Slashdot Mirror
My Compost Bin And I
John writes "There they were, staring at me with a last glimmer of hope. I tried to turn to avoid the cries of help they echoed, but they were too much for me to bare. Minutes later, with an insight of knowledge, I quickly devised a plan to rescue these dying souls. And out of the bitter remains I found around my place of refuge, I constructed a home for them - somewhere where they could be in peace - a compost bin. The vegetable scraps rejoiced! Their time of suffering was no longer, for my divine plan had taken effect. "
What a bunch of rubbish. I cannot believe /. would post this pile of rotting crapola.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
People have been building compost heaps for years and years and years. How exactly is this news? Oh!!! I think I got it! A geek who went outside!
Some one should hurry and register TrashBinMods.com
Karma: Bizzare (mostly affected by varying internal caffeine levels.)
Eh... why exactly does this qualify for a slashdot article (frontpage)? Granted it looks more advanced than my grandma's compost pile of three sticks and some chicken wire, but in the end a compost pike is still just a pile of crap!
"Minutes later, with an insight of knowledge, I quickly devised a plan to rescue these dying souls. And out of the bitter remains I found around my place of refuge, I constructed a home for them -"
Anybody else read that expecting to hear "And then I rolled a three..."?
Interesting article. I think you have to stir the compost every so often though. They make commercial ones that are like rotating drums for that purpose. This guy's gonna have to dig around in it with a shovel or something. Gotta admire his enthusiasm.
How does this make a "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters"??????? It maybe a slow news day but it can't be that slow, is he atleast using the compost for a case mod????? is there a super cooled overclocked 5GHz Athlon at the bottom????
Slashdot r00ted by compost loving hippie!
Lisa: My name's Lisa Simpson. I think your protest was incredibly brave. ... I started an organic compost pile at home.
Jesse: Thank you. This planet needs every friend it can get.
Lisa: Oh, the earth is the best! That's why I'm a vegetarian.
Jesse: Heh. Well, that's a start.
Lisa: Uh, well, I was thinking of going vegan.
Jesse: [chuckles] I'm a level 5 vegan -- I won't eat anything that casts a
shadow.
Lisa: Wow. Um
Jesse: Only at home? You mean you don't pocket-mulch? [takes out pocket
stuff for Lisa to feel]
..There's a-dooin's a-transpirin'
I don't get it. Why all the work on the tiles on top, why would you want to keep rain out of your compost heap? Doesn't the moisture help with the decomposition? Could someone enlighten me on this before i ask four questions in a row?
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
... really makes a case for moderation of articles, and not just comments.
zing
Story on neutron stars - 2 comments, 1 of which is FP
Story on a pile of crap - 30 comments
I recently bought a house. One of the first things I did was build a compost bin and buy a greencone. Between that and recycling, I have very little garbage each week. Another benefit is no smelly garbage in the house since everything that rots or decomposes goes in either the green cone or the compost.
And this doesn't???
l /u ncomp/articleshow?artid=27499106
This was rejected yesterday within 15 minutes of being submited.
"It is now official. On November 2, US President George Bush signed the department of justice Authorisation Bill which will make extension for H-1B visas easier.
It will also make it possible for more Indian doctors to live and work in the US once their academic programme is over.
The extension of H-1B visas will particularly benefit the IT sector. This is good news for Indian H-1B visa holders, as nearly 50% of them are working in the high-tech sector. "
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/htm
I am currently taking a class on Sustainable Resource Sciences. Last week we had a lecture on composting. I can't believe that people pay the city to take their yard waste away, and then pay someone else money to buy soil amendments for their garden.
Here are some other links my professor provided:
http://compostingcouncil.org/
http://www.oldgrowth.org/compost/
Or here is the lecture in pdf format
In the article, the author mentions that "Four upside down pot plants." help with circulation. I don't know about him, but four pot plants, upside down or otherwise, don't help me with circulation... they knock me on my ass.
maybe it's because I have a compost pile in my backyard, and on cold September mornings, I would look outside and see it steaming. Seems to have gone dormant now.
