Monday, March 10, 2008

Portland makes composting easier -- and cheaper

Last summer, I chronicled my (largely unsucessful) attempts to start a home-composting system. Now, with spring just around the corner, the city of Portland is giving me a chance to start afresh -- with a manageable price tag, to boot.

For $37.50, city residents can get an 80-gallon Earth Machine compost bin (normal retail value: $80) -- just put your kitchen scraps (and shredded paper) into the recycled plastic container, and eventually, they'll be transformed into rich garden soil. Not only will this reduce household waste, but it'll save Portland some money: "Last year, the Riverside Recycling Center received 6800 tons of yard waste and brush from Portland residents costing the City more than $335,000 to manage," a city press release reads.

Order forms are available online, and compost bins (as well as a few accessories) will be available for pickup on May 10.

This is what it looks like, if you're wondering:

My one remaining question is: What do us apartment-dwellers DO with our compost if we don't have gardens or yards to put it in?

3/10/2008 10:26:12 AM by Deirdre Fulton | Comments [1] |

Friday, March 14, 2008 10:03:21 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Deirdre-

I'm trying to get in touch with parks and recreation about the possibility of their hosting a bin or two in various community playgrounds and parks, many of which are within easy compost-delivery distance of peninsula apartment-dwellers. Hopefully, if neighborhood residents are willing to pay for the bins, parks and rec will provide the real estate to host them - especially if they can get good soil as part of the bargain. Give the parks and cemeteries division a call at 874-8793 if you'd like to support the idea.

For the time being, though, most neighborhood community gardens have bigger compost bins where you can dump your apartment compost. I used the one on Clark + Salem this past summer.

Christian McNeil

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