The Garbage Can died yesterday. Not really. But, what if? Could we get by? Or, would our waste fill our streets once again, as it did in the days of the industrial revolution?
We’d get by.
We’d get by with recycling (every house, city, state, and country would HAVE to) and composting.
It’s encouraging, of course, how much we hear of the former. Everyone is aware of the importance of recycling (coupled with the need to purchase goods made from recycled materials). But composting?! That’s just for gardener(d)s!
However, if we all recycled our food scraps some very fundamental changes would take place. First, we’d create less waste. Second, we’d have a home-made fertilizer better for our lawns, plants, trees, and veggies which is better than any chemical fertilizer ever created. Third, we’d once again have nutrient-rich soil (good for us, and for future generations). I’ll stop there and take a second to quote superstar writer and gardener, Michael Pollan (from his book Second Nature) on the benefits of compost:
- Compost improves the soils “structure”. Compost helps “airy crumbs” of clay, sand, and silt form and be held together by humic acid–creating “ideal” conditions for plant-life to grow.
- Compost increases the soil’s waterholding capacity. One hundred pounds of humus (the main constituent of compost) can hold one hundred and ninety pounds of water! Therefore, requiring less watering, and plants grown in it will better withstand drought.
- Compost teems with microorganisms, which break down organic matter in the soil into the basic elements the plants need.
- Compost contains nearly every chemical plants need to grow, including such elements as boron, manganese, iron, copper, and zinc, not often found in commercial fertilizer. Compost thus returns to the soil a high proportion of things agriculture takes out of it.
The benefits are immense. Even if you had no need for compost, if everyone were doing it we could supply local famers and keep every farm in our country organic simply through the use of our compost as their fertilizer (stat from my head–but can you dispute it?) — and imagine the water conserved (point #2)!
Back to my original point, if humanity did all need to compost there would be some people who would find it difficult if they didn’t have a yard, or did have a yard but wanted to keep it free from a smelly, bug-attracting compost pile (not my thoughts). In those cases they would need to come up with some type of super-composting-indoor-robot-machine. Well, someone did, and they decided not to name it the super-composting-indoor-robot-machine, they call it the NatureMill (I like my name better)! The NatureMill Pro and NatureMill Plus allow the user the opportunity to compost indoors quickly and cleanly (and stylishly), thereby creating healthier soil, using less water, and growing organic, nutrient-rich plants.
I find composting and recycling (coupled with re-using) a fine alternative to the garbage can. So, Garbage Can, although you are still with us, your time may be drawing ever nearer. Thanks for keeping the trash out of our streets (as best you could)
We’re all better for having known you….
…When you die you will be recycled.
R.I.P
Image source: NatureMill
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