Composting Conquest!

I have a small but significant achievement to brag about- last week I managed to get a green bin for our apartment building! This may not sound like much, but most larger apartment buildings are not issued with these. I had to ask my landlord to make a request & the city delivered- which means that all 16 apartments in our building now have the capacity to compost food & other green waste. Whilst completing research on waste reduction I was starting to feel rather guilty about my lack of a compost/green waste option- we don't even have a yard where we could've made our own compost heap. I was even starting to consider options like an indoor worm farm, which could have been rather interesting! While Jason is very supportive of all my new changes & rules in our house, I’m not sure how he would’ve liked that one!

Composting is a significant form of environmental action, as it reduces the amount of waste, specifically biodegradable waste, that ends up in landfill. Landfills are designed to merely store our garbage & do not provide the right conditions for biodegradable items such as paper, food & garden waste to break down efficiently. Furthermore, landfills produce a gas primarily composed of methane- a potent greenhouse gas. In fact, landfills are the biggest source of man-made methane emissions. So the less that ends up in landfill the better. In Ottawa, roughly 45% of the city's garbage is compostable organic material. All of that material can be put to good use, as composting produces a nutrient-rich fertilizer for plants & gardens. In Ottawa most of the city's compost is sold to the local farming community & the rest is used in city greening projects.

Stockposting

Another way of getting more out of your waste is a concept known as 'Stockposting'. It is an easy & efficient way to get extra use out of the food scraps usually thrown out or composted when cooking.

Wash all parts of vegetables thoroughly & keep a bowl or container handy & throw in any vegetable scraps that aren't being used, such as the outer skin/peel of onions, greens from carrots, celery, leeks & peel from vegetables such as carrots, pumpkins & potatoes. When there is a good amount, this collection of scraps can be boiled in water with some seasoning, such as bay leafs, salt & pepper, then strained to make your own vegetable stock/broth.

The same can be done with whole fish & roast chicken carcasses & large meat bones to make your own fish, chicken & beef stock or soup base.

Acknowledgements:

'Ecoholic Home' by Adria Vasil

'The Conscious Kitchen' by Alexandra Zissu
City of Ottawa website: www.ottawa.ca