Thursday, March 13, 2008

Compost + Old Paper Bag = Brilliance


Back in the day (and by that I mean, like, a year ago) I used a ratty, old, plastic ice cream bucket to put my kitchen compost scraps in before hauling them out to my backyard compost bin. Then, one day, brilliance struck. I was unpacking my groceries and silently cursing the fact that once again my bottles of wine had been put in little paper bags inside my cloth bag (I can't really blame the bag packers, as I'm sure they are sternly instructed to do this), when I looked at my ratty-ice-cream-bucket-turned-compost-carrier and then back at the little paper bag and thought, this is it, this is the solution to top all kitchen solutions. Instead of using the ratty ice cream bucket, which would get moldy and disgusting and I'd always end up tossing it after a few weeks instead of bringing myself to wash it, I could instead use these little paper bags to put my kitchen scraps in and then I could bring the whole bag out to the compost bin when needed (in my case, about once a week) and toss the whole thing in, scraps, bag, and all. I just keep a paper bag next to the sink and toss in kitchen scraps when I'm cooking. This has revolutionized my life. Or at least my kitchen life. Because those little paper bags that aren't good for much do accumulate. Like bags from the apple orchard or bags for wine or an odd lunch bag here or there or (as in the photo above) little bags from stores that aren't quite big enough to house my paper recycling. I feel this idea is brilliant. The slightly pathetic visual aid above, not so much.

Kris claims this idea wouldn't work in a house that has more than two people or where people eat more then 1 serving of fruit a week. She may have a point. My composting has been revolutionized, but my intake of fruits and vegetables needs serious improvement.

2 comments:

Kristin said...

I haven't ruled this out in our family of 5. It is true that if you combine my desire to feed my family lots of fruits and veggies and 3 sometimes picky eaters, we make a trip to the compost every other day. I will admit though that I am not a fan of more counter clutter. I am thinking that I could put the bag IN the ice cream bucket under the sink. That way any leakage would be caught by the bucket, but it would drastically reduce the gross factor in cleaning out the bucket. I may also need to increase my wine intake to have enough bags an equal that of my family's produce intake. Having a steady supply of buckets is how we justify our ice cream intake!

Troy Sandblasting said...

Good postt