Thermal Erma: Organic Intern and Dirt Licker

Composting is Not Scary (unless people w/ rubber gloves are involved)

Today was the Company Picnic!  Wooot!  My environmental department decided to try and make it as close to waste-free is possible.  It’s a really cool idea and I wish more events would strive to operate is such a way.  They ordered compostable plates, napkins, cups, and utensils.  We set up compost bins with nice, bright green signs with friendly reminders about what can go in which receptacles.  Nonetheless, it was still difficult for some people to get the hang of things.  I’m not trying to criticize or judge them.  I’m really not.   It was just the generally intimidation that I saw dawn on people’s faces as they approached the compost booth that made me a little sad.  Was composting and recycling really that daunting?  Well, yes, in today’s age it is still a very alien thing.  Most of the time, our impulse is still to throw it all away (as I saw a few older men do, which meant that I can to go dumpster diving).  Recycling is something that a little more people seem to have a handle on, but there are still lots of items that even us experienced recyclers were unsure about.  So it’s not a perfect system and so what if a few people were scarred by the fact that I raised my voice a little to get them not to just toss it all away.   But then there were a few people who were expert composters, who would stop by the stand to tell me how their compost at home worked.  And then there were people, like one of the caterers, that was very willing to take a few moments with me to learn what waste could be composted and what could be recycled.  It made me smile, becuase it proved that, yes, new things are intimidating and a little hard at first, but the more you dive into it the easier and more satisfying it becomes.

I see this reflected all around the new sustainable practices that are emerging in our society.  A lot of people, urban and rural residing, are commenting, blogging, and twitting (something like that) about how much they are enjoying their rain-harvesters or worm composting bins!  It’s fun to use less and find creative ways to lessen your carbon footprint.  It’s like getting into a new exercise regimen.  As first you grumble becuase you have to stop being lazy, but they it becomes enjoyable and little addictive.

Let me jump subjects a little here.  If you haven’t heard about worm composting yet, then you are missing out!  Let me tell you.  This looks like a blast (but then again, there’s probably something deeply strange about me).   The reason that I know almost everything there is to know about worm composting is becuase my new company has asked me to do a little research.  The owner of the company also owns a few farms and dairies with his family.  Well, as I hope you know, cows poop and pee a LOT.  And when you have over 500 cows, you can’t just let all that waste go into the ground water.  It usually ups the nitrogen levels so much that it kills a lot of  native organisms.  So there are these nifty things called Bio-Swales. They are a means of filtering toxins out of water or the soil through specific plants that are planted over it so the bad get converted into the harmless.  Here is a picture in order to get the gist of what I’m talking about here:

So how they are planning to implement this on the dairies is having a series of bioswales.  The liquid waste from the cows can go through not just one, but five phases of filtration and what comes out will not be harmful at all.  It’s really neat. They just finished digging out these troughs in the ground and lined them in heavy duty plastic so that none of the potent stuff can get into the groundwater.  Next, they will fill the trenches with the dry manure/compost  over a series of pipes that will transport the liquid down the line.  Then they will grow grass on top of it. And the cows will eat it!!!

BAM! An almost completely closed system.  It’s beautiful.  Well anyway, they want to add some composting worms to the mix in order to streamline the process even more.  They love to eat cow waste and leaves and old food and all that good stuff.  If you are interested here are some good websites that I found to be informative:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermicompost :  just your basic wiki article here, but I found it very well researched.

http://www.wormdigest.org/content/view/110/2/ :  There is a touching essay here that talks about disappearing worms species.

http://www.cityfarmer.org/wormcomp61.html : Here is a great step-by-step guide if you want to know how you could set up a worm compost bin for your house.

I apologize if some of these first posts here seem a bit scattered.   There is so much that I have had to take in in such a short time and it’s a little overwhelming at times.  But I think having to write it out in this form will help me keep it all straight…sort of.  Plus I want to connect people with the fun information that I’m digging up in the course of my job.

Which brings me to my reading list for the past month!  Here are some titles that I found to be interesting, educational or have recently been recommended to me:

The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

In Defense of Food by Micheal Pollan

The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Micheal Pollan

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of food Life by Barbara Kingsolver (and others)

These author are all crazy smart and are trying to work with everyday realities as well as the need to be nicer to the earth before we are totally screwed.

Which reminds me (strangely enough) that I saw previews of “2012″ and laughed more than was appropriate.  Awful. I mean, I’m sorry, but it looks WAY to melodramatic for my taste.  But it might be worth it for the giggle. Oh oh John Cusack.

Til next time,

Erma