I want your food scraps for composting
So I'm working on building up my backyard compost bin but can never get enough food scraps to mix with the dead leaves. Reaching out to any Prospect Height-ers who would be interested in keeping their food scraps and coffee grounds out of the waste stream.
The idea would be that you keep your food scraps in your freezer or in a lidded container and I'd come pick them up on a regular basis. If this works out, I could even give you some tomatoes in the summer!
If you'd be interested, please send me a message on brooklynian. Thanks!
The idea would be that you keep your food scraps in your freezer or in a lidded container and I'd come pick them up on a regular basis. If this works out, I could even give you some tomatoes in the summer!
If you'd be interested, please send me a message on brooklynian. Thanks!
Comments
-
You can go to one of the local coffee shops and probably get free used coffee grinds.
-
that's a good tip, kwac -- our community garden gets grounds from sit & wonder. (of course, taking all the grounds anywhere will overwhelm a backyard system.)
you might also ask around at local CSA pick-ups. -
Rule of thumb for composting, Half Brown,Half Green. No MEAT!
-
sweet tea wrote: that's a good tip, kwac -- our community garden gets grounds from sit & wonder.
We used to....that program is on hold due to the quickening pace of contributions from neighborhood residents. We might start the coffee grinds up again in the winter when food scrap donations trail off. But elizabetty could certainly hit them up for enough coffee grounds to sink a small ship. Or she could just drop her yard and food scraps at Prospect Heights Community Farm in exchange for fresh compost (and save all the backbreaking labor!) -
Another tip for getting veggie compost the juice places make pulp which is way good for compositing, and hit up that raw foods restaurant on Vandy or Washington for a huge source of vegetable scraps.
-
arches wrote: [quote=sweet tea]that's a good tip, kwac -- our community garden gets grounds from sit & wonder.
We used to....that program is on hold due to the quickening pace of contributions from neighborhood residents.
well shut my mouth! -
Thanks for your responses. I forgot to mention last night (and really, I was going to), that I'm not trying to compete with the community gardens. Just trying to get to those folks who can't make it to the gardens at designated drop-off times.
And thanks for the tip on Sit and Wonder! I've had mixed luck getting coffee grounds from different places in the neighborhood. Everyone is nice about it but I often feel like I'm imposing on busy baristas with my odd request...
And I've thought about the juice places, but I've totally been freaking myself out about the looks I'd get from folks going in and effectively asking for garbage. Sigh - I need to grow a set of cojones... -
there is no competition! more than enough waste for everybody, far as i can tell!
-
sweet tea wrote: there is no competition! more than enough waste for everybody, far as i can tell!
Yes! I would guess that less than 1% of PH's food waste gets composted, so there's plenty to go around.
A suggestion for dealing with local coffee shops/juice bars...Establish a schedule for picking stuff up and stick to it. It's easier for the shops to just throw stuff away, so you don't want to ask them to save stuff for you and then flake - it probably starts to get in their way (and smell). -
No snarkiness
What is w/the upswing in composting interest? We have a compost bin at my job and while I find it quite gross everyone else is quite enthused about it -
Sink based garbage disposals are the way to go.
....I doubt the various composting places in Brooklyn could handle more that 1% of its waste.
We only have so much use for the nutrient rich dirt that would be created.
Don't the water treatment plants sell the -um- decayed "dirt" that gets collected by their filters? -
Subject: Re: I want your food scraps for composting
Elizabetty wrote: So I'm working on building up my backyard compost bin but can never get enough food scraps to mix with the dead leaves. Reaching out to any Prospect Height-ers who would be interested in keeping their food scraps and coffee grounds out of the waste stream.
I'd LOVE to help you out with this. I'm on Butler Pl and I would love to work out the details.
The idea would be that you keep your food scraps in your freezer or in a lidded container and I'd come pick them up on a regular basis. If this works out, I could even give you some tomatoes in the summer!
If you'd be interested, please send me a message on brooklynian. Thanks! -
Elizabetty wrote:
I remember the old days when I used to get "looks" when I'd pull a plastic bag out of my purse to take home my groceries. Now, I get $0.10 off for bringing my own bag at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, if not my local bodega.
And I've thought about the juice places, but I've totally been freaking myself out about the looks I'd get from folks going in and effectively asking for garbage.
Just think of yourself as the avant-garde. -
whynot_31 wrote: Sink based garbage disposals are the way to go.
Hmm, based on the little I know about our city's sewage treatment plants, I'd hasten to guess that the combined load of everyone sending ground up food particles down the drain would be near-disasterous.
....I doubt Brooklyn the various composting places could handle more that 1% of its waste.
We only have so much use for the nutrient rich dirt that would be created.
Don't the water treatment plants sell the -um- decayed "dirt" that gets collected by their filters?
San Francisco collects and composts all food/yard waste...even meat and bones. Yes, it's a much smaller population (800k) vs Brooklyn (2.5M), but I don't see why it couldn't be scalable. I think most of the finshed compost gets used in surrounding agricultural areas.