It's a nice change. Consider it kind an environmental-enema for those constipated with too much technology.
Oh yeah, standard designs all have drainage, and most are made to work indoors (low/no stink, if done properly). Just check out a link or two.
I've never quite understood what the purpose of a compost pile is. I'm vaguely aware of the organic matter in the pile decaying, and large piles can get rather warm (a big enough pile may burst into flame, or so I've heard). But, uh... why are we making compost piles, exactly?
Oh, yeah, and add me to the growing list of people who vote this article Least. Relevant. Slashdot. Article. Ever.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
What is this I see?? An article on Slashdot that's *NOT* about Evil Microsoft or the Evil government? Be still my beatign heart! Is this an acknowledgement that there are geeks that don't just sit around and write angry letters to senator's junk mail boxes about the evils or Microsoft and the lack of privacy while waiting for the last hour's version of Mozilla to compile on a Gentoo box used to play Quake 3? Dear God! I am *so* impressed. As a part time biology geek, I was fucking thrilled to see this post. Keep it up. There's more to true geekiness than OSS and boring anti-privacy law garbage.
Actually, you're both wrong. The Trash Heap's name was Marjorie. The Trash Heap has spoken!
Cuba is about to start the nation's first-ever sugar cane harvest in which a sugar mill will not make SUGAR, but instead will be generating electricity from the biomass.
Building a compost heap is an annoying piece of work; and you have to tend the thing, stirring it up. They make a rolling composter that, instead of having to dig and churn all that smelly stuff, you just roll the bin around to mix it.
Despite all the "rubbish" jokes here, environmental protection and awareness is to be applauded. A little effort (switching lightbulbs off when leaving rooms, putting scrap paper in a separate bin) can make a tangible difference. Sorry for getting all philosophical, but I reckon that in general, we can (and should) argue for our rights; enforcing our responsibilities (in this case, to the environment) should be a matter for the conscience but is just as important. Well done to the guy.
I'll just declare the funky looking stuff in the back of the fridge to be "compost."
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Ben
It's in my sink. I use a stack of dirty dishes to protect it.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Slashdotted already. :-)
Glad the guy is composting, but--for whatever a gardening discussion is worth on a tech site--I don't think he's got enough air circulation going on.
The holes look too small. He also doesn't discuss how he's going to turn the pile, which is real important in closed compost bins.No oxygen equals stinky sludge. Mmmm...nummy!
The simplest (and one of the most effective) compost heap is just a big ole pile laying directly on the ground. Put a bit of carpet remnant on the top to hold moisture, and you're golden. Piles can be made neater with a bit of chicken wire and some supports. Real low-tech stuff.
Here's a link to all things rotten:
http://www.oldgrowth.org/compost/
Twinkies don't compost, by the way. Something my kids discovered.
This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
garbage...!
we're talking eco-garbage here, right...?
i just wonder what the SMELL will be like.
like most ecological efforts i'm aware of, in real life they STINK.
A poem by Walt Whitman, innocently entitled "This Compost" (http://www.riles.org/compost.htm), reveals all there is to know about compost. On the earth beneath our feet he asks where all the rotting corpses have gone and how such sweet things like blackberries and apples can grow "out of such corruptions". But read it for yourself and behold the awe and mystery of the grand design. When looked at it this way, each of us becomes fodder for something else!
"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!" -- Dr. Strangelove
/. editors: If you are trying to when best headline that poll is already over. You've probably got weirdest article hands down though.
The Anti-Blog
Now that the site is slashdotted, I can only make assumptions regarding what this post is really about.
Did he use the decaying vegitables as a power source for his server perhaps?
Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
I thought this was a story about yet another way a company could get around renaming the "Recycle Bin" similar to what MS did to Mac.
come on fhqwhgads
Don't be surprised when you're hungry after you visit.
