Greening Austin Daily

Local Business Composting Restaurant Scraps

11th October, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments

Edible Austin had an article in its newest issue that spotlights a local business, Organics by Gosh, which for the last 20 years has been composting food scraps as well as landscaping scraps in Austin.  It’s a very well written article that you should check out here,  and I think it’s wonderful there are businesses like this in Austin. Here’s an excerpt:

Composting isn’t a new idea, of course, but few people may know that for more than 20 years, Organics by Gosh has been the leader in commercial composting in Central Texas—offering service to a variety of businesses and industries from hotels, schools and cafeterias to manufacturers and grocery stores. The company hauls just about anything that was once alive, including plants, trees, grass, shrubs and food. They collect it and place it in mound upon mound of composting earth. The finished product results in an entire retail selection of potting soils, fertilizer and decorative “stone,” much of which is sold to landscaping companies as well as area nurseries and large home-improvement stores such as Home Depot and Lowe’s.

Owner Phil Gosh has been in the composting business most of his life—taking over his father’s Houston-area business in the 1970s and launching Organics by Gosh in Austin in 1995. For Gosh, the business is simply about managing our resources well. “We’ve created a program that allows us to take a product and create a higher value out of it,” says Gosh. “All of our composting material comes from within a 30-mile radius to keep our energy local. Instead of trash, it’s a resource…a treasure.”

Just this year, Gosh’s business became the first in Central Texas to receive the necessary permits to compost meats, fats and dairy products, and has since launched a food waste-diversion program to service restaurants and hotels. “This has put us into a much bigger arena,” says Gosh’s organic recycling coordinator Gina Spratt. “Food coming out of our waste stream is a big deal. It’s the next big step, besides single-stream recycling, and we’re excited to put that onto the plants of Austin instead of having these things going into our landfills.”

Making a difference in Austin is a primary goal for Gosh. The City of Austin has an official goal of diverting waste from landfills and incinerators by 75 percent by 2020, and 90 percent by 2040. Organics are believed to make up between 50 to 70 percent of our overall waste stream. Taking everything from backyard land debris to food waste out of the general waste-disposal stream would leave significantly less to pile up in landfills.

Read the whole article!

Compost for My Garden

30th September, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments

This week I finished another batch of compost for my garden, made over several months from our food scraps, issues of the Statesman I bring home from work, and occasional grass clippings.

I’ll let it settle for a few more days on the plastic tarp I collected it on before I add it to one of my gardens.  Go me! Click here to learn more about rebates the city of Austin has for compost bins as well as free composting classes the city offers, which is how I got a $75 rebate on my compost bin.

Composting Tips to Prevent Fires

7th September, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments

Given the horrific fires recently, I thought this info from the City of Austin about composting tips to prevent fires was timely and will hopefully be helpful to some. Honestly it never occurred to me that I needed to worry about my compost pile catching fire (and likely it wouldn’t since mine isn’t very large), so it’s good info to keep in mind:

Home composting piles are not typically large enough to combust. Compost piles heat up when microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi, reproduce and break down organic material at a rapid pace. If a compost pile is more than 12-feet-high and the materials are relatively dry, the pile may self-heat to a temperature high enough to spontaneously combust.

Solid Waste Services recommends the following tips to keep compost piles safe during these hot summer months:

• Compost piles should be no larger than a cubic yard (3 feet by 3 feet by 3 feet)
• Turn piles weekly during high temperatures
• Keep the pile moist
• A compost thermometer may be used but is not essential; turn the pile when it reaches 160 degrees Farenheit

Residents can learn more about how to compost properly at free composting classes offered by SWS. The classes are part of the City’s composting rebate program, which challenges Austinites to complete a free composting class, downsize to a green, 32-gallon trash cart and purchase a home composting system. SWS curbside customers who do these three things are eligible for a rebate of 75 percent up to $75 off the cost of their new home composting system.

City of Austin Still Promoting Composting

11th July, 2011 - Posted by katherine - 1 Comment

Today KUT had an article about free composting classes around town, and the city’s continued offer to give a rebate on new compost bins, for 75% of the value of the bin, up to $75. If you want more info on composting and on my experience getting the rebate and using my bin, you can find a lot by clicking on the “composting” category tag to this post.  Here’s a short excerpt from the article:

Free composting classes sponsored by the City of Austin are scheduled through the summer. Solid Waste Services city planners are trying to encourage residents to compost at home by offering a rebate for compost bins. Residents can get up to 75 percent back on what they spent buying a bin.

