Mountains of compost at a commercial composting facility.

What comes to mind when you hear the word infrastructure? Perhaps emergency systems such as fire, police, a working 911 system, and ambulance service ranks high on your list. We are comforted knowing we can rely on these services during a time of acute need.

You might be thinking of the electrical grid, telephone (land line and cell), and internet as critical infrastructure. While not usually a matter of life or death, our world is a different place without these services. There can be a lot to lose: business operations, a teenagers ability to text, and ice cream.

Public water and sewer systems in non-rural areas are a critical and under-appreciated part of our critical infrastructure. I’ve never heard of a politician attaching his or her name to a sewer project, yet sanitation is public health’s greatest achievement.

Trash and increasingly recycling pick-up might also come to mind. Think about how much trash and recycling you could easily store in your home before it started to take over, and you quickly realize how critical this really is in today’s throw-away world.

What about organics recycling (composting) infrastructure? This one is patchwork at best. Enter your zip code on fndacomposter.com and many of you will not find a composting facility within a reasonable distance from your home. This is particularly true in rural areas with low population density. True, many of these folks have the space to compost, but many choose not to so organics go to the landfill.

What separates organic recycling infrastructure from the other previously mentioned components of infrastructure is the immediacy of the consequences. If we send our organics to the landfill with our trash, no one loses their home in a fire, has their business operations paralyzed or gets cholera as a result.

The consequences are important though, particularly in the long run. Currently we have a quick fix for our declining soils – synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. They aren’t a true fix though, as they often leave our soils worse off, lacking life, organic matter and good soil structure. In the meantime, they contribute to pollution of our waterways.

Composting infrastructure takes on new significance when we consider healthy soil as critical for life. All life above the soil depends on life within the soil. Together with the sun, air, and water our soils support plant and thus animal life. As the aboveground life forms (in particular the upright two-legged ones) continue to put pressure on earth’s systems, we might be wise to take care of what lie beneath us.

There is a certain irony to the produce section of my grocery store. I’ve noticed that the organic produce are more packaged than their conventional counterparts. Here, the purest of the produce are surrounded by plastic, not of the compostable kind.

Every week I ask myself: Organic bananas in plastic or conventional bananas without plastic? I’ve been favoring the naked conventional bananas, but if there was an option for plastic-less organic bananas I’d go for those. Each week I wonder, why are the organic bananas in plastic?

One of my theories is that packaging suggests to the consumer that the product is more valuable. Organic produce costs more than conventional produce. Perhaps the packaging helps consumers swallow the price.

I don’t see packaging as making a product more valuable. In fact, I see it as a liability and so does my municipality. Once it comes home with me I need to find a way to get it out of the house again, either by placing it in the trash or the recycle bin. Once I bring it to my municipal solid waste district, they need to either landfill it or recycle it. The latter isn’t always as easy as it may seem. So, I’ll take the plastic-free bananas.

I usually pass on plastic produce bags too for the same reason. Produce bags usually have a recycling symbol on them, but how many people have a place where they can actually take plastic bags for recycling? My grocery store accepts them, but my guess is that not everyone has that option so, of course, they end up in the landfill.

Now that my paper towel dream has come true, at least at one store, I’m dreaming about compostable produce bags. They exist, but they are more expensive than their conventional plastic counterparts, so you don’t see them much. Anyway, in my dreams all the grocery stores have them and everyone who takes them uses them to line their compost crock. Then they all get composted along with all those food scraps that everybody is composting (this is my dream, so everybody is composting everything that can be composted). The bags are an asset because they are useful after their original task of holding produce is finished. They are a convenient way to carry food scraps out to the composter and nobody has to wash slime out of the compost crock. Best of all, they rot, just like what they are designed to hold.

At nearly every public, school and workplace restroom, I’m used to seeing this:

Some sort of container lined with a plastic bag filled with paper towels, each briefly utilized for the sole purpose of drying hands. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for washing and drying hands after using the bathroom. It just always seems to me these paper towels could have some sort of afterlife.

You can imagine my surprise (and delight) when I saw this on the waste receptacle beneath the paper towel dispenser at our local garden center:

It was like a dream come true.

I realize composting paper towels from bathrooms is not as easy as it may seem. Sometimes there is other bathroom trash that you don’t want in a compost pile, so each bathroom would need to have a regular trash bin too. Inevitably, mistakes will be made. This is always the problem when collecting compostables in public settings: trash finds its way in.

