Day 149 - Tissue? I Don't Even Know You!

Composting Dirty Tissues

If you've been paying attention, you know that the kiddos have been sick this past week. Thanks to everyone for the well-wishes, they are both doing much better and should be able to go back to preschool today.

Happy, happy, joy, joy :-)

However, over the course of the past six days, we have generated a huge amount of dirty tissues. I hated the thought of having to add all this paper waste to my trash output, especially since I didn't even use tissues made from recycled paper (damn those are scratchy!). So, to assuage my guilt, I turned to my trusty friends in my Compact and Riot newsgroups to get some 411 on composting tissues and other paper products.

Turns out, there is a "black belt composter" in my Compact group who has been turning his tissues into garden goodies for many a year now. He told me they make great brown matter (yeah, I know -- more like "green matter") and that the higher temps generated by the composting action will kill all the nasty germs.

So I set up yet another bin in my trash cupboard for dirty tissues and any other easily broken down papers. For those of you counting, that's now FIVE separate bins: Trash, Wet Compost, Recyclable Plastic/Tin/Glass, Recyclable Paper and now Dry Compost. Thank goodness I'm such an Anal Annie and actually enjoy this kind of psycho-organization.

Savings:

One cold hitting two kids has produced an entire box (200 tissues) worth of dirty tissues. Let's assume the kids get sick four times this winter and hubby and I each get sick three times. That's a total of seven colds, or 700 tissues from winter colds, plus, let's assume another 300 from your daily boogie-removal, sneezes and whatnot (or would that be "whatsnot"?). At any rate, that's 1,000 tissues being removed from landfills every year and turned into compost.

Difficulty Level: 1 out of 5

Not bad at all. The hard part is getting everyone else in the house to start putting the tissues in the new bin. Of course, I'd be happy if they'd just stop leaving them on the counter. GROSS!!!!!

Day Ninety-Five - Post-Compost Post

Making Changes To What I Compost

Do you remember that happy day last month when my Garden Gourmet Compost Unit arrived? I have been happily keeping a bucket o' scraps under my kitchen sink and filling it with coffee grounds, biodegradable straws, apple cores, and any other organic matter that we generate. The problem is, I haven't been as diligent as I should be and I've been sending a lot of stuff down the garbage disposal, assuming that it was a relatively benign thing to do.

But I stumbled across some interesting research that showed that using my garbage disposal is only marginally better than tossing food scraps in the trash. Egads! Here I thought I was so eco-conscious by putting organic matter down the drain and it turns out, eh, it's not really a big improvement.

The reason for this is that garbage disposals use high volumes of water, at the sink and at the sewage treatment plant. Sewage with a high organic content also has a higher Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), a measurement that gauges how many chemicals are needed to clean the sewage before it is expelled from the plant into free-running bodies of water.

So I have learned that being lazy about my food scraps gobbles up copious amounts of precious water resources AND adds more chemicals to our water system in the name of "clean" water. I simply cannot have that on my conscience. From here on out I will become a scrap Nazi. Here's the order for food disposal: People, Dog, Compost, Over the Fence (what the hell, if I can do it with 10 pounds of dog crap each week, I'm sure an occasional chicken bone won't be noticed), Disposal. That's right -- disposal is now the absolute last resort for food scraps and I have decided to never again toss food scraps into the landfill. Dammit.


Savings:

I would guess that I send about 1.5 cups worth of organic waste down the drain per day. Over the course of a year, that adds up to 547 cups of food waste that has to be treated with chemicals and diluted with more water.

Geez, I wonder if that would feed a starving family somewhere. I bet it would. Good grief, are we a wasteful society or what? Maybe I should concentrate more on reducing that waste. Well, one change a day... maybe that can be tomorrow's challenge.


Difficulty Level: 4 out of 5

Yes, folks, I truly am a Lazy American. The added burden of properly picking up and disposing of bloated goldfish crackers and unwanted french fries earns itself a 4 on my difficulty scale. And yet, I pay money to belong to a gym where I can go specifically to NOT be lazy. Sometimes, even I don't understand me.

Day Eighty-Five - Oh Shit

Picking Up Dog Poo the Eco-Friendly Way

I know this doesn't apply to a lot of people and I'm sure my country-living friends are laughing their asses off at the mere thought of picking up dog crap. But hey, I'm a true-blue suburbanite now and it kind of comes with the (very small) territory.

You see, our stunningly palatious lot is a whopping two tenths of an acre. That's right folks, and our fenced in portion where the dog is free to roam is a colossal 50' x 20'. That's 1,000 sq feet of space for a 100 pound black lab with an insatiable appetite and two willing, and charitable, little accomplices. You do the math on this one.

I have tried to convince dear Oreo to use one specific corner, which I have "left natural" for her (meaning I don't bother to rake the leaves there). I don't know if I have a very stubborn dog or if I'm just a very gullible person, but this supposedly "simple training technique" of tossing existing poo into the area just ain't workin'. So I am left with the enviable job of "dog poop remover". Yeah, being a stay-at-home-mom isn't quite as glamorous as you might think.

My old method of removal was pretty wasteful: Take two grocery bags and wrap your hand in them (using two bags mitigates the possibility of "breakthrough"). Pick up dog poo with this wrapped hand and place into a third grocery bag. When done, put the first two bags into the third, tie up and toss in the garbage to be taken to the landfill where it will live for a thousand years. Finally, scrub furiously for about five minutes, all the way up to my armpits.