The City of Austin has an ambitious goal of diverting 90 percent of waste from landfills by 2040. Already compostable paper, yard trimmings and food make up 47 percent of what is collected from Austin residents. By offering free classes and rebates, the city hopes it can encourage residents to compost to reach its zero waste goal.

“People are generating a lot of compostable food scraps that is a resource that shouldn’t go to waste,” said Woody Raine, Waste Diversion Planner with the City of Austin’s Solid Waste Services department.

I’m still regularly composting, and it’s going well.  The bin we bought has 2 compartments so you can work on 2 batches at a time.  I still keep a small metal canister with a lid under my kitchen sink where I collect scraps, and I empty it probably every 4 days – it doesn’t smell bad under there because it has a little filter built into the lid (I bought mine from Bed Bath and Beyond).  Because we compost and recycle so much, we only have to empty our kitchen trash can once a week (no need to take it out more often because (1) it’s not full and (2) because no scraps go into out kitchen trash can, it doesn’t make the kitchen smell bad).  Thus we’re saving on kitchen bags, which otherwise would be getting full/more importantly smelly in our kitchen, necessitating replacing the kitchen trash bag every 1-2 days. And we’re getting some compost for our garden and lawn out of it, although not as much compost as initially expected (we’ve gotten 3 batches in 14 months – things don’t break down as quickly as our composting bin advertised).  So it’s been a good experience and compared to constantly replacing the trash bag in the kitchen, it’s really not been an inconvenience at all to take the food scraps out to the compost bin every few days.

Compost System Rebate Program Still Going On

29th April, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments

I hadn’t realized this, but apparently the Austin compost program (where if you switch to a 30 gallon trash can and take a composting class you can get a 75% rebate on a new composter, up to a value of $75) is still going on.  I went to an Earth Day type event at my office today and an Austin Solid Waste employee was handing out the forms, and said that she isn’t sure how long the program will last, but that composting classes are scheduled through August, indicating it will at least last that long.  And now you can take the required composting class online instead, which sounds a lot more convenient. You can read about my experience with my composter here - the model I have (and got a $75 rebate on) is now almost a year old and is still holding up really well and I haven’t had any problems with it.  You can read more about the program here.  And here’s some info on the upcoming classes:

Schedule of Upcoming Composting Classes

For more information on class locations, visit the Austin Farmers’ Market website.

Online Composting Class

1. Go to the Channel 6 site: www.cityofaustin.org/channel6
2. Click on the Videos tab in the green navigation menu (6th tab to the right)
3. Select the “Green30 Challenge, Composting Training” Video link (a new window will appear)
4. Watch the video in English or Spanish by clicking on the light blue Play button to the left of each language option
5. Answer the questions in the Green30 Challenge Questionnaire (PDF, 42 KB) (Spanish Questionnaire – PDF, 9 KB)
6. Send in your questionnaire along with your application packet to either of the following:
7. ATTN: Green30 Challenge
   City of Austin Solid Waste Services
   P.O. Box 1088
   Austin, TX 78767
   composting@austinrecycles.com

Woot has a Good Deal on a Composter and Guess Who Got her $75 Rebate?

25th August, 2010 - Posted by katherine - 2 Comments

The City of Austin is still offering their rebate on new composters so long as you apply by September 3rd.  Through the program, eligible participants can get a rebate of 75% of the total cost of the composting system (taxes excluded) up to $75 in value by following these three steps:

1. Downsize to a 30-gallon green garbage cart
2. Take a free basic backyard composting class
3. Purchase a home composting system

If you already use a 30 gallon cart, you just need to take the class to get the rebate.  You can check out this website for more details from he city of Austin. If you’re interested, there is a class on August 28th in order to complete the requirements by September 3rd.  I got my rebate several weeks ago, and forgot to post about it, but the process of applying for the rebate was very easy and I think the city is doing a good job with it.