Collecting paper towels for composting won’t have many of the drawbacks of collecting other compostables in public settings. There is no food sitting around perhaps a bit too long creating an odor and looking attractive to fruit flies. These paper towels are clean; after all, people are using them after they wash their hands. Finally, unlike bioplastics, paper towels can be composted anywhere. Since they contribute primarily carbon, they are a great addition to compost piles that contain mostly nitrogen-containing materials such as food scraps.

Having a compost bin in public bathrooms will take some getting used to, but we could start making the shift in some more controlled environments. I’m going to start with my kids’ preschool. I have never seen anything else but paper towels in the bathroom waste bins. Preschoolers just don’t have a lot of other trash. Plus, this population really gets it, and isn’t too stuck in their ways of throwing all their waste in the same bin. Other prime locations might be small workplaces where everyone understands the two-bin (trash and compostables) bathroom waste management system

I figure people probably use, on average, 5 paper towels for drying hands per day. That’s 25 paper towels per week and 1200 paper towels per person per year if you figure in vacations and holidays. For a workplace or a school with 100 people, that’s a decent amount of compostables.

We can do better than trapping a bunch of perfectly-good compostables in a plastic bag and considering them trash. The landfill doesn’t need them; our soils do.

Holiday travel can make me weak and yield to the pressure of just-off-the-highway fast food. My kids, who are both four, are already shouting out “Old MacDonalds” (as in the song) when they see the golden arches. How do kids know to do this so early in life?

Usually I resist in favor or a diner or a packed lunch, but this time it was a rushed Christmas Eve and we were traveling with a feline. He’s a well mannered cat, but it isn’t like you can tell him to please use the kitty box before getting into the carrier. Plus, it was cold outside so I caved in to McDonalds as our fastest lunch option in the best interest of the family cat.

When I do land in a fast food restaurant, I try to avoid the toy. It is always some landfill-bound mean-looking guy that gets my boys all revved up. But now they are old enough to really lay on the begging and their father has a soft spot — perhaps for the plastic light-up man, I’m not sure – so the happy meals get ordered while I’m in the ladies room.

Fast food figurines ready for action on a snow-covered wood pile.

Mind you, it is hard enough for me to eat at fast food restaurants because I can’t stop thinking about all the food scraps not being composted and the packaging generated by my own meal. Then I consider the number of people who eat at that McDonalds per day times the number of McDonalds in the country — no, the world — and I just flat out loose my appetite. Now that my children know how to nag my husband into submission, I need to imagine all the kids’ meal toys in landfills too.

The problem with kids’ toys is that kids really love them for about a half hour, then it lives out the rest of its “useful” life on the backseat floor of the car. Perhaps it makes it into the house and serves mostly to clutter the kitchen counter, but they all ultimately end up in the trash.

Why, then, are kids toys made from a material that will last hundreds of years when kids’ interest in the toys is much shorter, by a magnitude of about a million? It would make a lot more sense to make toys that are compostable (ok, my bias) or recyclable. Or, how about if the companies supplying the toys institute a take-back program? They could include a self-addressed envelope in the kids’ meal so that the parents could be rid of the toy when the child looses interest. The community wins too since the local landfill doesn’t have to accept yet another piece of plastic and associated parts like lights and batteries. I might actually seek out a restaurant like that.

Our cat was with us on the way back, so I’m sorry to say that we now have Burger King toys around here too. Neither of the toys are played with now, just a few days later. In fact, the boys didn’t even care when I walked out of the house with the toys in order to snap this photo. They just showed me how they worked and said “Bye, mom”. For all they know, I could have chucked them in the woods. I might have, but I don’t want to see them there each spring when the snow melts for the next several hundred years.

Individual action. Photo by Lori Fisher.

With Copenhagen behind us and the results less than what the earth and her species need, local and individual actions take on even greater importance. In my last post, I suggested composting as an activity that anyone can do to address climate change; in this post I explain why.

As the Compostable Organics Out of Landfills by 2012 (COOL 2012) website points out, “as communities work to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, the first place to look is in the garbage can.” When food scraps and paper products are landfilled they break down in the absence of oxygen (anaerobically) producing methane, a potent greenhouse gas. When organic materials are composted, carbon is both stored within the compost as humus and released as carbon dioxide. While carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, methane is 72 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.

At the community level, diverting paper for recycling and organics (food scraps and yard trimmings) to composting facilities not only reduces greenhouse gas emissions but also results in useful end products. The resulting compost promotes plant growth including food production, which sequesters carbon dioxide from the air. Compost also reduces reliance on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, which on their own are energy intensive and a source of greenhouse gas emissions.

