Composting makes me Happy. Seattle makes me Proud!

My food scraps and yard waste sold back to me! 

This year we are adding some compost to our garden to help the plants live to their full potential. The compost we chose is from Cedar Grove, one of the massive-scale compost facilities that handle Seattle’s municipal food and yard waste recycling, which I think is very cool. 

I can’t yet attest to how good this compost is, but from the tar-black color, mild earthy smell, and dense crumbly texture, I have a feeling that things are going to flourish.

Look at the stark contrast between the compost to the normal soil!

I have great respect and admiration for the biological cycles that govern the world, such as nutrient and growth- decay cycles. I love incorporating those cycles into my life to harness their potential. I love the possibility that my very-own banana peels and coffee filters are making their way back to my garden. I relish that the weeds of yesterday are the soil amendments of today. 

Composting: a nutrient cycle.   (picture compliments of the Cedar Grove website)

I truly appreciate the ease of Seattle’s composting program. If the city didn't take my scraps away and turn them into soil-gold, I would have my own compost pile in the yard. It’s funny that I pay the city to haul away my organic material, and then buy it right back, but I’m proud to have the opportunity to do just that. It's just too easy.

I was recently lucky enough to tour a facility similar to Cedar Grove, down near Portland. I was courting this composting company: [I wanted to work for them and they wanted to hire me. But work was too slow to hire a new employee. Things are still in limbo with that]. Composting is something that greatly interests me and I would love to work in the compost industry. Anyway, I ended up getting to visit this facility, which I really enjoyed as a biological systems engineer nerd.

A large-scale composting facility I visited, similar to Cedar Grove, Seattle's food and yard waste facility.

Seattle and Recycling

  

In the tradition of the west-coast green mentality, Seattle has been a national leader in recycling and composting programs for decades. 

Seattleites collectively diverted 53.7% of our waste from landfills into recycling and compost in 2010!   That statistic makes me very proud of the city.
Seattle’s full 2010 Recycling Report.

It's nice that we can recycle quite a few things.

A brief timeline of Seattle’s progressive waste reduction history:

• Curb-side recycling program began in 1988.

• Yard waste collection program began in 2000.

• Food scraps were accepted in 2005.

• Plastic bags were banned in 2012. They are no longer a choice at grocery stores.

Anyway, in summary I love living in a city with a progressive, all-encompassing, simple, and successful recycling and composting program. Thanks Seattle!  I hope to report back on the results of the compost.