My new method is much more green. Take one biodegradable, corn-based bio-bag and wrap it over your hand (these are sturdier than grocery bags, so no need to double up). Pick up dog poo and toss it over the fence into the tree line where it becomes natural fertilizer. When done, place bio-bag in compost bin. Then, scrub furiously for about five minutes, all the way up to my armpits.


Savings:

Dog poo duty (hehehe) is usually performed once a week or so. That's 3 plastic bags every week for the sole purpose of dog-crap-on-shoe avoidance. Multiply that by one year, and you've got 156 plastic bags per year, plus all the dog crap that ends up in a landfill, which is not what a landfill should be used for!


Difficulty Level: 2 out of 5

There's definitely a risk involved here. I mean, what if my hand slips and the dog poo flies in an unintended direction? What if it hits the kids? or me? or goes SPLAT on the fence? Oh well, I guess it is this inherent uncertainty, the thrill of the unknown, that makes dog-crap-flinging such an extreme sport. Keep an eye out for me at the next X-Games.

Day Sixty-Five - Black Gold

Starting a Compost Pile

Oh happy day, happy day!!!! My Garden Gourmet composter arrived today and I can't WAIT to get it set up! It took a while to find a compost container that wouldn't draw too much attention from the Home-Owner's Association, but I think this is a keeper! It is supposedly critter-proof and can be placed in a shady area -- which is good because that's the only place my HOA will allow me to put it.

I have a whole gooey, slimey bucket of kitchen scraps and coffee grounds under the kitchen sink that I'm excited to dump into my new composter. I started saving them about three weeks ago, hoping that having a stinking pile of garbage fester in my kitchen would motivate me to get the composter. It did, but not quickly enough, as I had to resort to tossing out some food scraps this past week because my under-the-sink container was full. I hope I don't gag when I dump it out.

Why did I decide to start composting? Well, according to an article published by the Environmental Defense Fund, organic waste accounts for approximately 21 percent of the waste stream in the United States. Landfilling organic waste is highly inefficient because the lack of oxygen inside of the landfill causes decomposition to occur slowly. This produces methane gas and acidic leachate. In addition to contributing to the environmental problems created by landfills, organic waste takes up valuable space that could be used for other waste products.

I am so happy to be doing my part to help reduce the amount of organic waste being sent to landfills! I will be tossing all my scraps (except meat) into my composter and turning it every few days. By spring, I hope to have enough beautiful, dark compost to fill a large portion of my yet-to-be-constructed vegetable garden!

Savings:

If I do it correctly, I should be able to eliminate virtually all of my organic waste. The only items I won't be able to put in the compost are dairy and meats, which I can dispose of mostly through the garbage disposal. The only "throw aways" I can think of that I can't avoid are chicken bones. My goal is to get to a point where my landfill trash is so "clean", that I'll be able to cancel the weekly trash pickup (at $66 per quarter) and just take my one bag of trash in the minivan down to the dump. I should save enough money in a year to cover the cost of the composter!

Difficulty Level: 3 out of 5

In theory, composting is very simple. Save your scraps, toss them in a pile and turn it occasionally. And it is that simple if you live out in the country, but for a whole lot of Americans living in suburbia, we must find a solution that will not offend our unenlightened neighbors and HOA's.

So, for now, I'll be forced to hide my dull, black composter in the shadows, behind my "privacy lattice" where such uglies as trash cans and air handlers are kept. Yes, progress is slow, my friends, but if we keep pushing, the day will come when the suburban composter will be viewed as an elegant beautiful lawn accessory, available in an array of colors, perhaps even sporting the logo for your favorite college team.

Day Thirty-Six - A Corny Idea

Switch from Plastic Straws to Biodegradable Corn-Based Straws

OK, have I mentioned that I have two kids? Yeah, I do, if you don't believe me, come on over and babysit sometime. Anyhow, if you have kids, you use straws. Lots and lots of straws. You all know about my anti-plastic rants, so I won't even get into how harmful plastic is to the environment. Instead, I will just enlighten you about a whole new option for chocolate milk to mouth delivery.

Corn. Yup. Corn based plastics. 100% biodegradable. How can that be you ask? I have no friggin clue I say. But it's true. I bought a case of them. I also bought biodegradable coffee cups, two different sizes of biodegradable trash bags, and a sampler pack of biodegradable cutlery, napkins, plates and cold cups, just to see how they hold up. You know what? They all worked great! I never would have known they were biodegradable!

Unfortunately, you can't find this stuff in your average grocery store. But you can find it online quite easily by doing a Google (or Blackle?) search. It costs a little more than what you find at the grocery store but I feel it's worth it. Plus I'm a huge believer in voting with my dollar. That's what really brings about change -- profitability. If companies feel it's profitable to make biodegradable products, guess what, we'll be overrun with them.

So go ahead and splurge on things like phosphate-free laundry detergent, plant-based cleaning products and biodegradable picnic forks. You'll be doing a good thing while shopping and that's always fun.

Savings:

I used to go through a 100-pack of plastic straws every two weeks or so. That's 2,600 plastic straws a year that I'm trading in for an earth-friendly, biodegradable, plant-based product.

Difficulty Level: 1 out of 5

Easy peasy. clickety click click. Shipped to my home in a cardboard box, protected by corn-based biodegradable packing peanuts that dissolve in water (yes, I tested them!).