Commercial Composting

6 September 2016 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.1 Composting Tagged 0 guest post, 3.2.5 composting & compostables

Ever wonder about how much waste we really throw away each year? Well, studies estimate that 30 to 40 percent of the food produced in the United States goes to waste 30 to 40 percent of the food produced in the United States goes to waste, often ending up in landfills. In 2014, an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study found that the U.S. tosses over 3.8 million tons of food every single year.

That’s tragic because so many people in the world are going hungry. Food waste also contributes to global warming and disposing of it costs a lot of money. Using our food more efficiently would be a more permanent solution to the problem, but there are some things we can do to improve our disposal process as well. With composting, disposal doesn’t have to mean the end of food’s useful life and may even have some positive environmental attributes.

How Composting Works

Composting allows us to recycle organic materials, including many food items, yard waste, animal products and paper products. It uses a natural process that’s integral to life here on earth, the decomposition process that breaks down these materials into rich soil from which plants can grow.

Composting takes that natural phenomenon and accelerates it using one of several different methods. Individuals and families can compost their food and yard waste in their own backyards. Large companies sometimes compost their own leftover materials. Some local governments also organize composting operations, and local businesses might offer composting services to nearby residents. These services can be a perfect, easy-to-use solution to our organic waste disposal problem.

Composting Methods

Beyond simple backyard composting, there are a number of methods that large-scale composting operations employ.

Aerated Static Pile Composting

One of the simplest methods for composting large amounts of waste is aerated static pile composting. It involves placing well-mixed organic waste into a large pile, along with bulking agents such as woodchips or shredded paper. This method can produce compost within three to six months.

Aerated Windrow Composting

Aerated, or turned, windrow composting involves placing waste in rows that are about four to eight feet tall and 14 to 16 feet wide. These rows, called windrows, must be turned occasionally so that the inner part of the pile ends up in the outside and vice versa. This method is ideal for particularly large amounts of waste.

In-Vessel Composting

In-vessel compost allows for more control of the composting process and produces results quickly. In this method, compost is placed into contained spaces such as large drums, enclosed tunnels or other containers where machinery regularly turns it. This produces usable composts in a few weeks to a few months.

How to Get Involved

Other popular methods of disposing of household organic waste, such as garbage disposals, can be useful but don’t have all the same capabilities as composting. Garbage disposals, for instance, can’t handle solid items like peach pits. Regular trash collection has environmental consequences.

Composting can take care of many different kinds of waste, is environmentally friendly compared to other methods and produces a useful end result – compost that can be used to grow crops and other plants.

Many people don’t have room, time or ability to compost their own waste. For these people, commercial composting methods are the solution. Contact your local government and search for nearby businesses to see if organic waste collection and composting services exist in your area — and whether you can get some freshly made compost for your garden.

Bio:

Emily is a sustainability writer and the editor of Conservation Folks.

Please note…

This post was written by the contributor.

Read more about composting, compost bins and other rotten posts HERE

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Worm Bins

24 March 2016 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.1 Composting Tagged 5 Content Veiw

Composting is a great way to dispose of kitchen waste and reduce your carbon footprint, but what if you don’t have room for a compost bin? Worm bins are often touted as the answer. This is as it sounds, a bin full of worms – worms that transform food scraps into compost. It can, so the adverts say, be kept in the kitchen. I always wanted to try worm composting so I sent off for a worm bin from the internet. It consisted of four stackable plastic boxes (the type found in stationers), a bag of worms and some food. It looked basic but it was considerably cheaper than the others.

I decided to keep mine in the garage. I stacked the boxes, tipped the worms in and left the lights on all night as per instructions. All went well till the night the lights were turned off. The stackable boxes did not form a sealed unit and there were numerous gaps through which the worms could escape. While it was bright outside the light sensitive worms stayed put, as soon as it got dark they left their bin and went exploring the garage. Next morning saw me picking up worms with the barbeque tongs while VB complained loudly about the desecration of his drill bits. He threatened to sacrifice the worms on the bird table if a solution wasn’t found.

So I fashioned a worm proof bin from the compost caddy. I installed a drainage tap to drain off the worm tea (a juice created as the food in the bin rots down). I covered the base with a layer of gravel so the worms didn’t drown in the tea and the compost didn’t block the tap outlet. It was rather like the one built here, the first bin, Then I carefully decanted the worms and wished them well in their new home.

Mindful of the bird table threats I moved the into the cellar.

I mollycoddled those worms. I cut the food scraps up into worm size pieces and gave them ripped up newspaper and cardboard – apparently they delight in it. Nothing. Instead of piles of compost all I had was a bin full of festering food. The arrival of the fruit flies was the last straw. Fed up with the ungrateful liggers I capped the bin with soil and cut off food supplies.

