I took a peek at my curing compost pile recently, and somehow contaminants seem to push their way to the top.
There was a small piece of a styrofoam cup, some plastic film, and then this skeleton of an ice cream carton…or at least most of it.
Where’s the rest of it?
It’s now in my compost in microplastic form.
I always thought I’d just experiment with a variety of items that seemed to consist of just paper, only to find out there’s plastic in there too.
Moral of the story: Be conscious of what “paper” products you add to your compost pile.
If you keep it to paper towels, napkins, tissues and certified compostable products, you should be good to go.
Where is the line drawn?
I doubt my ice cream carton would get recycled.
Is it better to landfill it, or even worse incinerate it?
In other words, should I burn the carton and convert the raw materials into inhalable toxins? [Attention, “waste-to-energy” troglodytes: this isn’t recycling… just call it what it is.]
Or maybe I should add it to the giant mummification party, squeezing out some methane?
I’m going to use the resulting compost for my garden, but not for growing any food.
It seems like plastics fouling up our soil and water is an ongoing inevitability.
Think about photodegradation of plastics in the environment, or for a more specific example: cigarette butts.
Is composting the paper bit of the carton, landfilling the remaining plastic skeleton and dealing with some microplastics in my compost the best option? How bad is it?
I’m really looking forward to unveiling my finished compost pile in the fall just to see how much plastic remains… remember all that fast food waste I put in there?
Should be a good one…