The Canadians have figured it out as well (although this system seems more prone to contamination since all the waste is intermingled at first). Mandatory video of heavy construction equipment for Whynot's entertainment:
-
They legalized disposals after people voiced similar concerns.
I'm under the belief that most of the food particles/chunks just decay on the way to the water treatment plant, kinda like our other excrement. ...then we just drive or barge it away to someplace that needs feritlizer.
....considering we would just truck it in trash form to PA, isn't this similar? ....but with less landfill impact? -
Cool The Kid wrote: No snarkiness
It's just another form of recycling...remember way back when it seemed perfectly logical to throw your aluminum cans and paper in the regular trash? What kind of bin do you have at work...just food scrap collection, or is it a worm bin? And what makes it gross?
What is w/the upswing in composting interest? We have a compost bin at my job and while I find it quite gross everyone else is quite enthused about it -
whynot_31 wrote: They legalized disposals after people voiced similar concerns.
I linked to a video of giant rotating tube wide enough to hold two city buses side by side, and all you want to talk about is excrement? I'm disappointed
I'm under the belief that most of the food particles/chunks just decay on the way to the water treatment plant, kinda like our other excrement. ...then we just drive or barge it away to someplace that needs feritlizer.
....considering we would just truck it in trash form to PA, isn't this similar? ....but with less landfill impact?
The stuff you flush doesn't arrive at the sewage treatment plant as ready-made fertilizer...it probably arrives physically broken down after tumbling through miles and miles of pipes (where's that vomit icon?) but it still has pathogens and high nitrogen content (which eventually makes it a useful fertilizer, and a bad substance to dump into local waterways untreated). Once it to the plant, it goes through all sorts of anaerobic breakdown and "dewatering" to reduce its volume. After that, much of it is (was?) shipped to a plant in the Bronx, where it is further dewatered and pelletized into a commerical fertilizer product. Apparently this doesn't smell good, and that program may have ended. -
^^^ right here - :puker:
-
as for whether we have use in the area for improved soil, i'd argue that besides the ongoing needs of community gardens, personal gardens, and tree pits, there's always the park.
we pay quite a bit in this town for what we throw away, and any attempts to lessen that is a good idea. -
So where do the "biosolids" go now? They have to be trucking all the stuff that gets stuck in the filters/screens somewhere.
....let's assume we can compost 1% of our waste in bins.
Are we better off throwing it out, only to have it end expensively up in a somewhat toxic landfill in PA? ....trucks polluting and stinking as they go...
Or, using disposal method?
P.S. Can I rent that rotating tube thing? ....looks awesome. -
whynot_31 wrote: P.S. Can I rent that rotating tube thing? ....looks awesome.
If you were a real man, you'd build your own.
PS - I have time on my hands, if Dude's lack of opposable thumbs keeps him from being an able assistant. -
Subject: I'll bring you my compost
I normally take my compost to the Fort green farmers market. I keep it in the freezer during the week and drop it off on Saturdays. It would be great to have an alternate drop off. -
Whyfi-
I'll check my buildings proprietary lease tonight, and get back to you.
Dude will power it via a hampster wheel attachment and a squirrel just out of range. -
BKChickie - I just PM'ed you.
And why compost? Aside from the need for improved soil (Prospect Park alone is apparently in a compost deficit ever since NYC suspended leaf pick-up due to budget cuts), there's also the landfill issue. Because of the way landfills are capped to minimize smells (think of the neighbors), they are deprived of oxygen and therefore actually prevent decomposition. They've found banana peels intact from the 1950's in landfills!
Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
- 40K All Categories
- 27.1K Neighborhoods
- 5.1K Crown Heights/Prospect Lefferts Gardens
- 7.1K Prospect Heights
- 2.3K Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bed-Stuy
- 8K Park Slope
- 549 Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick
- 442 Flatbush/Midwood/Ditmas Park
- 657 BoCoCa (Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens)
- 151 Red Hook
- 104 Gowanus
- 304 Bay Ridge/Bensonhurst
- 130 Coney Island, Brighton Beach, Sheepshead Bay
- 270 Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO and Downtown
- 598 Windsor Terrace / Kensington
- 673 Greenwood Heights and Sunset Park
- 749 Brooklyn and Beyond
- 6.3K Stuff
- 86 Brooklyn Back When
- 1.2K Brooklyn Pets
- 257 Brooklyn Kids
- 241 Brooklyn Eats
- 51 Brooklyn Booze
- 3.6K The Lounge / Random Stuff
- 611 Brooklyn Politics
- 122 Brooklyn Sports and Fitness
- 111 Brooklyn Photos
- 339 Site Issues
- 8 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- 6.2K Listings
- 1.1K APARTMENTS and REAL ESTATE
- 1.3K Sales Openings Events
- 2.3K The Classifieds