A couple of weeks later I went down to get a hammer and found the bin standing in a lake of worm tea. Yay!

This fluid (it is claimed on many site), is a superior plant feed and can be used to cure black spot on roses. There it was dribbling from my poorly fitted tap. It is a sign that the worm bin is working as it should. Indeed a quick rummage in the bin revealed healthy looking worms the size of anacondas. Worm tea was another reason I wanted a worm bin. Hundreds of sites on the internet claimed that this could be used as a fantastic liquid plant food. Plastic free plant food I thought. Turns out I was wrong.

So worm feeding resumed. By bin does not work fast enough to make a meaningful impact on our kitchen waste but it’s a start. Apparently it will increase with time. I don’t think I have the patience – but then I have a perfectly good compost bin in the garden.

And no wI find that worm tea might not be that good either.

“The watery drainage that seeps out of the bottom of a bin is not compost tea as many sites assert. Leaching through yet undigested food waste, this leachate (as it is known) could contain toxic anaerobic microbes that would be harmful to plants.

Not only will there be unmineralized organic compounds, but there is the potential for contamination of pathogen organisms and coliform bacteria that can come from some of the raw materials (another reason to always pre-compost fresh manure) put into worm bin systems.

The best place for this leachate to go is back in the bin. That way, it gets exposed to the worm’s gut to be innoculated with good microbes and is excreted fully sanitised.” Thanks Sierra Worm Compost!

Still fancy trying it? If you decide to buy a worm bin my advice is to spend the extra. The more expensive bins boast such conveniences as worm proof lids – a definite bonus. There are hundreds of internet companies selling bins. Here’s one chosen at random.

If you want to make a bin, there are good instructions here. I recommend the first option, the bin with the tap, rather than the second, the stackable boxes.

This is a good article on worm composting and how to get worms for free. N.B. the home made bin looks rather like the one I bought, the leaky one.

If you want to keep your bin outside you have to protect it from extreme heat and cold. There may be better outdoor options.

Don’t like worms but fancy composting? Read this intro

Compostable Plastics Index

5 June 2015 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 1.3 Plastic Types - Fact Sheets, 3.1 Composting Tagged 1.1 Plastic Lifecycle, 1.6 Definitions 7 Comments

Plastic was the name given to early synthetic products such as cellophane, that were derived from cellulose. These plastics were biodegradable. Then they learnt how to make similar products from oil. Or rather from the bits of crude left over after they had finished making petrol. The same name was then given the oil derived product. But there were crucial differences. This new product was made in a very different way and did NOT biodegrade.Since then yet more “plastics” have hit the market. Made from all kinds of things. Some from plant starch and some are certified compostable.

To conclude;
Currently, non- biodegradable, oil derived plastics are the most commonly used and so we tend to ascribe their qualities to all types of plastic.
In fact plastics can be made in a variety of ways from a variety of materials; shale gas, oil, plants even chicken feathers;
And different plastics have very different qualities. Some plastics do biodegrade and are certified compostable
Want to know more about plastic? Read up here

Biodegradable, Compostable Plastics

Just to remind you:
What is biodegradable? Biodegradable products break down through a naturally occurring microorganism into simple, stable compounds which can be absorbed into the ecosystem. More about biodegrading here
What is compostable? To be classed compostable, items must biodegrade within a certain time (around the rate at which paper biodegrades), and the resulting biomass must be free of toxins, able to sustain plant life and be used as an organic fertilizer or soil additive.
For a man-made product to be sold as compostable, it has to meet certain standards. One such is the European Norm EN13432.
You can find out more here.

Home Or Industrial Compostable?

Composting can be done at home, by community or on a much larger scale by the council

Home Composting
Composting is usually done on a small scale and most people will be familiar with the concept of a backyard heap or garden compost where household waste is rotted down into garden mulch.

Composting Plastic At Home
While most agree that PLA plastic is indeed compostable, many say that it can only composted in large scale municipal schemes.
They are wrong. I have been composting plastics for years.
Read more HERE

To be sure you are using a compostable plastic get one that has been certified compostable. Check out the logo.

Compostable Plastic Products

See a wide range HERE

Industrial composting
However large-scale schemes are becoming increasingly popular. In the UK communities band together to compost a whole street is worth of waste. Even city councils are getting in on the act.
These larger projects are sometimes called industrial composting

The difference is is that industrial composting is a lot hotter and can work more quickly.