And not the composting variety:
>Critical Error! Unable to make a connection to the database.
>Please be patient while we fix the problem. Thanks!
I think we just helped him add a bit of silicon to his compost pile.
Mordor...a magical, mythical land where women are more rare than dragons--but where every man would rather find a dragon
In fact I spent many, MANY long hours teaching her how to use her mac.
Anyway compost silos are cool, everyone with a house should have one unless they have enough people to justify an actual compost pile. This is, however, something like 20 people in most cases.
The major advantages to having a compost silo over a pile are as follows: It takes up less space, it works faster because it traps heat, it ends up as a farm for earthworms which are good for your soil (and mine) and of course, it reduces the amount of stinky garbage in your trash can.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
- Bette Midler, on being named "Compost Queen" in Los Angeles, c. 1990s
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
The scary part is that this will probably end up being a slashback subject once spring comes along and thaws his now-frozen compost pile.
News for worms, stuff that festers.
Karma: Excer..ex...excellahhh...realll good (mostly affected by drinking not done in moderation)
Oh, it's so decomposed!
"Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado!"
1) Who cares about the compost getting wet when it rains? So long as the drainage is fairly good, a bit of rain won't hurt.
2) It looks like it is sitting in the sun. That's going to really stink in the summer. Instead of being a nice place friendly mold/fungi/insects to hang out, it is just going to attact wasps and roaches in the summer.
3) How do the worms get in? Worms really help to make good compost. They mix it around, while eating much nasty bacteria.
Not that I'm an expert in composting or anything. He should have just cut a couple of 6 inch holes in the bottom of his box and sat it on some soil.
whoa, small, fits on your desk, requires heat?
I SMELL A CASE MOD!
(no pun intended)
A neighbor I once had composted all their kitchen scraps in our shared back yard and there I learned that not all things rot well. It stank, but that was the least of it's problems. The pile fed rats and scattered the mess all over. I was not happy to think of the backyard as a magnet for flea bearing pests and kept the cats inside. Cats that got out got fleas and had to be treated. Fleas are a serious health hazard. The raccoons I feed don't seem to give me the same problems.
Other nasties can flourish in your obstensibly friendly compost heap. Crop pests have been known to winter in compost heaps outside processing plants. Pests like potato weavils can decimate crops and require extensive use of pesticides if they are not all eliminated from a given region. While the chances of such pests wintering in your pile may be remote, you might not want to make that pile if you don't know how to recognize the pests. Molds and blights that might have slipped past customs can also take up residence in your given area if you simply throw your wastes out on the ground to rot. Whole regions of Florida have been ruined by citrus blight.
The landfill is a good place for food wastes. Sanitary landfills are called that because they get sealed up. Clay lined and capped, stuff goes in and does not come out. It's one place I don't mind food wastes becoming black gold.
According to the cited article, food wastes make up 10% of the waste stream on average but they can represent much less than that. I hate putting food wastes into the trash, so I try to eat everything. Carcases become stocks, leftovers are frozen in meal size portions, Jambalya, pasta and tacos eat all the spare meat. It's not that hard to do. Modern food processing assures that most food mass is used.
Want great soil? By all means, composte your lawn clippings, the leaves you rake and other stuff that naturally hits the ground. Oak leaves are some of the best and you can find wonderful soil in gutters where people are sloppy about raking their yards. If you must tread into the wild world of rotten food, please watch your pile and try not to obnox your neighbors.
I don't have much garbage either.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
We've had a worm composter for a year. It sits in our kitchen in our apartment. It has greatly reduced our garbage from two adults down to just a quarter of a standard black garbage bag a week.
Barlow: You know, there are three things we're never going to get rid of here in Springfield: one, the bats in the public library, two, Mrs. McFierly's compost heap, and three, our six-term mayor, the illiterate, tax-cheating, wife-swapping, pot-smoking, spendocrat Diamond Joe Quimby.
... I started an organic compost pile at home.
