Want to Recycle Organic Materials? Location Matters!

 

Doing some traveling over the past few months, we've paid attention to trash and recycling collection practices in a variety of locations in California. This post focuses on the Bay Area; Menlo Park, to be exact. Whoa, life must be pretty exciting if a highlight of our visit was spotting bins specifically for compostable materials!

 

But this is a topic of interest because recycling practices vary so drastically from one area of our state to another; and undoubtedly, across the country. If Menlo Park, San Francisco and San Jose have designated bins for compostable materials, in addition to recyclables and normal everyday trash, why can’t the rest of the country do the same? On the Central Coast, some cities have passed ordinances requiring collection of Green Waste – with a slight rise in collection fees (approximately $3). This is a move in the right direction, but when we think about all the food scraps and coffee grounds heading for the landfill, we’re sorry to see these resources being wasted.

Recycling isn’t just for glass and metal. Potato peelings, egg shells, tea bags and coffee grounds (don’t forget the filter!) can be recycled into compost. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg (lettuce); almost all food waste, paper goods – such as paper plates and napkins – and clean wood products, like coffee stirrers, can be transformed into nutrient rich compost.

In our little community on the Central Coast of California, we faithfully truck our recycle bins out to the curb one week; and our green waste bins go out the next. With no compost bin for collection of food scraps, coffee/coffee filters, cardboard, etc., we’re forced to waste these resources or do what we do – compost this stuff at home. All well and good for the environment, but when we need a decent amount of compost for lawn top dressing, laying sod or amending soil for our annual vegetable garden; buying fresh, local, bulk compost is the way to go.

Bins for compostable materials need to be available across the country; with collected organic materials sent to the nearest Regional Compost Facility. These facilities provide the freshest soil products to the public - ready to be put back into the earth building healthy soil to grow crops and improve lawns and gardens. The re-use of recycled materials has a few labels, but we call this ‘Completing the Cycle.’

So, to free up landfill space and improve the environment we should:

1.    collect organic materials

2.    recycle these material for transformation into compost

3.    purchase bulk compost

4.    use compost to build healthy soil

Working together, we can do this. Naturally! Click for more info

Need compost for your next project? Call (805) 925-2771 and ask for Jim or Chuck.

Harvest Blend Compost is available at authorized dealers in San Luis and Santa Barbara Counties.