At the individual level, compost yields even more greenhouse gas savings. Backyard and apartment composting prevents the relatively heavy organics (food scraps are largely water) from having to travel from your home to the landfill. If everyone composted their food scraps and yard waste, we’d have about one quarter of the amount of waste to transport further reducing greenhouse gas emissions from trucks.

The Stop Trashing the Climate report states:

Significantly decreasing waste disposed in landfills and incinerators will reduce greenhouse gas emissions the equivalent to closing 21% of U.S. coal-fired power plants. This is comparable to leading climate protection proposals such as improving national vehicle fuel efficiency. Indeed, preventing waste and expanding reuse, recycling, and composting are essential to put us on the path to climate stability.

At the individual level, careful product selection and composting of our organics is something we can all do without world leaders and industry standing in our way. If you are already there, take it to the community level. Think global, act local. The greatest changes start there.

This week the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen is bringing light to some of the lesser known strategies needed to address climate change. Composting is getting some well deserved attention.

Snow melting on compost.

The Zero Waste International Alliance (ZWIA) brings to Copenhagen their opinion that the “way to solve the climate change problems caused by humanity is to recapture carbon in the soils of the earth. This can be accomplished by returning all organic waste to the soil as compost.” As they say, soil is the solution.

Many of the strategies to address climate change require complex agreements at the national level, which largely exclude direct involvement by citizens. Composting, on the other hand, can be done by anyone anywhere. Even apartment dwellers can use enclosed systems to make compost. This is one of the solutions we can truly take into our own hands.

The climate crisis will challenge all species for the foreseeable future, but it is the responsibility of our species alone to solve the problem (although we can enlist help from the composting microbes). The global size and scope of the issue requires all hands on the table and implementation of all strategies. This involvement at every level is the way Copenhagen truly becomes Hopenhagen.

I tend to eat low on the food chain, but when I do eat meat I try very hard not to waste. Thus, the Thanksgiving turkey carcass (which will ultimately be composted) is boiling away on my stove as I write. The resulting stock will be combined with butternut squash or potatoes for future nourishment in the form of soup.

Glass jars of stock cooling in November air.

I cook a lot of soup in the wintertime because it is simple to make out of vegetables I grew. I have to admit, though, that the stock is often store bought. Although I love the idea of making my own stock, it requires one to be home and awake for at least four hours with enough energy to pay attention to a stove.

When the Thanksgiving turkey stock is all used up, I typically head to the grocery store. Once upon a time, I bought stock in a box (think very large juice box) but then abandoned those because of their inability to be composted or recycled. I switched to stock in cans since they can be recycled, eliminating the landfill-bound soup-associated waste.

I was happy with this until I learned that the lining of cans tested by Consumer Reports Health  contain Bisphenol A (BPA) , an estrogen-mimicking chemical with suspected ill health effects, most notably in children. Canned organic products are no better off in this regard than their conventional counterparts either.

So now I’m wondering what to do with all of those cans of soup, fruits, and vegetables in my pantry. If I throw them out my husband will likely starve when I am away. If I use them I’ll wonder just how much BPA my 4-year olds are getting with each bite.

In light of my packaging woes, I think I’ll invest in some more glass canning jars and carve out a few more four-hour blocks of time. The resulting stock is a healthy investment.

This time of year leads me to consider everything that I am thankful for: my friends and family (human and animal members), living in Vermont, food on my table, shelter over my head – the typical stuff. This year, when we take turns at the table sharing what we are thankful for, I’m going to throw out a new one – llama manure.

Please, keep reading. Llama manure has some mighty fine attributes. First and foremost it is a great ingredient to have on hand when building a compost pile or for jumpstarting an existing bin, providing both nitrogen and microbes.  If you have hungry plants that can’t wait for the compost to finish up, llama manure can be used directly on plants without burning them.

That’s not all. Llama manure doesn’t harbor a lot of weed seeds. It doesn’t even really stink (too bad). I’ve had friends take it home in a Prius, which should say something about scent. The firm oval pellets are easy to shovel and spread. Best of all, llamas are quite tidy about their elimination habits by choosing one or two spots in the field where they all make their deposits, which we call the communal poop pile. This is most convenient for the gardener and composter.

So, there it is, I’m debating whether or not to mention this at the dinner table where we usually give thanks. I know it isn’t considered polite to talk about excrement while (or just before) eating. My four-year olds get in trouble for this all the time, so they will likely welcome the conversation. As far as the adults at the table, they have all already had these details inflicted upon them in other settings.