Composting On A Larger Scale

Case Study – A Cafe
Cute Boscastle National Trust Cafe uses compostable disposables and composts them. Read more HERE

Other options include Community Composting
Community composting is where local community groups share the use and management of a common composting facility.
And Municipal or Industrial Comosting
Read more HERE
How councils compost on a large scale – read more HERE

Compostable Plastic Products

These compostable plastics, like oil derived, are extremely versatile.
They can be thin and flimsy which means they can be used to make

PLA Compostable Plastic Bags

And longer lasting products like phone cases

See a wide range of compostable products HERE

Compostable Plastics Types
Cellulose derived plastics such as Cellophane.
Starch based PLA plastics. They are certified compostable.
Polyhydroxyalkanoates or PHAs are linear polyesters produced in nature by bacterial fermentation of sugar or lipids.
chicken feathers bioplastic.

A Note On Bioplastics
Most compostable plastics are also bioplastics. Bioplastics are made from natural materials such as corn starch.
However not all are compostable. For example ethane based plastics as used Coca-Cola’s PlantBottle which replaces 30 percent of the ethanol in their normal polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottle with 30 percent plant-derived ethanol. This means the bottle is still considered PET and can be recycled but is NOT biodegradable. Find out more here.

Other Plastics
There is research being done into developing a compostable, oil-derived plastic. Watch this space BUT don’t fall for the old *biodegradable plastic bag trick see below.

*Compostable versus biodegradable plastics
You might see some plastics labelled described as biodegradable. You could be forgiven for thinking that this is the same as compostable plastic. It is not. Some “biodegradable plastics” are oil derived plastics with a degrading initiator added to make them fall apart (degrade) more quickly. Unlike compostable plastics they don’t always break down into harmless substances and may leave behind a toxic residue. Read more here

Compostable Plastic Products

Sponge Cloth Biodegradable

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Glitter biodegradable

Yes you can get biodegradable glitter and this Etsy company sell it in compostable packaging. Yay! Overview Handmade item Materials: ...
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Vegware – compostable fast-food disposables

Vegware is the UK's first and only completely compostable packaging company. Vegware is forging and leading its own new sector – combining ...
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Pet bowls biodegradable

For the plastic free pooch in your life, a biodegradable plastic food bowl! "Eco-friendly and functional, Becothings are tough and ...
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Cardboard Cups & Pots

So you find what looks like a cardboard container full of yummy ice cream or you see that your favourite ...
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Dog poop disposal

This is something I really hate …. plastic bags of dog @*%! hanging from the bushes. But then plastic bags ...
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Disposable Cups

Disposable cups are made from plastic lined paper, polystyrene or plastic. To make paper cups water proof they are laminated with polyethylene, ...
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Straws Compostable

The picture shows a turtle with a plastic straw stuck in its nose (You can watch the video in full ...
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Snact in compostable packaging

Snacks... so good when trekking, so hard to source plastic free. The best we have is loose nuts as sold ...
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Greencane Tissues/ Paper Productsd

A while ago a company called Greencane sent me some tissues through the post. Not just tissues but toilet paper and kitchen ...
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Plant Pots Compostable

Took this form a very interesting article here. I will be looking into them more closely in the future Low-‘e’ ...
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Cutlery – disposable & compostable

Though it's not the greenest option there are times when disposable partyware is the only choice. For our last big bash, ...
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PLA Starch Bags – compostable plastic bags.

PLA starch bags are described as a compostable plastic.Which can be confusing as they are a very different product from ...
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Pots – PLA compostable

These deli pots are made from PLA plastic. This looks and acts just like plastic but is made from corn starch ...
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Companies using compostable plastic.

Snact

Our new innovative packaging, developed by Israeli start-up TIPA, is just as durable and impermeable as ordinary plastic – but it biologically decomposes within just 180 days and becomes a fertiliser for soil, behaving similarly to an orange peel. Read more here.

Vegware
A while ago I got sent some Vegware stuff to review. Vegware make disposable, compostable packaging for the fast-food industry. Hooray for them …. but I am not in fast food. So what would I be using them for? For starters…

Eco For Life
If you must drink bottled water this might interest you; water packaged in PLA compostable plastic bottles

Remember, not all bio- plastics can be composted and some are not as green as they sound

Check out all our composting posts HERE
Want to know more about plastic? Read up here
See our big list of plastic types here

N.B.

lines changes, products get removed. For more information why not ask the Plastic Is Rubbish FB group for updates. They are a great source of tidbits, personal experience and the latest news. Why not join them and share the plastic free love x

And before you go…

If you have found the #plasticfree information useful, please consider supporting us. It all goes to financing the project (read more here) or

Friends who compost…

23 March 2015 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.1 Composting 3 Comments

Don’t fancy composting yourself? Neither did Jen! So she found a super green option! Heres an extract from her post

I have to be honest – I put off composting for a long time. We have a small garden and I didn’t want to pong it out with a large
bin of old rotting food. Plus I’m not paricularly green fingered. At most, I’ll have a pot of herbs in the kitchen, which sometimes I accidentally kill. I’m not sure I would use the resulting soil.

So I found a person locally who was willing to pick up my compost.

