The New York City Compost Project
Funded by the New York City Department of Sanitation, the New York City Compost Project provides compost outreach and education to New York City residents and business, featuring composting workshops, landscaper training, and even a master composter certificate course so you can lord over your dirt by squelching it under the jackboot of authority.
During a number of special events called compost givebacks, you’re free to shovel and cart off as much compost as you and your hungry plants desire (while supplies last, of course). Even better, NYC residents can buy home compost bins, made from recycled plastic, for a heavily discounted price of $20.
Because we compost our scraps at our local community garden, we’ve found that we rarely have to take out our trash anymore, since there’s hardly anything in it that rots or smells. It’s the CIIIIIRCLE of LIIIIIIIFFFE with the bonus of less moola spent on garbage bags.
No room or community garden? You can always swing your vegetable trimmings by the Union Square Farmers’ Market composting-collection booth, as well.
Related articles:
1. What to Do With Doggy Doo?
2. Compost This
This Christmas, instead of getting a nasty El Fake-o tree most likely made from PVC (and in China), or a questionably harvested, pesticide-ridden cut tree that could haul in glad tidings of chlorpyriforus (a suspected neurotoxin) and other chemicals into your living room, consider a living Christmas tree. Organic potted trees are available at organic nurseries and selected tree farms. When Ol’ St. Nick has finished making his rounds and the glitter has fallen off the tinsel, you can either replant the tree in your backyard or keep it in your garage or by your house (depending on your climate) for next year’s festivities.
If you live in San Francisco or Portland, Oregon, you can even rent a living Christmas Tree (starting at $55 for a 7-foot Douglas fir) that will be delivered to you, then picked up after New Year’s to be replanted in areas such as parks and school districts. Personally, our tiny apartment is going tree-free (except for some paper standup trees we got free a few years ago). I don’t think our holidays will be any less merry or bright because of that. Just wait till my bipeds stick a pair of fuzzy antlers on me again. Bah Humbug.
Dustywheat said,
November 28, 2006 at 7:16 pm
You think you can pick one of those up for me at $20 a pop? I bet I could even smuggle it on a plane as carry on luggage, as long as I have no liquid or gel or aerosol cans…
But really that’s cool about the classes for composting and such. I’ll have to see what WM does in my neck of the woods.
meranie said,
November 28, 2006 at 7:22 pm
How do you get your hub to acquiesce to the green life? Or being even a little bit more green? Mine is completely convinced that the global warming thing happens in cycles of the earth’s life… Got so angry watching “An Inconvenient Truth” that he turned it off and refuses to watch the rest because it’s specifically made to convince you of something that he considers isn’t true (for example, the case that the earth is getting warmer because of our industries, he says that we had ice ages and the earth used to be hotter when we had dinosaurs, etc and that the only solution for our problems on this earth is to colonize another planet… too much Heinlein, clearly.). The idea of composting and throwing away less is lovely to me.
I *have* gotten him to stop getting plastic bags when unnecessary. =)
meranie said,
November 28, 2006 at 7:24 pm
crap, I forgot to say (sorry for clogging your comments):
Living trees that you have re-planted into a real live setting– brilliant. My mom has started decorating our Norfolk Pine instead of taking out the artificial (P.o.S.!) or buying a real tree (dad wanted one because it smelled so good…) because that was just too much trouble… It’s so beautiful! And simple and already a part of the house! My mom is a total green-thumb though.
bottleman said,
November 29, 2006 at 11:09 pm
Personally, I’m a bit skeptical that the living tree thing is a great fit for most people. I’ve tried to plant an Xmas tree once in a while, and I have observed local families trying to do it too. In my experience the tree usually ends up dead after a few months or years.
#1 Moving the thing inside and out has to be a stress. Remember, trees are sessile organisms… they’re not used to moving! That forestry.about.com article you linked to recommends keeping the thing inside only a few days. Most people don’t want to do that.
#2 Usually it’s the wrong tree for the wrong place. That is, usually Xmas trees are species which grow fast & well in the open and get very large… in my area, Douglas Firs or most of the “true Firs”. People plant them in inappropriate places and then if the trees don’t die they end up coming down anyway because (say) they’re taking over the yard.
So if the tree dies, you really haven’t done so much for the environment. The same tree’s still been grown and trucked around and everything.
Hmm, now I seem like a total killjoy I suppose :(. But I love the idea of decorating one of those Norfolk Pines! They’ve got a great shape.
And personally I love the 50-year old fake tree we inherited from some neighbors. It looks a lot like a real Douglas Fir and no matter what I do I just can’t kill it. I trust all the neurotoxins have leached out by now. Besides, it’s covered with a very very fine christmasy sheen … 50 years of egg nog splatters.
lanea said,
November 30, 2006 at 11:46 am
A nice bit on composting OJ’s book from Slate:
http://www.slate.com/id/2154624/?nav=tap3
Nio said,
November 30, 2006 at 11:51 am
We compost all our scraps in our backyard (we live in rural New Hampshire so our backyard is–quite literally–the woods). What we’ve found over the last two years is our trash barrell is filled with unrecyclable plastic.