Quimby: Hey, I am no longer illiterate.
Jesse: I'm a level 5 vegan, I won't eat anything that casts a shadow.
Lisa: Wow. Um
Jesse: Only at home? You mean you don't pocket-mulch?
Bart: Hey, Lawn Boy! You missed a spot!
Willy: When I'm done with you, they'll have to do a compost-mortem!
Marge: Now throw compost on it!
It grew well..nice sticky buds... and somehow it just seemed to make sense...mother earth's weed grown in mother earth's compost. Oh, those were the days!
Yeah, I know. With melodramatic purple prose like that, I thought I was reading Kuro5hin.org again.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
I've been practicing organic yard management for years.
Although in my case its known as
1) "to cheap to replace the mower bag"
B) "to fuckin lazy to rake the leaves"
If I was a slashdot editor I would not have filed this under "Science", but under which ever Topic John Katz hides behind these days?
Speaking of Katz, has he not posted a story in a really long time? Maybe I just filtered him out.
Ever dream you could fly? Get up from the Flight Sim. I Fly
The best reason for recycling: Laziness.
... in smarter houses, this is often a wide ceramic vessel with a lid), the less refuse Younger Son must carry to the garbage collection spot down the road.
... we're not.
:)
The family compost heap at the family's northern holdings consists of two "wraparound" things -- rubbery, tough material with lots of holes in the sides which is basically collapsable, but stays up once there is a bit of material stretching the sides apart on the bottom. (Think of a botttomless, topless, pliant tube, with holes all over it.It exists as a shapeholder only when there is stuff inside of it.)
Once in a while (ideally -- in practice we rarely do this, or feel the need to), you pull up the tube, relocate it, and pitch (as in pitchfork) in the pile of compost. you have left over, thus mixing it up, ensuring the different layers all get to know each other, etc.
How is it Lazy? Simple -- the more that goes into the kitchen compost pot (in our case, actually old orange juice cartons fully opened so they have a large mouth
In the 8 or 9 years this system has been in place, I think we've emptied the resulting stuff only once -- super nice soil. Perhaps twice, but the point is the same. The point is, it is for our purposes a nearly bottomless sink for all the organic detritus we can toss in -- banana peels, dead plants, egg shells, mussel shells (ideally sundried and crushed), bread scraps, dead tea leaves, corn husks, onion peels, etc etc. Never noticed a bad odor, and have never seen rats or racoons near it. A few bugs, esp. when fruit items are left un-mixed-in, but that's OK. Acceptable tradeoff.
If we were active gardeners instead of merely occasionaly putterers, we could probably both turn and empty this pile more frequently and get nice soil out of it more often, but
So there you have it
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
I grind mine up in my mouth. It goes to the same place in a pipe that was designed for it. Ba-woosh!
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
I'm going to stick to eating the majority of food I bring home.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
A friend of ours used to have a snack cake collection. In the original packaging.
I can see this on "Antiques Roadshow" in a few years.
---- "If we have to go on with these damned quantum jumps, then I'm sorry that I ever got involved" - Erwin Schrodinger
What site am I on again? I feel like I'm at kuro5hin.org the way this reads.
One of the problems I've always had with the compost heap is that, at least in the summer, it catches fire every once in a while. Decomposing vegetables generate a lot of heat, and even in my open-air compost pile (just a big pile with a wire mesh fence around it), fires start. Usually once once or twice in the summer, and never much more than smoldering, so it's easy to see the smoke, wander over, stir it up with a rake to get the hot parts on the outside, and throw some water on it.
The small space of his heap and mostly-solid sides are enough to trap in a lot of heat though...What would happen if it started smoldering? I realize that oxygen might be the limiting reactant in this case, but what if there is enough airflow to keep it going? Hopefully the plastic bin he uses isn't too flammable!
The Right Reverend K. Reid Wightman,
If you don't add leaves, your "compost bin" will reek. It will smell almost exactly like rotting food. (No big surprise there, I suppose.)