There’s a website called Streetlife “the local social network” where you can communicate with your community.

composting as one…

25 February 2015 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.1 Composting, 3.6 Good to know Tagged 4.8 The Rest 8 Comments

Disposing Of Biodegradable Waste

Composting accelerates the natural process of biodegrading or rotting down organic waste material into a rich soil or compost. Its the only sustainable way to deal with our waste… we love it.

It sounds complex, and many treat it as some kind of arcane science, but basically you pile your biological waste into a compost bin, keep it warm and it rots down naturally into a rich soil or compost. I do it without much effort. If it took much effort I wouldn’t! With the right bins you can turn all your scraps into plant food, or, if you don’t need plant food, dispose of your waste ecologically.

Great Reasons to Compost

You can use your compost bin for garden litter which saves on boring trips to the tip.
You can dispose of your own kitchen waste which it gobbles up by the bucket load.
You can keep biodegradable waste out of landfill. Why? Well, biodegradable waste does not do well in the unnatural conditions of landfill. It bubbles away producing methane which adds to the greenhouse effect.
And so, composting reduces your carbon footprint by diverting biodegradable waste from landfill.
It is a practical investment for the future. The Uk government is committed to reducing the amount of biodegradable waste in landfill by 50%, by the year 2020. As 30% of UK domestic waste is organic this will affect us all. Setting up a home composting system is just getting ahead of the game.
Cuts our dependance on waste collection services by taking responsibility for our own waste.
Cut bin liners. No need to wrap my mushy waste as it all goes straight in the compost bin. Read living without bin liners for more information.

How It Works

All natural (as oppose to synthetic) materials do eventually biodegrade or rot. Here’s how long it takes for some commonly used products to biodegrade, when they are scattered about as litter:

Paper ~ 2-5 months
Cotton rags ~ 1-5 month
Natural fiber rope ~ 3-14 months
Orange peel ~6 months
Wool socks ~1 to 5 years
Leather shoes ~25 to 40 years
Tin cans ~ 50 to 100 years
Composting speeds up that process and results in a lovely rich soil additive that can be spread on the garden to feed the plants and micro beasties.
It is also a way of managing your own waste. If every bit of trash was compostable you could get out of that destructive relationship with your landfill bin.

Useful composting information

Biodegradable –Biodegradable products break down through a naturally occurring microorganism, such as fungi or bacteria over a period of time. More about biodegrading here

Compostable – To be classed compostable, items must biodegrade within a certain amount of time, the resulting biomass must be free of toxins, able to sustain plant life and be used as an organic fertilizer or soil additive.

Composting Standards For a man-made product to be legally sold as compostable, it has to meet rigorous composting standards

How to Compost?

So you are now hot to rot but which bin to go with?

A heap…
You can compost in a heap which is just as it sounds. You heap your compostables up and leave them to rot down. However composting works quicker when there is heat. To create heat you need to contain your heap. It needs enclosing.

Build a wooden bin…
These bins are not fully sealed. Animals (rats and mice) can get in so you need to be careful what you put on them. No meat dairy or cooked food. You can quickly and cheaply build a compost bin out of scrap wood or pallets. Or you can buy wooden frames ready made.

Here are some instructions on how to build a compost bin
Here is a ready made wooden bins

Plastic Ready Made Bins
The next option is to buy a ready made plastic bin.
Basic Bin I got my first bin from the council. It didn’t work for me.. rats invaded my bin and refused to leave. Other people manage though. Rats can get in these bins because they are not fully sealed.

Enclosed Systems I use an enclosed system called the Green Johanna to compost everything. Yes its plastic but you can compost meat, dairy, cooked food and NO RATS. Highly Reccomended!

Underground Systems If you just want to get rid of your waste rather than use the resulting compost, you could try an underground composting system. You put your rubbish in and the ground eats it. One such is the green cone that just eats your biodegradable rubbish. Underground bins can also be used to compost your pet poop .

Composting Indoors

Electrical Units
This is a nifty little electric composting unit that you can keep indoors in a kitchen cupboard

Other Ways

Bokashi Bins are not strictly composting but pickling. Great to use in conjunction with worm bins.

Worm bins – a bin of worms that eat your rubbish.

Read all about these bins here……

Bokashi Bins

Because I love all things compost, I invested in a Bokashi kit - two bins with taps and bokashi bran ...
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Carpark composting

It's a compost bin... in a car park.... next to the other rubbish bins. How cool. How French! ...
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Compost Bin – underground

You can put ALL your food waste into your Green Cone including meat, fish, bones, dairy products, vegetables and fruit. There ...
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Compost Bin basic – cheap but rats!