Also, my husband let me know that today the website WOOT has the Orb composter for sale for $99 today until they run out.  Since you can get a rebate for 75% off from the City,  the composter would only be
$25+$5 shipping. And if you use the woot coupon code TAXSUCKS you can get a $5 discount.

here's my awesome composter in the back yard

Composting Update

2nd July, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments

I’ve been composting for about 6 weeks with my new composting bin (see my earlier post about my sweet B-day present) and things are looking pretty good.  My bin has 2 compartments and 1 side is full so I’ve stopped adding to it and am just waiting for everything to break down, and I’m now adding all our food scraps to the other side.  At one point the full side was too wet, so I added a lot of shredded Statesman pages and pieces of cardboard to it, and that seemed to help (the Statesman uses natural inks, so you can compost the newspaper without worrying about adding chemicals to your compost if you plan to use the compost for gardening).  

This website says that

Temperature plays an important role in the composting process. Decomposition occurs most rapidly between 110° to 160°F. Within two weeks, a properly made compost pile will reach these temperatures

so I’ve been hoping my compost pile will get warmer. Thanks to a handy laser thermometer my husband has which allows you to measure temperatures without any contact with the material, we know that the highest temperature the pile reached was 130° last weekend, but yesterday it was back down to the mid-90s.

The downside to composting? There are a lot of maggots in the compost pile. I naively did not realize there would be any bugs in the compost pile, or thought that if there were bugs, there would be just a few. But I’m not grossed out by it, I just quickly empty my compost bucket each day and give the compost bin a quick spin, and haven’t had any bug contact yet.  When that day comes, I will be grossed out.

For info on why composting is good for the environment, check out this EPA link (“Yard trimmings and food residuals together constitute 26 percent of the U.S. municipal solid waste stream. That’s a lot of waste to send to landfills when it could become useful and environmentally beneficial compost instead! Composting offers the obvious benefits of resource efficiency and creating a useful product from organic waste that would otherwise have been landfilled.”)

Get a Composter for Half Off!

11th June, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments

Katherine’s husband just pointed out that woot.com is selling an awesome deathstar-looking composter for half off today–it’s only $99! It has an air tube system that will turn food and garden waste into nutrient-rich compost in about 4 weeks. It holds 71 gallons and is made from recycled nylon plastic. So, if you’re in the market for buying a composter, that’s a pretty good deal. Also, don’t forget that the City of Austin will give you a rebate up to $75 for purchasing a home composting system. Check out Katherine’s post on the rebate for all the details.

Have Your Compost Picked Up at Your Apartment

9th June, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments

I posted awhile ago about how I’ve been collecting compostable materials in a bucket under my sink and walking it over to the Downtown Farmers Market each week. It’s been working out pretty well for me, but there are some parts of the process that aren’t completely ideal, like making sure I get over there by 1:00 every Saturday and dealing with the bucket that can get a little gross through the course of a week. So if hauling the compost to the farmers market just isn’t working out for you, Margaret, one of our readers, suggested using a new local company, Green Bucket Composting. They will come to your apartment and pick up your compost for you–how convenient is that? They also provide you with a container with a charcoal filter that keeps it from being too smelly and biodegradable garbage bags for easy clean up. Their prices are really reasonable at just $3.50 per week if you sign up for a whole year, or you can sign up for half a year, a quarter of a year, or just month by month. So simple and so green!

Guess Who Got a Composter for Her Birthday?

24th May, 2010 - Posted by katherine - 2 Comments

I did! And I’m really excited about it!

Why is composting green? Because food scraps that are put in your garbage go to a landfill, and once at the landfill, those materials become part of a huge pile of waste that doesn’t get any oxygen, and thus those materials never break down.  Because they never break down, the nutrients from those materials don’t ever go back into the ground.  And if you put your food scraps down the garbage disposal, energy is used up by the disposal unit, water is used up to work with the garbage disposal, and the water utility company has to use more energy and water to clean that water. But by composting, you can keep all of  those great nutrients for your own garden and avoid sending your food scraps to the landfill or down the sink!

