WHY USE THE NEW CURBSIDE COMPOSTING IF I HAVE A COMPOST BIN IN MY BACKYARD?

I just had a very interesting question that I thought was worth another blog post.

I HAVE A COMPOST BIN IN MY BACKYARD.  WHY WOULD I USE CURBSIDE COMPOSTING?

v First and foremost, there is the “convenience factor”.  My husband cuts everything up into small, easier to compost, pieces - cantaloupe, watermelon, even the coffee filters.  As a result, our compost bin works very efficiently.  We will be happy to occasionally throw all of that into our curbside collector.

v There are many things we should not put into our backyard compost bin that we can put in our curbside bin, such as:

Ø Meat – cooked and raw

Ø Bones

Ø Fish

Ø Dairy products

Ø Spoiled food

v There are many things that do not compost quickly when placed in a backyard bin that we can place in our curbside bin:

Ø Pizza boxes

Ø Food coated paper towels

Ø Paper plates

Ø Paper cups

Ø Sticks

Ø Paper bags

Ø Microwave popcorn bags

Ø Biodegradable cutlery

Ø Popsicle sticks

Ø Wooden chopsticks

Ø Waxed cartons for juice and milk

Ø Nut shells

The new green bins will be delivered at the end of September. Curbside Composting pickup will begin the week of October 2.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO POST TO THIS BLOG ANY RECYCLING AND COMPOSTING QUESTIONS.  I WILL RESEARCH YOUR QUESTION AND POST THE ANSWERS.

COMPOST COLLECTION COULD BE COMING TO A CURB NEAR YOU!

The City of Austin has just announced that an additional 38,000 households will have curbside compost collection beginning the week of October 2, 2017. 

I am so excited about this!

This collection will happen weekly on trash collection day.

This program collects food scraps, yard trimming, and food-soiled paper, then coverts them into nutrient-rich compost. This program is a part of the City’s Zero Waste goal to divert 90% of materials from the landfill by 2040.

With this new program and Simple Recycling, I am more confident that Zero Waste can actually be achieved in my lifetime.

To see if you are included in this program, go to the website below and type in your address under “My Schedule”.

<http://www.austintexas.gov/department/austin-resource-recovery>

Residents who are included in Curbside Composting are invited to an informational open house where they will learn about Curbside Composting and what to put in and what to keep out of the new green cart.  As a bonus, attendees will receive a free kitchen food scraps collector and some compostable bags.

For a list of educational open houses, downloadable resources and instructional videos, visit <http://www.austintexas.gov/austincomposts>

I am very proud of our city for taking this initiative.  There was a pilot program that included 14,000 households.  From that program, the City learned that a 32 gallon collection can was more desirable than the 96 gallon can used in the initial program.  All 38,000 households will receive the 32 gallon can.

Also, to address the “ick factor” in the pilot program, material can now be put into compostable (not biodegradable) bags. These are available in some grocery stores and on Amazon.  More information will be received at the open house about these bags.

A recent study showed that almost half of everything that residential customers send to the landfill is compostable material.  When buried in a landfill, compostable materials do not break down as they would in nature or in a compost pile.  They decompose anaerobically (without oxygen) and, in the process, become the number one source of human-caused methane released into the atmosphere.

In the compost collection program, organic materials placed in the green carts are transported to a local facility where they break down into useable compost.

I HAVE ALREADY HAD ONE QUESTION – WILL THE CITY CONTINUE PICKING UP YARD WASTE WEEKLY IN THE BROWN BAGS AND OUR OWN STICK CANS?

The answer is YES.  “Brown” material like leaves and sticks are an important component of compost. The City prefers that leaves and sticks be placed in your new green composting cart.  When the cart is full, put the remaining leaves and sticks into brown bags or your own cans.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO POST TO THIS BLOG ANY RECYCLING QUESTIONS YOU MIGHT HAVE.  I WILL RESEARCH YOUR QUESTIONS AND POST THE ANSWERS.

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RECYCLING CENTER UPDATE & RECYCLING ON THE ROAD

VERY IMPORTANT!

UPDATE ON AUSTIN’S RECYLING CENTER!

On a recent trip to the Recycle & Reuse Drop-Off Center, I discovered that you have to deposit your hazardous materials at one drive-through drop-off point, leave the facility, re-enter, and take your electronics to another drive-through area.

This is a problem if you are there on a Saturday when there are many cars waiting in line to get in. This discourages the citizens of Austin from using the Recycle & Reuse Drop-Off Center.

GOOD NEWS!

The Recycle & Reuse Drop-Off Center has just made a change in their procedure for Saturday. On Saturdays, you can now drop off hazardous materials AND small electronics in the hazardous waste drop-off location so that you don’t have to leave and re-enter the center. You still have to leave and re-enter the center to drop off large electronics like TV’s.

Kudos to the staff at the Recycle & Reuse Drop-Off Center for listening to my concerns and coming up with a solution. Here is the link to their website https://www.austintexas.gov/dropoff.

RECYCLING ON THE ROAD

On a recent road trip, it became very apparent to me that recycling collection bins are often non-existent. Many gas stations (where we clean the trash out of our car when we stop for gas) don’t have recycling collection bins.  In addition, there is no recycling collection at any of the State rest or picnic areas in Texas.

What to do??

As we were having lunch at a rest stop near Abilene, I looked at our aluminum drink cans, looked at the trashcan, and had to make a decision - throw them away or hang on to them for the week we would be traveling. I knew these cans wouldn’t be going into my landfill, but I just couldn’t throw them into another community’s garbage dump.

So, a decision was made. We set up a recycling collection bag in the car and a box in the cabin we rented.  At the end of our trip, we brought a week's worth of recyclables back to Austin and put them into our single stream recycling bin.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO POST TO THIS BLOG ANY RECYCLING QUESTIONS YOU MIGHT HAVE.  I WILL RESEARCH YOUR QUESTIONS AND POST THE ANSWERS.