March 03, 2005
Useful, green urban technology or over-hyped greenwash?
This Kitchen-based composter offers a clean, efficient method of composting your kitchen waste. Those of us who already compost using traditional methods, including those who do so inside, may be slightly sceptical of the green benefits of this new device.
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I suppose it might be useful to an urbanite with a lot of house-plants, otherwise seems a tad over the top and not so green. Plus one of the rituals of going home involves heading out into the veg patch with me Dad to admire the compost heap and this year's spud crop. Not going happen with this baby is it?
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I am not at all convinced I must have one, either. It uses electricity and makes some noise, apparently. Hmm. My current set-up involves carrying a five gallon bucket of scraps outside every so often and tossing the contents on the current heap. A bit of water, if needed, some plastic sheeting in winter, and some forking over now and then. And voila! ready for spring planting.
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Our compost heap is covered with three feet of snow. And those composting bacteria don't like -16 degrees Celsius anyway. So in the winter we don't compost our organic waste. But I don't want one, because we have enough electrical devices already. We're looking into using a worm composter in the winter.
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([patented biomass reduces volume] more than 92%* in 24 hours) I stuck my hand in there for ten seconds and lost 0.01% of it in that short interval. Aaaaaa!
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My compost pile may be hotter than some since we have horses, and there's always plenty of fresh manure and horse bedding to heat things up.
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Body disposal. Sure you've got bones and stuff but at least you aren't dragging the stereotypical suspiciously lumpy and heavy garbage bag to the curb.