I’ve had my compost bin for 14 months now and I am very pleased with it. I use it for ...
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Compost bin in a kitchen cupboard

I am lucky enough to have a garden where I can keep my compost bin. However if you don't have ...
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Compost Bin the Green Johanna

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Dog poop disposal

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Worm Bins

Composting is a great way to dispose of kitchen waste and reduce your carbon footprint, but what if you don’t ...
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Plastic and Composting

Buy

There are plenty of links in the posts links above to the suppliers

If you can’t do that then I have put together and Amazon catalogue. Yes I know..


Biard Eco Recycled Platic Environmentally F… £27.99	Blackwall Twin Pack Bokashi Bin £36.00	Bokashi Bran 3kg £16.50

Green Johanna Hot Composter £104.00	Hatch for Blackwall Compost Converter £7.50	Wooden Composter Large £34.99

Wooden Compost Bin 328L in BeeHive Style 337 £54.95	FSC Classic Single Wooden Compost Bin £84.99	FSC Classic Triple Wooden Compost Bin £209.99

Amazon is a very dirty word at the moment and I thought long and hard before suggesting them. Heres why I went ahead….. No we are not entirely happy with Amazons recent history. However, we have always found their service to be good and their packaging usually compostable.

If you buy a product via this link we do get an affiliation fee for this. This is not why we do it.

https://wp.me/s4gI1n-9595

Sung to the tune of… can you guess…. on the count of three

Imagine no incineration
No chimneys towering high
no clouds of toxic ashes
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Composting today…

Imagine there’s no black bins – it isn’t hard to do
Nothing to burn or landfill
so no methane too
Imagine all the people
composting in peace

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will compost as one

Imagine no recycling
I wonder if you can
No more single use dipsosables
only products with a long lifespan
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world…

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will compost as one

See our composting posts here

Compost Bin – underground

15 February 2015 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.1 Composting Tagged 5 Content Veiw 2 Comments

You can put ALL your food waste into your Green Cone including meat, fish, bones, dairy products, vegetables and fruit. There are so many good reasons to compost not least because you can dispense with bin liners.

“The waste is digested rather than composted and is primarily reduced to water. This nutrient rich water enters the soil under the base of the digestion unit. There is no need to turn waste over like in a traditional composter.

For anyone who does not have the time to compost, the Green Cone is the ultimate waste food disposal solution. Most Green Cones produce so little residue that they will need cleaning only once every few years.

Features
Composts ALL food waste
Completely natural process
No need to turn waste over”

Composting at it’s easiest, though perhaps not it’s most attractive!

You can buy them from Even Greener who claim that

4. CREDENTIALS Most of our products are made in the UK in our own factory.
5. GREEN MANUFACTURE Most of our compost bins and water butts are made from recycled plastic using renewable energy.
6. PRICE GUARANTEE Find it cheaper elsewhere and we will refund the difference.*
7. SATISFACTION GUARANTEED Not 100% delighted? Return your goods within 30 days for a full refund.**

See more composting posts here

Bokashi Bins

14 February 2015 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.1 Composting Tagged 5 Content Veiw 4 Comments

Because I love all things compost, I invested in a Bokashi kit – two bins with taps and bokashi bran.

Lots of articles you read will say that you can use a bokashi bin to make compost. NO YOU CAN NOT. At least not in the sense that word is usually used. You can use it to make pickled, partially-dehydrated, fermented waste. However the resulting material still needs to be aged in soil or a compost bin before it can be used on the garden.

This is a two stage process.

BUT you can use the bokashi process to store a lot of food waste for weeks in a small bucket before further composting it. So what’s is the point of that?

It makes a green waste collection service viable.
Bokashi juice it is claimed makes a great house plant feed though some dispute that.
Reduces trips to the compost bin if your bin is on your allottment say.
It is a good way to start the decomposition process

How it works

The bokashi bin is a Japanese system that pickles your waste.

You put the waste in a bin ( can be anything including meat)
press it down hard and sprinkle with bacteria (bokashi) laced bran.
The bacteria begin to pickle your waste.
As it does so the waste begins to ooze juice. This you drain off. This juice can be used as a liquid feed.
Once the bucket is full you leave it to stand.
You can fit two weeks waste of two people (who cook fresh everyday) into one bucket.

What to do with your pickled waste?

You can feed it to the worms in your worm bin. Bokashi is claimed to help in a limited space worm composting system. Compressing food waste means you can fit so much more in your worm bin and because it is part broken down, they deal with it more quickly.
You can put it on the compost heap again benefitting from reduced space requirements and increased composting times
You can dig it into the soil but you need to bury it deep to avoid attracting hungry animals who will dig it back up again. Personally I cannot see the point in that!

