It's a Compostable Life

Yippee! Finally, we have set up our composting bin. It’s only been sitting in the shed since last October. Bron and I live in an area that’s quite exposed to the elements and the bin being as lightweight as it is, I was afraid it would get blown away during the winter months before we had a chance to anchor it with all our veg scraps.

‘But it’s plastic!’ you might be saying. Yes, I know, it’s plastic. Before settling on this particular bin, I did actually do quite a bit of research into my composting options. It all seems like quite a while ago now, but it is easy to buy wooden composters, and I certainly would have done had I thought it appropriate to do so.

My reasons for not buying a wooden compost bin are:

1. Our house is a small two-up two-down semi-detached new build-type on a small, fairly enclosed estate with a very small garden. Wooden bins are generally open and with slatted sides, and the neighbours (never mind our landlady) really wouldn’t have been too happy about the sight or the smell of our rotting foodstuffs. One day, when I have my own little cottage in the countryside with a big garden full of trees and bushes and winding walkways, I will certainly go for a wooden bin, because then I can tuck it away at the bottom of the garden where it won’t upset anyone.

2. Apparently plastic composters also keep the heat in - because they are enclosed and, well, plastic - which speeds up the composting process. Although maybe that will also keep the worms and the bugs out, so it might be a bit of a catch 22.

In the meantime, until I have that garden with it’s winding pathways where I can plant a luscious vegetable patch, and while I love that I am reducing my landfill waste further, I am wondering what I am going to do with the compost itself. I don’t have any garden plants or vegetables, or anything growing per se, that I can put it on. I’m not particularly green-fingered - the one plant I was really proud of, a white cyclamen widely known within our household as ‘Plant’, was killed off for good in January when I forgot to bring it in from the snow.

And what if we have to move house – how on earth are we going to transport it? Plus we haven’t told our landlady about it, so I hope she won’t mind us temporarily destroying a small patch of her lawn.

But for now I am going to stop worrying, and start basking in the good that is composting. I am returning my waste to the earth’s system - now that’s what I call recycling.