top of page

Composting with a small city garden

Why Compost


Firstly - why bother composting?


1 - food scraps and other organic material - even though organic will either not break down in a landfill OR take many many years to break down. Core samples taken from various landfill sites have found 25 year old hot dogs and 50 year old still legible newspapers. Landfills are packed too tightly for microorganisms and oxygen to get to work at breaking down the material.


2 - organic waste lets off additional greenhouse gases if in landfill which could be avoided if composted.


3 - according to this article, 20 years ago Ireland had 126 landfill sites, now we are down to 2 landfills and 2 incinerators, if we don't start reducing landfill waste we will quickly run out of space to put it and with other countries refusing to take waste we could end up seeing an increase in the already high levels of illegal dumping. Worst case scenario is what Corfu is going through as their last landfill has closed and rubbish is piling up everywhere and people are burning rubbish in the streets releasing harmful chemicals for all.



4 - lastly, even for those not bothered with the environmental impact - is cost. More and more councils/municipalities are bringing in pay by weight schemes or bin size reductions and food waste is the heaviest element. Read more here. Actually composting food waste is the law in the EU, though not reinforced locally, they could start imposing fines which would increase the cost of not doing it.


In 2014, each person in Ireland generated 586kg of household waste per year - it's not clear whether that stat includes recyclables like glass which is quite heavy but 33% of food we buy ends up in the bin and ends up being the heaviest element.


Since starting composting (along with our other zero waste efforts) we have gotten our regular trash down to 6% of the national average (if the 586kg doesn't include recyclables). Since March (we brought our trash to the dump ourselves between Dec and Mar so not sure of that weight but likely was about 2-3kg per month), our waste weight has come to 68kg, half of which was renovation weight (tiles/wood scraps etc) which I don't think is included in the 586kg/person.


Cost/Savings


We are currently paying 22.50/month for trash/recycling and compost collection which includes 140L waste bin and 240L recycling. There is a 46kg/month weight limit with every kg over charged at 17c. We bring our glass to the bottle banks ourselves. We haven't used the compost bin yet as we are still filling our own. We wanted to keep the city option for a while to see if we would need it but after 8 months of composting at home our 220L is not even 1/4 full. For a 2 person household generating the average 1,172kg of waste the 17c/kg overage would mean an extra 105€/year (on top of existing 270€/year).


We are waiting until we've had the baby for a few months to see if our waste weight goes up but if it doesn't (which it shouldn't as we aren't using disposable items) - we will contact the bin collection company to see if we can negotiate a smaller fee as we produce so little rubbish. Otherwise we may consider asking one of our neighbours to share bins. At the very least I want to get smaller bins (maybe 60L) so they take up less space in the front of the house.


Using the City's Brown Bin


The easiest thing to do would be to use the city's composting service, you can put almost all organic waste into the brown bin, in Ireland here is the list of what you can include as per website here:


  • Raw or cooked food

  • Meat, poultry & fish, including bones

  • Leftover food from your plate & dishes

  • Fruit & vegetables

  • Tea bags, coffee grinds & paper filters

  • Breads, cakes & biscuits

  • Rice, pasta & cereals

  • Dairy products (cheese, butter, yoghurt)

  • Soups & sauces

  • Eggs, egg shells & cardboard egg boxes

  • Food soiled paper napkins, paper towels & pizza boxes

  • Newspaper (when used for wrapping food waste)

  • Out of date food with packaging removed (no glass/plastic)

  • Grass clippings and small twigs can also be added to your large brown bin

How We Compost at Home


We started composting at home because we didn't think the brown bin service accepted things like soiled pizza boxes and cat litter, they only collected waste every 2 weeks and we would have to line the bin with newspaper or other linings which we don't buy, though looking at the list again now I'm questioning why we keep composting at home! We don't compost our cat litter as the cat mainly goes outside now. Re: the 2 week collection, if we do go that route we may still use our bokashi bins in the interim to avoid flies/maggots and (potentially) the liners.


All that said - here is what we do.


We have 3 stages:

1 - collect scraps under the sink - saves opening the air tight bokashi bin many times a day

2 - once that is full, empty into air tight bokashi bins with bran - the bran contains active micro-organisms that break down cooked food and dairy which stops maggots/rodents from digging at compost, once filled put aside and let break down for 2 weeks. We have 2 bokashi bins which we alternate while one is "cooking" we are filling the other

3 - empty bokashi bin into garden bin, layer with garden waste and turn/mix with garden fork once a week


Here is where we got out bins:







As mentioned above, we have been filling the 220L bin since Dec and it's still only about 1/4 full. Once it fills we will have to let it sit for a while to break down at which point we would need to use the city bins or get a second one.


We can't comment about the quality of the compost yet but will update on that once we start using it - if we ever get our garden done and get around to gardening. Otherwise we may put it up on free-cycle for other gardeners in our area.


And that's all there is to it!





RECENT POSTS

BROWSE ALL POSTS

bottom of page