Not tried this you can also bury your fermented food waste in an enclosed bin or box. Best to use a bin that has at least a 20 gal capacity. Start by adding 1″ of soil to bottom of bin. Next, add your fermented food waste. Add some more soil on top of that and mix it in with the food waste. Pour 3″-4″ inches of soil on top of food waste, soil mixture and pack it down. Cover the bin. Food waste should be completely broken down and ready to plant in 4-5 weeks. You can continue to stack additional fermented waste on top until your bin is full. Plant your favorite veggies directly in bin when food waste has been completely broken down.
here are links to people who do this in the U.K. “You add the pickled veg to the bottom of a pot or mix it in with the compost. You then need to let it settle for a couple of weeks, but then you can grow in it. The pickled veg rots down very quickly once in the soil. Basically, bokashi vastly accelerates the decomposition process – so although you don’t get ready made compost out of it, it is well on its way. Personally I prefer to use worm compost, but bokashi is a useful alternative.”

I can testify that bokashi bins work really well for storing waste but because my compost bin is so great,(it can compost anything and is rat proof), and is close by ( just at the end of our very small garden) I don’t really have much use for my Bokashi bin.

I do use it very cold winters when the daily trip to the bin is just too horrid.

I thought I was getting a good deal with the liquid feed but this article suggest otherwise. “The majority of nutrients in food scraps is contained in large molecules like protein, DNA, carbohydrates, fats, oils etc. Since bokashi does not break down the food scraps these nutrients are still bound up in large molecules at the end of the bokashi process. That is why an apple still looks like an apple at the end of the process. The nutrients will not get released until the future composting process is completed.”

Interesting stuff as is this. Bokashi in way more detail

Buy

You can buy bokashi bins from Even Greener who claim that

4. CREDENTIALS Most of our products are made in the UK in our own factory. Including these bins.
5. GREEN MANUFACTURE Most of our compost bins and water butts are made from recycled plastic using renewable energy.
6. PRICE GUARANTEE Find it cheaper elsewhere and we will refund the difference.*
7. SATISFACTION GUARANTEED Not 100% delighted? Return your goods within 30 days for a full refund.**

Make

If you are handy you can apparently make everything yourself including bokashi bran. I have never tried but seen online links.

Cup to Compost – National trust, Boscastle

30 May 2014 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.1 Composting, 3.5 Plastic Free People, Projects & Campaigns, 3.7 Other Solutions Tagged 3.2.5 composting & compostables 4 Comments

Our tour in the plastivan took us through Boscastle, a lovely old harbour and coastline maintained by the fantastic National Trust. In addition to keeping footpaths open and other essential maritime maintenance, they operate a cafe shop and visitor center (with immaculate toilets), down by the harbour. So far so good!

Not so good was that the cafe was using disposable paper cups! Eeek! As you know, most paper cups are in fact plastic lined and so not very disposable. Bah! Was just about to turn round and leave when I noticed that these cups were from Vegware. Vegware dont line their cardboard cups with the usual conventional non biodegradable plastic but a certified compostable lining. You can read more here.

Now I wanted to take photos! And ask lots of questions! Which Jon kindly answered. As he says”… when the cafe first opened in 2009, there wasn’t a modern conventional sewage system in Boscastle, and all the waste that would normally go for treatment went straight into the sea. Because of this, we were reluctant to have a commercial dish washer in the cafe that would have just contributed to this waste, and so looked for viable alternatives. Finding a fully compostable solution in the cups, cup sleeves, plates and wooden cutlery was part of the solution to this problem, but without making sure that they were composted afterwards it wouldn’t have been such a positive environmental statement from what is, after all, a conservation charity…. we collect the cups, cup holders, plates and the untreated wooden cutlery that we use, and they are taken to a local farmer who shreds them. He then mixes them with his green waste and composts them into a peat free mulch substitute. This mulch is hen taken to the National Trust plant nurseries at Lanhydrock House near Bodmin, who grow, amongst all the other plant, the plants that are sold in the National Trust shop that adjoins the cafe in Boscastle. By doing it this way, we not only successfully recycle the disposables from the national Trust Cafe in Boscastle, but we contribute to saving the limited resources of peat bogs.”

Well done you!

Carpark composting

1 January 2014 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.1 Composting Tagged 5 Content Veiw 1 Comment

It’s a compost bin… in a car park…. next to the other rubbish bins. How cool. How French!

Dog poop disposal

21 August 2013 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.1 Composting, 3.1 House, Office & Garden, 3.1.7 Wo/M/animals Tagged 00 compostable plastic, 3.1.6 Garden, 3.1.7 Pets & Animals, 5 Content Veiw 3 Comments

This is something I really hate …. plastic bags of dog @*%! hanging from the bushes.

But then plastic bags of dog poop anywhere are a bad idea and a big problem!

According to PFMA (Pet Food Manufacturers’ Association) the dog population of the U.K., in 2014, stood at 9 million. The average dog according to Streetkleen produces 340g of fecal matter per day x 9,000,000 dog population = 3,060 tonnes of poo per day x 365 days per year =1,111,900 tonnes of dog poo annually.