On to my composting system – I had wanted a new compost system for awhile and got a really nice one for my recent birthday from my husband. Most people would not want a composter as a birthday present, but I have always been fascinated by watching things decompose. Since we have a house now I feel like it’s easier to become more involved in gardening and make longer term plans about my garden, such as how awesome the soil is going to be once I have some compost (3-4 months) to add to it.  When we were renting an apartment or house, I did a little gardening but I just never got into it as much, in part because I didn’t want to have to move a lot of heavy pots and gardening equipment (like a composter) once we eventually moved.

My new composter has 2 separate compartments so you can start one batch of compost in one compartment, and then once that compartment is pretty well along you can start in the other compartment. The whole thing can also be spun, which is supposed to mix it pretty well (which helps things decompose faster) without needing to use a pitchfork.

I’ve had the composter set up for about a week and things are looking good.  Here’s a pic of the leaves and yard waste and cardboard scraps I started off with: Since then I’ve been putting all of our non-meat and non-dairy food scraps in as well. The ratio of “dry” material (like leaves, grass, and cardboard) versus wet material (food scraps) is supposed to be about 60-40 or 70-30.  The compost is supposed to have the consistency of a washcloth you’ve gotten wet and then rung out – it should be a little wet but not too much. (I learned these facts and more and the composting class I took with Carsi a few months ago.  Now if you take those classes and agree to switch to a 30 gallon trash can (if you don’t have one already) you can get a $75 rebate on a composting system. Check here for more information on the city of Austin program. )

Rebates on Composting System

5th May, 2010 - Posted by katherine - 4 Comments

The City of Austin recently launched a new program called the Green30 Challenge through which eligible participants can get a rebate of 75 percent of the total cost of the composting system (taxes excluded) up to $75 in value by following the three following steps:

1. Downsize to a 30-gallon green garbage cart
2. Take a free basic backyard composting class
3. Purchase a home composting system

If you already use a 30 gallon cart, you just need to take the class to get the rebate. Check out this website for more details.

Drop Off Compost at the Downtown Farmers Market

3rd May, 2010 - Posted by carsi - 4 Comments

As I’ve written about before, I have been experimenting with composting in an apartment. Composting is an easy way to keep biodegradable items out of the landfill, but I don’t have the space to start my own compost pile. So instead, I’ve put an old bucket with a lid under my sink to collect all the vegetable scraps, tea bags, and other compostable items that accumulate over the week. Before, I was making the trip to a small community garden to drop off these items in their compost pile, but another option is to take it to the Downtown Austin Farmers Market on Saturday mornings. The lovely people at Wheatsville Co-op are sponsoring three Drop Spots at the Saturday market where a volunteer will help you sort out your recyclables, compostables, and trash. Since I go there most Saturdays to stock up on local veggies anyway, it was very convenient. This is simple and quick and a great way to be green!

Composting in an Apartment

1st March, 2010 - Posted by carsi - 1 Comment

Katherine and I recently attended a free class on composting, put on by the City of Austin and the Sustainable Food Center. Compost is decomposed organic matter that is used in gardens as nutrient-rich soil. The idea of composting is to get organic matter that can decompose naturally and become beneficial compost out of landfills and into your garden. Since 26 percent of the garbage in the US can be composted, this is definitely a green activity that will benefit your garden and the planet. Visit the city’s website on composting for tips on how to start your own compost pile, if you have the space for it. Katherine, a very new homeowner, is making plans to create her own compost pile, and she will update us on her adventures as they develop.

Unfortunately, I live in a small apartment downtown with literally zero space for planting a garden, so most of the tips from the class were helpful only to educate me for my future plans to have a garden. But, as I was sitting there, I wondered what options for composting are available to us apartment dwellers. Turns out, there are two. One, I can save up compostable items, such as vegetable scraps and tea bags and newspaper, and then donate them to community gardens. Visit this website for a list of community gardens to contact about donating your compost materials. I found a couple near me who welcomed the idea of taking my compost donations. Also, while you’re at the website, consider joining in the gardening at the community gardens if you can’t do so at your apartment. The other way an apartment dweller (probably with a patio) could compost is by worm composting. By getting a bucket, some worms, and a little bit of dirt, compost can be made easily for potted plants, without needing a bunch of space.

P.S. While we were at the class, two city employees working on the Zero Waste plan were there to learn about composting in preparation for implementing some kind of composting plan with the city. Exciting! We’ll keep an eye out for any developments.