Your composter looks far too small to "get cooking", if you were interested in having it reach elevated temperatures. Some people think that is important when composting, to kill seeds and plant pathogens. Of course, a bigger pile is more work, and I suppose in your case, more expensive.
On the other hand, if you were interested in getting the output rather than disposing of the input, bigger is almost always better, until your pile reaches a size of several cubic meters or yards.
A better soloution is to eat what you buy and don't buy things you will throw away.
Like banana peels!
It stank, but that was the least of it's problems. The pile fed rats and scattered the mess all over.
I guess no one thought to cover it huh? Rats can be smart, but they are not smarter than thou are they? Then again are you sure they were rats? Either way "vermin" have to eat somewhere too.
I was not happy to think of the backyard as a magnet for flea bearing pests and kept the cats inside. Cats that got out got fleas and had to be treated. Fleas are a serious health hazard. The raccoons I feed don't seem to give me the same problems.
Cats should be kept inside. They are not (not!) wild animals. Cats kill natural wildlife such as birds and have been breed for domestication for thousands of years. Fleas are a serious health hazard... but in some areas not so much. The raccoons though could be a serious health hazard also. Raccoons can carry Rabies and other nasties. If they scam food from you it's one thing. To feed them is another. Right there you show that you have no room to complain. But keep your cats inside, the rest of us like birds! (Why didn't your cats kill the rats?)
you might not want to make that pile if you don't know how to recognize the pests. Molds and blights that might have slipped past customs can also take up residence in your given area if you simply throw your wastes out on the ground to rot. Whole regions of Florida have been ruined by citrus blight.
Like posting on slashdot... you should know what you are doing. But! Molds that pass customs are the faults of customs personel and people who insist on bringing in fruit and the such. This is something learned by the Swiss many years ago... that is why we have customs today. Throwing away your "wastes" to rot isn't a good idea, but it's all organic and there is a complex system at work that breaks it down. How should we dispose of you at a later date?
I hate putting food wastes into the trash, so I try to eat everything.
So do I, but it's because I'm poor... how about you?
The landfill is a good place for food wastes. Sanitary landfills are called that because they get sealed up. Clay lined and capped, stuff goes in and does not come out. It's one place I don't mind food wastes becoming black gold.
Oh landfills! So it's that old NIMBY deal. "Just put it somewhere else please! Nevermind that we are throwing away something that we could use again."
Want great soil? By all means, composte your lawn clippings, the leaves you rake and other stuff that naturally hits the ground. Oak leaves are some of the best and you can find wonderful soil in gutters where people are sloppy about raking their yards. If you must tread into the wild world of rotten food, please watch your pile and try not to obnox your neighbors.
Leave your clippings on the ground. Take it from me I grew up with a horticulturalist - it's better to leave you leaves on the ground... that is why they fall down. Lawns that get raked usually find that they need to be re-seeded every few years (here and there) because in the winter time they are dying in frosts because they are exposed. BTW, leaves and grass stinks too (anything wet and organic in break down stinks); also leaves and grass bring in pests as well. It's really the same to them.
I don't have much garbage either.
I suppose not, the city took it all away.
Get your Unix fortune now!
That's right. In New Orleans, people chucked their waste on the other side of the levee, and it was know to be foul and disease inducing. In time, sewers were covered, swamps drained, dumps made sanitary and people stopped dying of the diseases these bad practices all caused. Avoid things that stink you will live longer.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
The raccoons I feed don't seem to give me the same problems.
My idiotic neighbors in California used to feed raccoons, no doubt humming "I went to the animal fair" in their blissed-out little minds as they did so. This was in a rural area where a lot of folks kept chickens. Every time they went on vacation, the raccoons would break into at least one henhouse and destroy quite a few chickens and ducks. Chickens, by the way, are perhaps the ultimate recyclers. They will eat any kind of kitchen scraps, even, ahem, chicken meat and eggshells.