This is the story of my compost. If you don't know my story about when I decided to become Zero Waste, I'll give you the synopsis. So it was Thanksgivings of 2017, and I had found videos from people like Lauren Singer and Manuela (aka the girl gone green). Their passion and encouragement inspired me to cut out most of my waste, however I could. I made my own toothpaste, carried towels around with me. I even brought containers to family outings where I knew I would have leftovers. I was all in for about four months. During this time, I spent every opportunity begging my parents for a compost. I felt like I needed one because I knew that I couldn't compost otherwise since driving an hour to the farmers market every Saturday was not an option. And then, about a week before Christmas in 2017, my parents told me to go check outside. I was thrilled when I saw the large compost bin at the edge of my mom's garden. I hugged them and thanked them, and went straight to work cutting up things just so that I could fill it up.
We kept a bowl inside so that I wouldn't have to walk outside for every scrap of food waste. For the first couple weeks, I was diligent on throwing out the compost every night before I went to sleep. The bowl would get filled up all day, and then at night I'd go out and dump it into my precious compost. For good measure (and because it helped with the smell), I'd fill the bowl with leaves or grass or whatever I could find and dump it in as well. I'd clean the bowl and put it back on the counter so we could start again.
However, like most things times that I try to make a new habit, if I let myself off the hook a few times, I tend to lose the habit all together. And that's exactly what happened. It would be raining or too cold and I would say that I would just take it out the next day, except I didn't. So, my mom would just start to dump it in the trash. I would get angry at her. Why would she just dump the food waste into the trash can where it would end up in a landfill and produce methane? Did she want the planet to die? Looking back I realized that that was a stupid thing to think. Of course she didn't, but the compost wasn't project either, it was mine, and I wasn't putting in the effort for it. So, eventually, after about 2 months of use, we stopped using it.
I felt like I was facing Amazing Allison all over again. Allison was a speaking doll I wanted when I was just older than a toddler. I would see her in Target and beg my parents. I'd beg, and then when they said no, I'd cry and scream and basically throw the biggest tantrum my little body could manage. I was the biggest brat and my parents had to have abundant amounts of patience not to send me to an orphanage. Anyways, Christmas came along, and there among my new toys, was Amazing Allison. I'm pretty sure I cried I was so happy, I definitely screamed. However, I soon discovered that because I had a speech impediment (I couldn't say r's or th's so I said my name like "Towi Bef Wabinson") Amazing Allison would not respond to me. I would ask her to do something and she would respond "whaaaaaat?". I was frustrated, so after only about a month of use, I threw the Amazing Allison to the back of my closet. She was one of the worst decisions of my life, because 10+ years later, she still gets brought up in conversations between my family. Rightfully so because 10+ years later I would still make the same mistakes.
After I stopped using my compost bin, my Zero Waste journey was pretty much at an end. (That is until about a month ago). I hadn't paced myself when trying to completely change my life, and I wasn't smart about it at all. So, my compost bin just sat there looking basically the same it did when I got it. However, as the warmer weather started to arrive, I would occasionally put in a bowl of veggie leftovers or fruit that had gone bad. I felt good every time I did. By the time my senior year rolled to an end, I had all but forgotten about my poor compost bin. Summer passed, and soon enough, I was off to college, and the compost bin, could no longer even be considered mine. It was my mom's now. An unintentional gift/burden.
Easter break came this year, and I came home to celebrate it with my family. When I was helping my mom make food that night, I noticed a bowl in the corner of the kitchen full of old veggies and fruits. I was surprised, because that meant that my family had begun to compost. After the shock subsided, I was thrilled. "Oh!" my mom said to me, "I started composting again. It even has started to produce some soil!" Sure enough, the next morning when I went to dump out the compost, the bottom what I liked to call "doggie door" (cause that's what it looked like) had soil sprouting out of it. I was finally able to see the treasures that my beautiful compost bin has created, and I'm so happy that my patient and beautiful mom gets to reap the benefits.
I have decided, with my new roommates, to have a "compost bag" in our apartment next year. Luckily, Appalachian State has a community compost pile, so all we have to do is collect whatever we want composted in a paper bag, and drop it at the site each week! I'm very excited about this, and I hope my roommates are as well.
If you are interested on starting your own compost bin, here are the basic steps:
1- Set up your bin outside. If you put your bin somewhere sunny, your soil will develop faster! Keep in mind that your compost does need oxygen and moisture.
2- Collect your scraps. Aim for equal amounts of food scraps and yard waste. If you want to speed up the process even further, add a couple worms of a bag of microorganisms (which can be found at any store with an outdoor garden section)
3- Wait for your compost to make its soil. Once it has, add it to your garden. Keep it mind that the soil produced by a compost bin acts more as a fertilizer than regular soil, so you don't want to only rely on that for your plants.
Here's some does and don'ts for what to put in your compost:
Do! Add fruits and veggies
Don't! Add any fish, meat or dairy products (With only a few exceptions, if it's not vegan, don't add it)
Do! Add grass clippings, leaves, and (untreated) wood shavings
Don't! Add any diseased or toxic plants
Do! Add egg shells
Don't! Add weeds
Do! Add coffee grounds or loose leaf teas
Don't! Add pet feces or kitty litter
Do! Add newspapers
Don't! Add citrus peels or onions (It can kill the worms and other microorganisms that help speed up the decomposing process)
I hope that this has been helpful and that, even though I basically failed, it encourages you to start your own compost bin, or start collecting your waste for your communities' pile. Have a great week!
Much Love,
Tori-Beth
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