Still, this just seems to be the right time and place to bring it up. I really am thankful for it and couldn’t imagine gardening without it. The vegetables on the table are evidence of its value. Admittedly, I’m a little worried that my four-year olds will giggle about it throughout the entire Thanksgiving meal. Perhaps I’ll wait until dessert.

In recognition of America Recycles Day (November 15), I toured our local Materials Recovery Facility (recycling center). I came away with much deeper understanding of why reduce and reuse come before recycle. Although tons of materials are recovered each day, recycling is not perfect. I now have an even greater appreciation for composting (if that is possible). Here’s how I see it:

• Compared with recycling, composting does not require the same energy inputs. Sure, both composting and recycling facilities use large machinery, but unlike recovered recyclable materials compost doesn’t need to be baled, melted down or de-inked. In many settings, one can just throw a bunch of organics in a pile and over time (faster or slower depending on conditions) nature does all the work.

• There is no sorting required. Compostables can all go in the same big pile. As a consequence, contamination is less of an issue, assuming you are careful about what you put in.

• Compost doesn’t need to travel to China to be useful again, as is the case for number 3 – 7 plastics. Compost is useful anywhere.

• The value of the finished product isn’t at the mercy of the economy like recovered recycled materials. Compost is always valuable and arguably more valuable during recessions and depressions since more people tend vegetable gardens during hard economic times.

• You can compost almost anywhere. Even city dwellers can compost using an electric composter or vermicomposting (composting with worms). By contrast, one’s recycling options are dependent upon the recycling infrastructure in their city or county, with existing drastic geographical differences.

• There is no limit to the number of times biologics can be recycled (composted).

Composting is nature’s perfect recycling system. Don’t get me wrong, I’m an avid recycler and I complete the loop by purchasing products made with recycled materials. I extend sincere gratitude to the people who make it happen. Without them, we’d have many more holes in the ground filled with you-know-what.

We need both composters and recyclers. But we, as a society, can do better, from designing better (truly recyclable) products and packaging to expanding recycling infrastructure to creating local markets for recycled materials. It would make their job a whole lot easier and our planet a whole lot cleaner.

As fall progresses, my garden offers winter squash, cranberries, sweet potatoes, and Swiss chard, all colorful and nutritious food that will sustain my family into winter. There are some other less obvious fall nutrients out there in the form of tree trimmings, leaves, and annuals and perennials gone by. These are, or will be, nutrients for plants when spring arrives.

Yard trimmings are no small potatoes when it comes to municipal solid waste. In 2007 they accounted for 12.8% or 32.6 million tons of the municipal solid waste stream. Thankfully, municipalities composted 20.9 tons of yard trimmings, yielding an overall relatively high recovery rate of 64.1%. Only recovery (recycling) of car batteries and steel cans was higher. Still, this means 11.7 million tons of leaves went to landfills, removed from the biological cycle they’d been part of for millions of years.

Each fall, my husband trims trees and gathers leaves and considers bringing them to our municipal waste facility for composting. This is when my hoarding instinct kicks in. Please don’t take those nutrients away, I beg. So, the tree limbs go into the woods (many animals will make a home out of a pile of tree trimmings) and the leaves join the garden and barn waste in a big glorious fall compost pile.

Bringing our yard waste to the municipal facility for composting would relocate some of the nutrient content from our yard to some other place (the yard of whoever uses the compost made by our municipality). That is probably just fine for people who aren’t so passionate about plants, but when leaves are deposited in a landfill their nutrients are removed for good. This is the same for food scraps, which account for 12.5% of municipal solid waste. Sadly, food scraps experience a much lower nutrient recovery rate of 2.6%. As soils are depleted around the world, we continue to lose nutrients to landfills. In that environment they no longer have the opportunity to support plant growth.

When I was growing up and refusing my dinner, my mother would say “Don’t waste your food — other people in the world are starving. My kids hear that too, but they also hear “Don’t waste your organic nutrients — soils all over are becoming less fertile”.

It is time for a shift in our perspective. Instead of seeing food scraps and yard trimmings as waste, let’s see them for what they really are — nutrients for plants. If Halloween treats are the nutrients you think of this time of year, consider upcycling (making new stuff from would-be waste) any Mars brand candy wrappers you get in your trick-or-treat bag. Chocolate is a nutrient, I’m pretty sure, and it turns out the wrapper can be too.