Recycling food waste – it’s a no-brainer mate!
Australia’s community and environment forum zoom in on some scary stats and remind us that, yes, we need to reuse and recycle, but one of the best ways to live a low-impact lifestyle is not to produce the waste in the first place. This is where composting comes in. If we can channel food waste away from the rubbish bin and into the bokashi or compost bin, collectively we’ll have a hugely positive impact on the amount of methane generated at landfill. Methane has a global warming potential of 21 times that of carbon dioxide.
This post describes the science in layman’s terms and invites readers to comment on their favourite way to recycle food waste. Of course, I added my two-pennies worth about the merits of bokashi composting! So, by composting our own food waste in a compost heap or bin, the carbon dioxide generated is far less harmful to the environment than the methane generated from that same waste going to landfill – it’s a no-brainer mate!
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Click here for more information on how to get the best out of your bokashi composter.
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Effective Micro-organisms make great cleaning products
The Recycle Works is at the forefront of all things EM in the UK. Here Debbie blogs about how effective micro-organisms (EMs) make great probiotic cleaning products. The featured video shows how EMs tackle grease on a busy restaurant floor. Impressive stuff, plus they’re environmentally friendly. Could this mean the end of bleach?
I’ve written about the merits of bokashi juice on my Bokashi Instructions page. There I talked about how EM-rich bokashi juice (the by-product to bokashi composting) can prevent algae build-up in drains. I’ve also noticed how well bokashi juice cleans stains from around the plug when it’s poured down the sink, but with commercial products being developed, this takes the benefits of micro-organisms to a whole new level.
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Journalist Kate Hodal takes the compost challenge
Kate Hodal from Aberdeen’s the Press and Journal has taken the compost challenge. You can read about a worm massacre, fermented organic matter and nitrogen injected banana skins in her entertaining and informative pitch on the tribulations of being green. Find out about bokashi, wormeries and more conventional green thumb techniques to recycle food waste. She’s spoken to Carl Nichols, head of home composting at Recycle Now and she gets Heather Gorringe’s from wigglywigglers.co.uk take on bokashi and wormeries – “I might have drowned mine, but it’s worms’ resilience that makes them such good composters”. Recycling food waste is moving higher up the agenda for people and Kate reminds us that “one-third of all household waste can be composted at home”.
Kate provides us with a bit of know-how so we can ‘avoid some of these pitfalls and reap the benefits’ of home composting. Because, as Carl Nichols says, home composting, whether it’s a wormery, a Bokashi bin, or saving fruit and veg scraps to put in to your compost bin, doesn’t just give you nice, enriched soil to feed back into your plants, it also cuts down on your waste, clears our air, and keeps our planet from overheating. Read the ‘Take the compost challenge’ article.
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Click here for more information on how to get the best out of your bokashi composter.
