#2013alive: How Do You Compost?

It’s Week 4 of July’s 12 Months of Wellness series. This week we’ve been saving our food scraps (and yard waste) and can now call ourselves composters.

Many of us would like to compost our food waste, but we live in condos or apartments that don’t have access to curbside organic recycling programs or a yard to place a compost bin. It turns out we don’t need either!

Vince Yim, Digital Content Coordinator, says: “I obtained a worm composting bin from the City of Vancouver several years ago and it’s been going strong ever since, which is surprising, given the level of neglect that happened since the beginning. I’ve so far failed to observe most of the instructions when it came to maintaining my bin, specifically not overfeeding it, periodically harvesting the compost and worms, cutting fruit/vegetable scraps into smaller pieces, and remembering to bury food scraps in different locations (resulting in a lot of fruit flies), yet the worms continue to chew through (almost) anything I put in there.

“However, I do remember to bring it indoors during the winter, and I am mindful about what I put in there, as I try to keep it to fruit and vegetable scraps, as well as dead plants, egg shells, shredded newspapers, and leaves. But, given that my primary purpose in a composting bin is to reduce my garbage output, it’s a success in that regard.”

Other ways to compost

Other options for apartment or condo dwellers are

• a garbage can with an airstack on your balcony
• a community backyard or rooftop composter

Companies can compost, too

At alive we’ve been composting for quite some time.  We save all of our vegetable and fruit peelings and cores, egg shells, and anything else that’s compostable. alive's Advertising Account Manager Ellen Wheeler takes our food waste home to turn into gold for her garden.

We grow herbs and microgreens in our Urban Cultivator and compost all organic materials, including used soil.

Let us know how you or your employer compost. Leave a comment on our blog, visit us on Facebook or Twitter and use the hashtag #2013alive.