Save trips to the outdoor compost bin

Here's a quick tip on composting kitchen scraps.
We have a nice big compost bin in our yard. In the summer it cooks our vegetable and fruit scraps into beautiful, black dirt. We love it. We've used this nutrient-rich dirt to plant trees, flowers and also to spread across our lawn as fertilizer.
The only trouble was the hassle of taking our scraps out to the bin every single meal time. I hated having to truck outside two or three times a day, especially in the cold weather and snow.
Luckily, my wife came up with a great solution. We just set up an empty half-gallon ice cream container on the kitchen counter. As you can see in the photo above, we lined it with a plastic bag. Then whenever I cook, I throw the scraps into the convenient bucket. When it gets full (about every 2 days) I take it out to the compost bin. Much easier! Sometimes the simple things mean most.
Follow the link for some good compost tumblers (the outdoors model).









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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-10-2006 @ 7:22PM
Jenny said...
We've got a really nice crock to put our compost in, with a filter on the top to stop it smelling. They sell them in williams-sonoma and I've even seen them on target.com. It seems a much less smelly way of doing things!!
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10-11-2006 @ 12:07AM
Daryl Kulak said...
Great suggestion, Jenny!
I guess I'm just too cheap to invest in a crock and filter from Williams-Sonoma. Surprisingly, our ice cream container doesn't stink up our kitchen. I don't know why, really. Maybe we take it outside often enough that it doesn't have a chance.
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11-04-2006 @ 4:05AM
Lynda said...
The Gisborne City Council, New Zealand were I live have come up with one step better. They now provide (for the small cost of $20) a bucket and bag full of emzymes in sawdust for sprinkling between layers of scraps. You squash it down with a potato masher and empty the bucket by digging the scraps straight into the garden. You can even include cooked food scraps and meat.
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