FOOD SCRAP COMPOSTING

I sometimes hear stories about people storing food scraps in freezers and on the weekends take the stuff to green markets to recycle.  I suppose these people live in apartments and don't have a backyard container to heap the stuff in.  Or maybe they just like to stick to guidelines in composting brochures to minimize issues with odors and bugs.  Whatever the case, I admire those people.  That's dedication.

I have a backyard and occasionally toss the scraps, mostly fruit waste, into the compost bins I have in my backyard.  For sure they attract bugs but that's what backyards are supposed to be, no?  I know someone whose backyard is, possibly, airtight with plastic on the ground and the fence.  I think that's extreme.  Might as well stay indoor, close all the windows, and turn on the A/C.

After attending a volunteer orientation for recyclers hosted by the city, I wanted to contribute more to food scrap recycling.  It takes time for my compost bins to work and there's that bug issues, so might as well take them to a green market.  I'm not dedicated to keep the food scraps in the freezer or the refrigerator and worried that my stuff wouldn't be accepted.  Luckily, when I arrived at the recycling site, there were just these bins ready to take the stuff.  Whichever bins that were not closed were to be used.  The bins sits out in the open, even if they are closed, for a few hours, so maybe it doesn't matter if the collected stuff was frozen or not.

In the not-too-distant future, the whole NYC will recycle food scraps.  For now, the scraps are either trashed, composted in some backyard, or collected at the green markets, which only open on the weekend, usually.  In my case, I made it a bike trip, about 10 km round-trip, to get to the green market, a break from running to give my knees a break.  I went on a Sunday but had I gone on a Saturday there was a market closer to me.  It takes some extra effort to recycle food scraps and I happen to have it.

Use any open green bins then put containers in the yellow bag (in this case) as trash.

I think of green markets as taking place in some parking lot or some open area, but this one on Corteyou occurred on the sidewalk.  It was a bit crowded but not too bad.