Before creating the Eco-Sorter, we used to throw ALL of our kitchen garbage in the trash (landfill), except for the recycling that we separated. We found a kitchen compost pail inconvenient, unattractive and too small. Also, we didn't really understand the multitude of benefits composting has for the environment.
Our goal was to make collecting kitchen compost easy for our family, but in the process we found that using the Eco-Sorter saved us money every single month. This can work for you and your family as well! Here are the steps we took to achieve an ONGOING savings of $25/month:
In order to be committed to composting our kitchen scraps, we first did some research to understand WHY composting is important. Here are some of the things we learned:
5 reasons to compost kitchen scraps
- By composting, we divert organic material away from landfills. Organic material in a landfill releases methane, a very harmful greenhouse gas.
- Composting kitchen scraps helps to improve the soil. Compost provides nutrients to the soil, which improves the quality of the soil and makes it better for growing plants and vegetables.
- Compost reduces the need for synthetic fertilizer and pesticides. Compost slowly breaks down and releases nutrients over a long period of time, reducing the need for fertilizers that break down all at once. Plants grown in compost rich soil tend to be more resilient to pests and diseases, reducing the need for pesticides.
- Composting kitchen scraps can help reduce water pollution. Compost retains a large volume of water which helps prevent erosion and reduces runoff of chemicals in the soil into our waterways.
- Composting reminds us of the value of our waste and our accountability for the things we consume. Composting our kitchen scraps is one of the easiest and least expensive ways to reduce waste, heal the planet, and remind us that when we say we are "throwing something away", there is no "away".
Ok - we learned the WHY of composting our kitchen scraps so we then needed to know WHAT to compost. All commercial curbside composting rules are slightly different. We checked our waste management company's website (Republic Services) to find that SO MUCH of our waste was compostable.
Compostable Materials Accepted Curbside By Our Waste Management*
- All Vegetables / Fruit
- Meat, fish, bones
- Dairy
- Any cooked, frozen or spoiled food
- Coffee grounds, paper tea bags, tea leaves
- Dairy foods
- Pizza boxes
- Paper napkins, paper towels
- Uncoated paper plates
- Uncoated to-go paper food containers
- Paper egg cartons
- Bamboo and wood chop sticks
- Paper coffee filters
- Compostable bags
*Make sure to check with your waste management company. All can be slightly different.
Once we learned all of the kitchen waste that was actually compostable, we realized it was probably over half of what we put in the trash. Not only did we want an easier, more convenient and more attractive alternative to a compost bin on the counter, we realized all of our compostable materials would never fit in a standard compost bin without having to empty it often. That is when we came up with the idea for the Eco-Sorter. It just made sense to us to divide our current garbage can into 2 sections - one for compostable items, one for trash. Using the Eco-Sorter to divide our garbage can, we never miss composting anything because it is as simple as throwing out the trash - we simply throw it into the compost side of the can.
Almost immediately after we began using the Eco-Sorter, we noticed that the majority of our kitchen trash had been diverted from our outside landfill cart to the outside organics cart. An interesting learning was that the weight and volume of our compost was so much greater than our trash. After separating our trash from compostable items, we noticed that the items left for the trash were much lighter (eg: chip bags, plastic packaging, straws, empty Starbucks cups, etc.) Our outside landfill cart was much less full and much less heavy. At the time, all 3 of our bins (landfill, recycle, organic) were 64 gallon carts. Our Waste Management company provides all three, but the service fee is based solely on the size of our landfill cart. And using the Eco-Sorter, our landfill bin was less than half full...
We quickly called our Waste Management company and requested a 32 gallon landfill cart. The following week, they replaced our old 64 gallon cart with the new smaller cart. Savings begin!
Republic Services Residential Rates - $/Month (for our city)
64 gallon landfill cart: $53.23
Reduced to:
32 gallon landfill cart: $28.18
MONTHLY SAVINGS: $25.05
Check with your Waste Management company to see if reducing the size of your outside landfill cart will save you money!