Composting Ideas for Big City Living

Does living in an urban area like New York inevitably mean you have to give up a green lifestyle? In contrast to popular belief, I would say absolutely not. In my opinion, big city spaces (like NYC) offer up many options for environmentally friendly, green living. As a metropolitan dweller you have access to, and (if you so choose) can easily take full advantage of public transit systems. Urban dwellers also typically live in apartments that are more efficient to heat and to keep cool than your typical single family dwelling. My personal favorite? The often disregarded ease of recycling. Most metropolitan areas make recycling relatively pain-free for occupants by giving them a recycling crate and even emptying it for them every couple of weeks. In the midst of all of these options available, there is still a weakness though. One disadvantage for the urban person is that much of their food rubbish goes out with the non-recyclable trash. Composting and urban areas just don't seem to get along.

Composting takes a lawn and a receptacle, with plenty of land so you can position the compost as far away from your garden furniture as possible. It means heaps of decaying vegetable material sitting for a season or so before it's even ready to be tilled into your vegetable garden, right? If you have just recently made the change from rural to urban (for instance NYC moving from Montana); you know what I mean. Let's remember we are talking about urban dwellers here. Parking spaces are a luxury, so gardens are almost certainly a no go. No yard, no garden - what can an urban person do? Here are a couple of possibilities:

Automatic Compost Mill

An automatic compost mill quickly turns food waste, including small amounts of meat and dairy, into finished compost. These mills use relatively small amounts of electricity to turn food waste into compost through heat and aeration. Most units are a bit larger than an under-sink garbage bin, but must be plugged in continually. Scraps are placed in an upper chamber that has a trap-door style floor of heated metal plates. A paddle turns horizontally in the chamber at intervals to aerate the scraps. Sawdust and baking soda are added to adjust nitrogen balance and pH. When the compost is finished, it drops into a removable container below. Not particularly sustainable due to electricity usage, and noise can also be a problem in a small space while the paddle is turning. It should be pointed out that it is also limited in that items that can wrap around the paddle should not be composted. This would include things such as strips of paper. Also, the use of heat to speed decomposition does increase odors. Don't worry though; this is more of an earthy odor than one of rotting garbage.

Bokashi Composting

Bokashi should be looked at less like conventional composting and more like pickling. Bokashi Composting should be considered "pre-composting" because it does not make finished compost on its own. It is merely a way of kick-starting the process. Food rubbish, including meat and dairy, is placed in a pail and speckled with a mixture of bran and micro-organisms that begin the anaerobic fermentation process. In two weeks, the micro-organisms have done their work and the results are ready to be placed in a standard compost bin or pile. How is this a benefit for urban dwellers? The main advantages are that this system produces few unpleasant smells, attracts few (if any) flies, and the resulting pre-compost does not attract rodents or birds. All of which are especially good features for people living and moving about in tight spaces in the big city.

So whether you have lived in a large city your entire life, or you are just recently thinking of transferring, you do not have to be concerned about giving up those eco-friendly habits you enjoy so much.