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There are a plethora of useful tips for going green around the house, but what do you do when you're away from home? How best can one take their day-to-day habits on-the-road? Being green is remarkably easy when you have the systems in place to make it fool proof. But when you are traveling and don't have those systems in place, it can be frustrating.
To help save you some of the frustration I've felt in these situations, I'm going to share my recent experience and ponder a few possible solutions.
So, in San Francisco, where I currently live, we have municipal recycling AND composting, so under our sink in the kitchen we have small waste containers for recycling, compostable material and trash, which correspond with the three containers the city provides. We also have a worm composting system in our back yard, so between that and the municipal composting, we never have any food waste heading to a landfill. By composting we're reducing the amount of methane gas, which is a greenhouse gas that is being released into the air, as well as saving space in our landfills.
While worm composting aka vermiculture is not as common—most people I know are just using the city's normal composting—overall recycling and composting are so ingrained in the culture here it can be disappointing when I return to my home state of Arkansas where composting is not done municipally and for the most-part still mainly an artform for gardeners and farmers. Because of this, when I visit my girlfriend, friends or family there I'm forced to find an alternative to composting food scraps when cooking dinner.
Because I've learned about the damage rotting food wastes can do in a landfill, I suffer a bit of eco-guilt when I'm not able to reduce this waste by composting when away from home.
To be clear, problems like these are a luxury. The fact I'm even able to describe this as a problem prove how fortunate we are to live in a modern society. But that being said, when you're a fan of doing the right thing—and view recycling and composting in order to reduce waste headed to a landfill as a good thing to do—it's no fun to have to break those habits.
So what is the best thing to do when you have food scraps from cooking a meal, but are unable to easily compost?
1. I could toss it into a flowerbed or out into the yard and let it rot there, but chances are it will either be taken by some wildlife, which is not ideal because it would probably not be good for the animal and would bring them coming back for more. And I don't know anyone that would appreciate their over night guests attracting dogs, raccoons and other vermin to their house for a nightly meal.
2. I could bury it, but again, the food would attract some wildlife who would possibly dig up the food, creating the same problems as above AND leaving my hosts with a hole in their yard. And if the food wasn't dug up, there would still be methane produced as that food decomposed.
3. Could I carry the scraps with me back home? Um, I mean, I guess I could, but this seems a little ridiculous. I'll figure it out on land and maybe contemplate it at 30,000 feet. I doubt I'd even make it past TSA with a container of rotting food.
4. I could just toss it in the normal waste basket, but again, this would be contributing to the methane problem and taking space in a landfill. No good.
5. I could run it all down the garbage disposal, however food waste in pipes can create buildup and eventually damage the integrity of the pipes. This is what most people I know that don't compost do on a regular basis anyhow, so it's an easy bad habit to pick up. I'm not sure which is worse, that or throwing things in a landfill, but I think since neither are good, it's best to think of another alternative.
6. Moving closer to some better options, I could carry the scraps with me to a restaurant, friend, or farmer that composts. This is probably one of the ideal options. I can just put my food scraps in a separate container (large tuperware dishes work well for this) and bring them to someone that will be able to compost them for us. Consider it a donation to their future produce. If you don't know where to go in whatever town your visiting, try calling the greenest restaurant or grocery store you know of in the area and ask them.
7. And finally and what I think is the BEST solution is to fix the problem at the source: inspire your friend, family or loved one to start composting themselves! Show them how easy it is to set up a worm composting bin. Here's a video explaining the process. Or better yet, set it up with them! You'll be sharing some great green knowledge, fixing the problem you're facing and have fun making a great memory to hold onto until your next visit. And in the meantime you'll have one more thing to talk about on the phone. "Hey, how are the worms?"
Follow me on Twitter: @christackett
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