iStock
READ MORE ABOUT:
Some people think composting is just for people who don't wear shoes or have huge backyards. It's not.
Composting is finally catching on in mainstream America as a great way to reduce waste and keep your plants healthy. And no, I'm not biased—I'm not typing this from a solar powered commune, I wear shoes when outdoors, and own not a single tie-dye shirt. I can genuinely say, objectively, that composting has arrived. How do I know? Simple. Composters are now being marketed and sold to bourgeois households everywhere.
And this is a good thing, especially for us apartment and house dwellers looking for an easy way to green our lives, and who linger in the healthy limbo between yuppie and hippie.
Behold: The Classy Home Composter
Exhibit A: The Nature Mill home composter. It's a composter that can hold 120 lbs of waste a month, and that neatly and sanitarily fits right in that cabinet underneath your sink. The unit is engineered to minimize smell, and to easily and efficiently compartmentalize the new waste and the older material that's still composting. A red light will come on every two weeks to signal that a portion has been successfully composted into fertilizer, so you can remove it and distribute it among your houseplants or garden. Here's the complete rundown on [how the Nature Mill works) It's simple, functional, and a great sign that our culture is accepting (if also sanitizing) the practice of composting.
But as of now, it's also expensive. The Nature Mill unit costs $299, which really isn't so steep, especially if you consider the amount of money you'll save on soil and fertilizer.
However, there is another option.
Exhibit B: Build your own apartment-friendly compost box. This is significantly cheaper, and still easy to do. But it's guaranteed to be a wee bit messier, and probably won't blend in with your fine kitchen cabinetry as well. A great option for 20- somethings, bachelors, and anyone who skews a little more to the 'hip' than the 'yup' in the 'ies' social landscape. Lord knows that I fall somewhere in that domain.
Either way you do it, the underlying point is that composting has finally arrived as a mainstay in our culture—and our environs are all the better for it.
More on Composting:
Composting Basics: Make Compost Fast
Compost Conundrum: Backyard Box, Indoor Bin Or A Can-O-Worms ...
Build Your Own Compost Tumbler
-
- {}
