Compostable Cup… How About the Top?

Behold the Ecotainer, the compostable cup. Behold the lid, which will never compost...ever. Maybe I'm just being a jerk, but this is what I'd call a mixed message. Maybe they just ran out of their normal wax paper lid that day and had to default to crappy plastic. Maybe the preferred non-plastic lid cost more. Maybe the paper cup cost more than they wanted it to...which leads me to my first point: I hope the cost of the cup didn't break the bank. There's plenty of paperboard cups on the market that don't say anything about being compostable, even though they are by default. It reminds me of how aerosol cans are labeled "No CFCs"...although they have been banned since 1978. Unnecessary labeling. While I realize that paper isn't devoid…

How to Screen Worm Compost (video)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtEIYdDmyZQ Here's a neat video on how to screen worm compost. Cassandra keeps it simple in this video and has some nice results. I do pretty much the same thing, except my screen is a repurposed basket with a piece of wire mesh placed in the bottom. She makes mention of running a fan over the top of the castings when you first harvest them...it's true- when you first remove your castings and put the worms back, the stuff is so gooey that a screen doesn't work so well. Drying them out just a bit will help, although I wouldn't want to dry them too much and risk losing some of their benefit.

Compost Tumbler Sighting!

Have you ever seen one of these compost tumbler models before? This cute little compost tumbler was spotted in Charlotte, NC. Before I opened it up, I had a feeling it would be filled with sludge, due to what looks like a lack of airflow design...where are the holes? More on that in a moment. Look at that cool little marking on the lid to denote whether the unit was open or closed...nice. While it snapped into place quite easily, I wonder how many times I can do this before wearing it out. If the locking mechanism failed, the tumbler would become useless as it flips end over end by design. How were the contents? The material in here looked pretty nice...crumbly and smelling good. The only airflow design was…