Recycle, reuse, compost questions...

In an effort to be more ecology friendly, make fertilizer from compost (even raise a worm or 2 [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] ), and maybe save a couple $ a year, I am trying to recycle & reuse (compost) our refuse. [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]
Here’s what I expect to do:
- Accumulate and take glass, aluminum cans, & plastics to recycle depot that is 5-10 miles from home.
- Burn paper products (I know should be recycled too, but at least it won’t go to the landfill & I can use it to start our woodburner)
- Plantlike scraps into a compost system that I’ve been designing in my head. (Including veggies, fruit peels, coffee grounds, etc)
- BONES, FATS, MEATS, CHEESES, EGGS, PASTA?, etc… Where can this stuff go? It shouldn’t go into compost system – right? [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img] This is my main question?

Any other ideas from the CBN experts out there? [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Pat]

No expert here but have similar goals to yours. We have 4 trashcans in the kitchen. One is for pop cans, another is for glass bottles, metal cans, and similar, a 3rd for burnables, and the 4th for "digestibles."

We have a friend with a weekly dumpster/ trash collection so we subsidize her expense and use her dumpster for the cans and bottles about once every couple months. We could use it for everything but it is not that big and is handling three households, not counting us.

We donate the pop cans to the local senior citizens center where it goes toward their annual Christmas party.

We often burn the burnables in 55 gal drum/trashcan/incinerator.

The "digestibles" including foodscraps, vegie trimmings, eggshells, etc. are collected in the house in a stainless steel trash can with tight fitting lid, foot pedal opening, plastic bucket with bail inside which we line with a plastic trash can liner.

I dig a "slit trench" at the edge of the garden with the FEL and leave the removed dirt conveniently next to the trench. When we empty the digestibles into the trench we toss a few shovels of dirt over it which excludes flies and traps odors. Sometimes I don't cover it with dirt till the next day due to racoons. If you bury something they like they will dig it up neccessitating your burying it again plus it is a hassle for the 'coon. By leaving it uncovered the 'coon has an easier time and so do you as you can cover it the next day and only have to cover it once.

This is not "TRUE" composting and it takes a lot longer for the stuff to break down but we have plenty of space and no need to reuse the same trench space. I suppose to keep the trench conveniently close to the house end of the garden we'd have to reuse trench locations in something like 20 years. Even with POOR composting action that is way more than required. Over time the trench area is reused as garden space. In fact we constantly get volunteer tomatos, potatos, and various mellons.

I previously made a raised 10x10 bed surrounded with railroad ties for our kinda sorta compost project thinking it would be convenient. It wasn't, as it limited tractor access. Both ways tends to make for good earthworm production.

We too have no local recycler where we can take separated plastic, glass, metal, etc. and were temporarily tossed on the horns of a dilema worrying over burning paper vs "THE LAND FILL." When the weather and volume permits I burn, otherwise we can put it in the friends dumpster (just over a mile away.)

When cooking fried/scrambled eggs we use only 1 in 4 yolks due to dietary considerations. The excess typically goes down the drain. (we don't have garbage disposals. I'm not getting into the septic vs disposal fray, we just don't do it, yet.

Everything on your list will biodegrade if buried but bones take a long time. Bones, I'm told, do compost in a proper compost operation which we do not have. After our new house is finished, I hope to do some proper composting, complete with a dedicated composter (probably home made.)

If you choose to burn, please be fire safe. I have had 3 grass fires in 4 years from burning trash and construction debris. One was pretty exciting. All were surprises, happening when I though conditions were not conducive to the spread of fire.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Pat, Thanx for the info. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] We have 2 trash cans so far… “to burn� & “garbage�. We need to come up with the receptacles for “cans� & “plastics� yet, but will.
On the compost subject, I’d like to process scraps for use as fertilizer in the flower bed or garden. I’m thinking about making a compost bin from a stainless steel container (approx. 16�X40� with drain valve) that we have.
Kind of like these: worm composting [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]
I’ve gotten the impression that meat, bone, cheese, etc should not be in compost for fertilizer use… only more “green� things. [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]
An idea that I have for starting the process (that my wife really dislikes) is to use our old unused blender to chop/mix up the scraps initially, and then put them in to the outdoor compost bin later. The blender's glass container could possibly be the in house garbage receptacle… maybe keep it in the refrigerator even to minimize germs/smells. Am I crazy or what? [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Okie_Dokie]

One thing that comes to my mind for desposing of kitchen waste (except for the bones) is our chickens and pigs. They gladly turn all our kitchen scraps into fertilizer that we let mellow out for at least a year befor adding it to the garden. The yard dog makes quick use of the bones.

[Pat]

The cabinets for our new house (built but not installed yet) have two trash drawers located at opposite diagonal ends of the kitchen. Each trash drawer has two large plastic trash cans. That makes four containers for 3 kinds of trash. The highest volume category has a can in each drawer. We won't be designating one of these 4 containers for pop cans since the utility room is just around the corner from the kitchen and shares a common wall. I want to put a PVC pipe through the wall from the kitchen to the util room through which you drop soda cans but this may not work out aesthetically. I feel an excellaent alternative is to drop a PVC pipe through the floor into the basement where soda cans would land in a container there.

I suggest you do a bit of reading BEYOND the worm thing. There is no shortage of good information on composting on the web. You'll find out oodles of info regarding "greens" and "browns, carbon and nitrogen, upper and lower temp limits for various mix ratios etc. You'll learn at what temps weed seeds are destroyed, etc. Of course, many of the sites will try to sell you their prefab composter withought which your life will not be complete, as per them. There are even composting toilets which produce safe garden compost. Storing feed stock for composters in the frige? Ignoring the composting toilet it still doesn't sound like what I would want to dedicate space in my frige to.

I have read that bones compost. It seems that fat, like meat trimmings for instance, is one of the worst feedstocks. Not sure about cheese, never threw away much of that. I tend to donate trimmed fat to the critters along with trapped whole dead beaver rather than trying to compost them. I have put out a few 60+ lb beaver in a remote area of my property and they just vanish overnight withought a trace. Coyotes I suspect. I know that somewhere there must be some bones and teeth lying about but in 4 years never saw any.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[turnagerg]

I posted a reply to your thread on TBN, and won't make a duplicate here but hope it's helpful.

[Stoneheartfarm]

<font color="blue">- BONES, FATS, MEATS, CHEESES, EGGS, PASTA?, etc… Where can this stuff go? </font color>

Dog.

[Pat]

Consider a pig. Lots of folks are squeamish about fattening up and eating a dog.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Defective]

Besides...my beagle ain't big enough even if we fattened her up...

[img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img]

[Pat]

All the more reason to take my advice and get a pig. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Pat