Composting adventures: The great seal

Waste & Recycling News reporter Kerri Jansen is writing about her experience with bokashi composting, a new type of composting developed in Japan and gaining popularity in the U.S. This is part 5 of her story. (Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4).

While preparing breakfast Saturday morning, I watched my friend pull two slices of burnt toast out of the toaster and with a grimace move to toss them into the trash can.

"COMPOST!" I yelled.

It was nearing the time I had planned to seal my bokashi compost bin before leaving it to ferment for about two weeks according to the instructions, and I still had a few inches to fill. I stepped up my scrap-collecting campaign, badgering my friends to forgo the trash can and, I'll admit, on one or two occasions actually digging into the trash can to retrieve compostable scraps.

I'm fortunate to have friends who will still speak to a girl who is elbow-deep in their trash can, giving them a dirty look for pitching a handful of vegetable bits.

Throughout this project, I've certainly become more conscious of how much food material goes unused in my apartment. I didn't think twice about it when washing scraps through my in-sink disposer, but having to stop and tug open a tightly sealed compost bin to find a place for those scraps is a constant reminder of just how much is wasted. A large part of those scraps is unusable rinds and peelings, but a significant portion of that waste could probably be avoided. If nothing else, this project has been eye-opening.

To the bin, I added eggshells from breakfast and, yes, the burnt toast on top of carrot peelings, potato skins and wilted lettuce. But there was still about two inches left empty. Then I hit on a brilliant idea: I'd carve Halloween jack-o-lanterns and top off the bin with pumpkin guts.

My friend Megan and I transformed a pair of pumpkins into a pirate and an angry face, then went to dump the slimy pumpkin insides into my compost bin. Megan said she definitely noticed a smell when I opened the bin, but it wasn't as bad as she had expected.

With Megan snapping photos, I added the pumpkin slop, mixed in a few handfuls of bran, packed it all down and ceremoniously sealed the bin. The next step is to let the contents of the bin ferment for at least 10 days, before opening the bin and finding – hopefully – compost ready for my roommate's garden.

I'll continue to post updates during this period. The instructions say to keep draining bokashi tea from the bottom of the bin, too. My spigot skills are improving; by the time I open the bin again, I'll be a bokashi tea expert. That's going on my résumé.

The Reckoning:

Percent of bin filled: 100%

Odor (1 = sunshine and daisies; 10 = putrid sludge): 2

Maintenance needed (1 = little to none; 10 = major hassle): 3

Friend/roommate cooperation (1 = polite tolerance; 10 = disowned forever): 2

w w w . w a s t e r e c y c l i n g n e w s . c o m

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