Why Not Landfill?

Putting plastic bags of poop in landfill is problematic for the following reasons

Biodegradable waste does not do well in the unnatural conditions of landfill. It bubbles away producing methane another more potent greenhouse gas.
The non biodegradable waste, plastic, is there for ever.
As of April 2016 Landfill Tax is £84.40 per tonne . At over a million tons that poop costs a lot.
we are running out of holes

What to do?

But how do you dispose of dog poop responsibly and environmentally?
Seems there are two options:
Flushing:
Composting.

Flushing

Here’s what the United States Environmental Protection Agency has to say about cleaning up pet waste.

“Pet waste can be a major source of bacteria and excess nutrients in local waters. . . Flushing pet waste is the best disposal method. Leaving pet waste on the ground increases public health risks by allowing harmful bacteria and nutrients to wash into the storm drain and eventually into local waterbodies.”

If you don’t fancy using your own toilet you can get an attachment for your outside drain. The doggybog.

The Doggybog™ unit fits onto your existing outdoor soil pipe and can be DIY fitted in less than 30 minutes. Simple removal of the cap means that you can throw the dog waste down the pipe, then with the cap replaced you can flush it away. Your dog poo goes into the sewage system never to be seen or smelled again.

Pet poop composter

Use compostable plastic bags such as BioBag dog bags and get a pet poop composter. You can read more about compostable plastics here and you can find cheaper than Biobags by Googling.

Use them in conjunction with a pet poop composter. I believe that composting is the future. A household that can turn its own waste into food for the plants is truly sustainable and delightfully green. And who wouldn’t want to be any of those? I have a number of compost bins BUT I don’t have a pet so cannot try this. I thought of getting a puppy but apparently they are for life, not just for composting.

How they work…
A pet waste composter is a bin set in the ground. Chuck the pop in and nature will deal with it naturally. It will compost away. Just to reiterate, the resulting material is left in place. It is not meant to be used as compost, rather that the composting process is used to naturally dispose of dog poop!

Have a look at these ready made dog waste composters. You bury it in the back garden and drop in the poop.

Here is an Australian product called Yard Art in action

Here is a home made one

And an article, you can read on the subject.
Using the Compost…nooooooooo

MATT SULLIVAN writes a thoughtful and informative piece about the joys and perils of pet poop composting. As he says “several writers discourage pet owners from the practice at all. Others gave specific warnings of not using the final composted product in any edible gardens. A handful wrote that the compost from domestic animals was safe and could be used in vegetable crops.”

But, despite doom laden warnings, he goes ahead and uses worms to compost his dog dirt. It’s a success and he concludes that “even if you have no desire to add compost to your garden, I believe it makes sense to be a good steward of your animals. You feel good, help out the environment, and have an excuse to spend time outside.”

Wise words.

A worm composting bin. Worms are eating the newspaper bedding and producing compost. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You can find hundreds of different composting methods here including links to worm bins and underground composers.

This is an interesting idea – biogas from dog poo.

Compostable Plastic Products I Have Composted

26 June 2013 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.1 Composting, 3.1 Disposables & Reusables Tagged 1.3 PLA Plastic Products, 1.3.2 bioplastic, 3.1.2 disposables, 3.1.4 bags & packaging, 3.2.5 composting & compostables 3 Comments

Compostable plastics come in various forms and are made in different ways. You can read all about compostable plastics here

Composting Plastic At Home
While most agree that some plastics are indeed biodegradable and compostable, many say that they can only composted in large scale municipal schemes. As we don’t have many large scale municipal schemes this they say is a pointless advantage.I say the days of large scale municipal schemes is fast approaching as governments aim to divert biodegradable rubbish from landfill sites.

But I have been composting my PLA plastic for years. Including Biobags , Deli pots and disposable Cutlery)
I have occasionally composted cellulose.
Both take longer than “natural” materials and sometimes I have found shreds in my compost but I dig it into the soil where it quickly disappears.
The thicker the PLA the longer it takes.
PLA Lined paper cups disappear in no time, the cutlery hung around for ages.

What is biodegradable?
Biodegradable products break down through a naturally occurring microorganism into simple, stable compounds which can be absorbed into the ecosystem. More about biodegrading here
What is compostable? To be classed compostable, items must biodegrade within a certain time (around the rate at which paper biodegrades), and the resulting biomass must be free of toxins, able to sustain plant life and be used as an organic fertilizer or soil additive. For a man-made product to be sold as compostable, it has to meet certain standards. One such is the European Norm EN13432. You can find out more here.

To be sure you are using a compostable plastic get one that has been certified compostable. Check out the logo.

Read more about compostable plastics here

We have used and composted the following products.

