8:30 to 5:30
January 10th, 2008 by Jonathan
As I mentioned before, I’ve begun working for a renewable energy company planning to convert food waste to electricity. So far, so good.
In trying to find sources of bulk food waste, I’ve spoken with folks at food processing plants. One canning factory executive told me that the speed of their production line leads to an abundance of vegetable waste. When an employee sees a a bad potato or carrot, they reach in and grab a bunch because they don’t have time to just pick it out individually. The exec said:
They don’t get one, they get more like 30 pieces.
Also, here’s a gratuitous pat on the back: After a few days of irresponsibility, I’ve been bringing my banana rinds and orange peels home to compost. Sarcastic self-righteousness aside, I challenge the rest of you working stiffs to do the same!
Stumble it! | Posted in Processing Plants, Composting |
Oh, yeah? Let’s see you take your coworkers’ peels and rinds home.
Yeah, totally. I should do that. Then again, it doesn’t seem like a big fruit and veg crowd. Actually, the only thing I’ve seen others consume is coffee. Lots of coffee.
I do let my neighbor toss his food waste into my compost bin…
That reminds me, I had just finally remembered to take a plastic container in to work so I could bring home coffee grounds, when I gave up coffee for New Year’s. Haven’t made coffee (and dumped old grounds) since.
I’m going to try to remember to bring home some coffee grounds on Monday. There are about 200 people on my floor and we go through probably 8 carafes of coffee a day. That’s a lot of grounds.
And a lot of ground for remembering that container. Your plants will be so happy you did. Good for you.
Yeah, all our soil is contaminated with lead, and we’re waiting on an arsenic test
We thought about getting the soil remediated but nobody would tell us what happens with the contaminated soil. It doesn’t seem right to take leady soil from one place and just dump it somewhere.
So all my gardening is in raised beds and containers, and we keep the rest covered up with turf or weed cloth covered with mulch, to stop the kids digging in it or tracking it all over.
The amazing thing is how much new soil we’ve built up out of fallen leaves and food scraps. My original raised bed is about a foot and a half taller than it was 5 years ago.
Another option for composting food scraps from work… start a worm bin in your office! We’ve had one for about a year now and it’s going great. We’ve already divided the worms once so 3 of us could start our own home bins.
Other than a minor fruit fly problem, which we resolved with Dipel dust and apple cider traps, there have been no odor, pest, or escapee worm issues.
That’s great you are working to create a renewable energy source for food.
For about 10 years now we take bananas, coffee grounds and tomatoes and work them back into the soil.
Luckily our soil is not contaminated so we grow hardy tomatoes. After the tomato season is over, the tomatoes go back into the earth to enrich the soil. Our tomatoes have been tasting better and better every year!
Raised Bed Gardening…
I enjoyed reading your blog. It is so interesting reading other peoples personal take on a subject….