My city doesn’t pick up food waste but accepts it year round at farmers markets. My bin lives under the sink and is pulled out multiple times a day when I am cooking or cleaning up. I line it with newspaper or a compostable bag. If the bin is full and I have more food waste, I freeze the full bag until the next drop off. Never an issue with flies or smell, probably because of the large quantity of coffee grounds added daily.
I live in a townhouse with no place for an outdoor compost pile so this set up works for us.
SF mandates and picks up compost once a week with usual garbage pick up. We use a simple plastic bucket lined with a green compostable “plastic” bag. Never fruit flies, no mess to clean up. Stashed under the sink if guests are expected…and if I remember… Automatic way of life now.
Weekly pickup, I think I could deal with. At the moment the still-optional food compost pickup available in my town is every two weeks. I’d have more scraps than I can store securely from critters.
Sadly we can’t compost veg scraps on our property without drawing unwanted visitors. Too alluring for the rotating cast of wildlife that wanders about, both small and large.
Does SF use Recology? Our recycling does not allow green "compostable* plastic bags. Supposedly, while they quickly tear open when I put something wet in them, they tangle in some machinery.
Yes, we use Recology. But, no, so far there has been no restriction on using the compostable bags. Thank goodness, since they make collection easy and spotless. But you do have to watch wet stuff and liquids as they will, as you say, cause the bag to dissolve. I put a used paper napkin or paper towel in the bottom and additional ones throughout the bag to absorb moisture.
On this subject, I remember a Today Show segment that touted then-new household compost collection. They proposed a stainless “soup-pot”-tyoe vessel, at some $30. Bryant Gumbal was aghast. “Nooooo. You’re supposed to keep THAT on your counter and put scraps in it???”
I would be also…
I have three piles outside in the backyard, scraps the small birds – stale hard bread/crusts and clean suet type fats, greens and veggie scraps for the rabbits and bones/meat scraps for the turkey buzzard. Nothing goes to waste and scraps don’t last long around here.
Wait…are you saying you are feeding turkey vultures? They are not my idea of ideal bird watching, unless maybe they are circling over something not too close.
Where I live, all three of your dedicated piles would be appreciated by rats. I will say for them that our rats give rats in general a good name. Bushy and robust, straight out of Disney Central Casting,
I live near a large open desert area. I imagine these buzzards/vultures fly over a large territory looking for anything to eat. And yes, I have seen them circling over the desert. The wing span is HUGE on these birds and they don’t stay long. Grab and go, I’m guessing they process the bones/meat in a more desolate area – away from others.
A stainless (or possibly aluminum) 3qt saucepan with a lid is exactly what my grandmother kept under the sink for scraps for compost. Fortunately, we didn’t have a rat problem (rural Central MA) and the neighborhood cat would make short work of other vermin. I think the compost itself was a pile that lived next to her garden and was turned often.
I have a couple of those. I don’t use them for garbage, though, they’re too nice and useful.
With you on the freezer thing, I just realized that DH has been freezing his Costco roasted chicken carcasses in the chest freezer for what looks like years. No wonder I can’t fit a big bag of ice in it.
The “countertop” one is really ugly, I can see your husband’s objection. Can you get a cheap-but-not-awful pot with a lid at a thrift store or some other covered container that can be washed in the dishwasher for the counter? We use a bowl for coffee grounds and tea bags that gets taken outside to the compost bin every couple of days. We usually take produce gone bad straight out tot he composter, but it’s just a few steps outside. A covered canister would be better.
When our SoCal city began this program (2years ago?) it began a very confusing and contentious discussion on the NextDoor app. Turned out that the city uses two different trash hauling companies. Both require a separate curbside container for food and garden waste, but one allows food waste to be in biodegradable plastic bags in them and the other does not. That resulted in uncovered food waste attracting all kinds of vermin, etc… In our community those containers are usually only in people’s garages, so highly distressing.
After months of complaints the ‘no-plastic’ hauler finally permitted brown paper bags. Luckily Amazon sells a bag that fits inside the kitchen ‘bucket’ we were all given and folds over enough to provide a decent seal. Fruit flies are a continuing issue and especially when it was 95°+ every day.
First World problem indeed…… but made more annoying than it needs to be.
Ha! It’s finally dawned on me. SF is just too freaking cold for fruit flies! Our kitchen compost container is open but we remove contents to the outside bin at least 3 times a week.