PLA Compostable Plastic Bags

These disposable, water-resistant bags are great for
fish and meat
Frozen foodstuffs and freezer bags.

Deli pots PLA

Waterproof plastic pots with lids are great for all manner of deli delights including
Cream cheese
Olives
Deli counter lovelies
They can also be used to storefood in the freezer.

Took longer than all the above but they did decompose.

Disposable Cutlery for our big party PLA

Took forever but eventually they did disappear.

Cellulose

The remains of my cellulose sponge cloths and the PLA wrapper they came in.
Toilet Rolls
Greencane deliver toilet rolls are wrapped in cellophane, a compostable plastic. Which I compost. Find out more about Greencaneproducts here.

How Do I Compost?

I have a Green Joanna compost bin and I compost up in the North of England

N.B.

Lines changes, products get removed. For more information why not ask the Plastic Is Rubbish FB group for updates. They are a great source of tidbits, personal experience and the latest news. Why not join them and share the plastic free love x

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If you have found the #plasticfree information useful, please consider supporting us. It all goes to financing the project (read more here) or

Composting Standards

12 March 2013 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 1.4 Additives Fact Sheets, 3.1 Composting, 3.6 Good to know Tagged 00 edit, 1.3 PLA Plastic Products, 3.2.5 composting & compostables 6 Comments

Composting accelerates the natural process of biodegrading or rotting down organic waste material into a rich soil or compost. Its the only sustainable way to deal with our waste… we love it.

Biodegradable means …..
Biodegradable products break down through a naturally occurring microorganism, such as fungi or bacteria over a period of time.
They must degrade into simple, stable compounds which can be absorbed into the ecosystem.
You can read more about that HERE

Compostable means…..
To be classed compostable, items must
Biodegrade within a certain time (around the rate at which paper biodegrades.)The resulting particles must be very small.
The resulting biomass must be free of toxins, able to sustain plant life and be used as an organic fertilizer or soil additive.

Composting Standards
For a man-made product to be sold as compostable, it has to meet certain standards. One such is the
European Norm EN13432
This is a EU Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste (94/62/EC), EN 13432:2000 – “Packaging: requirements for packaging recoverable through composting and biodegradation”
It was introduced in 2000.
It has been adopted by the UK and is published as BS EN 13432 by the British Standards Institution.
Comprehensive evidence has to be submitted before a product gets ‘compostable’ certification.

Home Composting V Industrial Composting

HOWEVER compostable in this instance means that these certified products will break down in an industrial composters.
Industrial composting are large scale schemes.
Home composting is a bin in your back yard.
The difference is is that industrial composting is a lot hotter and can work more quickly.
Therefore, while a product might be classed as both biodegradable and compostable, it might not break down in a backyard compost bin.

Home Composting

Vinçotte, a Belgian accredited inspection and certification organisation, provide a home composting certification service. Products that display the ‘OK Compost Home’ logo, can go in your bin.

The Association for Organics Recycling is working to establish a similar specification for the UK.

Compostable Plastics

Cellulose derived plastics such as Cellophane. These plant derived plastics are amongst the first examples of the product and do biodegrade.
Starch based plastics which are compostable such as PLA plastics. They are certified compostable and do biodegrade.

Composting Compostable Plastic At Home
While most agree that compostable plastic is indeed compostable, many say that it can only composted in industrial composters. As we don’t have many large scale municipal schemes this they say is a pointless advantage.I say the days of large scale municipal schemes is fast approaching as governments aim to divert biodegradable rubbish from landfill sites.
AND I have been composting my PLA plastic for years. We have used and composted a number of products (including Biobags , Deli pots and disposable Cutlery)
It does take longer than other products and sometimes I have found shreds of it in my compost but I dig it into the soil where it quickly disappears.

Bioplastics
Most compostable plastics are bioplastics. Bioplastics are made from natural materials such as corn starch. However not all are compostable. For example Ethane based plastics as used Coca-Cola’s PlantBottle which replaces 30 percent of the ethanol in their normal polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottle with 30 percent plant-derived ethanol. This means the bottle is still considered PET and can be recycled but is NOT biodegradable. Find out more here.

To be sure you are getting a compostable plastic get one that has been certified.

Check out all our composting posts HERE

Remember, not all bio- plastics can be composted and do not biodegrade – bioplastics dont mean biodegradable. Yup its confusing but try everything you ever wanted to know about plastic.but were too scared to ask, to find out a lot more about plastic.

Please note…

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Biodegradable, Compostable Plastics

Home Or Industrial Compostable?

Composting On A Larger Scale

Compostable Plastic Products

Companies using compostable plastic.

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How It Works

Useful composting information

How to Compost?

Composting Indoors

Other Ways

Plastic and Composting

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What to do?

Flushing

Pet poop composter

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Home Composting

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