You won't know how much food waste you produce until you create a week's worth of catalogs.most of the romaine heads lettuce I was planning on using it for a week before leaving town, but ended up not using it. The last handful of grape tomatoes, his third of a bag of broccoli florets and a heel of fine bread. breadso old that it's doubtful to even consider croutons.
This story is part of CNET Zeroa series that documents the effects of climate change and explores what is being done about the issue.
read more: How to Start a Compost Pile: A Beginner's Guide
Until last week, about 2 lbs. of these food waste What I was unknowingly producing would have become food for garbage destined to become methane, a major cause of global warming, in a coffin of plastic garbage bags.Instead they entered my new home romi bloom A nobler future as a countertop food recycler plant fertilizer.
Organic waste recyclers are one of the hottest kitchen appliances in 2024. I had no idea how much waste these eco-friendly devices could divert from landfills into usable soil until I tested this and measured what he put in in a week. It wasn't.
Why you should consider purchasing a tabletop composter
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the mill bin was crushing these chicken bones after one crushing and drying cycle.
It's tempting to believe that food waste is harmless, but it's all biodegradable, right? It's not as vile as plastics that can't be recycled or other materials that don't break down over time. The difference, however, is that food waste accounts for nearly 60% of greenhouse gas emissions from landfills, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. This is a harsh reality, especially for people who live in areas without compostable food collection programs or don't have enough green space to provide their own compost.
Obviously, my first batch of Lomi wasn't representative of the amount I throw away in an average week, but it was probably representative of my bi-monthly refrigerator cleanout. Those 29 ounces of food waste have been reduced by approximately 85%, down to just 4 ounces of dehydrated material, which can be used for potted plants (along with mature fertilizers, as Lomi yield soil alone cannot support plant life), gardening. Good for adding to your floor or in the worst case scenario. , returns to the trash can, but has been made significantly less potent due to its transformation.
But how much food waste can one person generate at home?
Some level of food waste is inevitable. What we do with it is not.
Well, that was exactly the question I was trying to answer. One source says the amount of food waste is about 325 pounds per American per year, but I thought he'd take a week to see what that looks like in my household. I did. (That 325 pounds should also include food left on your plate at the restaurant, but that's another issue, but if you own a food recycler or a smart kitchen bin, you'll be able to dispose of it even if If you're more likely to take leftovers home just for the sake of it, you might be able to solve the problem). )
read more: Millbin Review: Turns Terrible Food Debris into Soil in 6 Hours (Don't Call It Compost)
I feel I am a good fit for this candidate in that I have a lifestyle that potentially justifies, and perhaps even requires, owning a tabletop composter like the Romi. Masu. I travel a lot and unfortunately that causes some trouble. expired produce, considering that I actually try to eat well when I'm at home. When I'm not traveling, I work from home, so some days I end up with three meals worth of food scraps just from meal prep, mostly from the fruit and vegetable variety (see “Eating well” above). When I take out or eat out, I'm likely to end up with some leftover food, and if I look back on history, at least some of that leftover food will probably end up being a little too much for me to comfortably consume. I produce some form of food waste every day.
So for a week, I weighed and added up all the food I usually throw in the trash without thinking. This week, all the eggshells (about 0.3 ounces each, but in total), all the skins, all the inedible stalks and stems, and all the daily coffee grounds were added to the composter before being added to the composter. It was weighed.
How much did you throw and process in one week? (Spoiler alert: a lot)
The name countertop composter is a bit of a misnomer, as the soil created by Romi is not yet ready to support plant growth.
I ran the 3 liter (just under 1 gallon) capacity Romi Bloom four times during my one week trial. This is already saying something. The first batch consisted primarily of expired food rather than everyday food scraps, but I filled it to a level that made it worth at least two more runs. (The third one is purring as I type this.)
We generated 91.2 ounces, or 5.7 pounds, of food waste in one week. Multiply this by 52, without taking into account the food that inevitably goes to waste when eating out, and you're pretty close to an estimated 325 pounds a year on my own alone. After the composter, 5.7 pounds became just 20 ounces.
Verdict on Ownership of Countertop Food Recyclers
A smart kitchen trash can turns foul-smelling debris into sweet-smelling dirt.
Honestly, I'm sorry I waited so long to buy it. As a city dweller, the main benefit of having a countertop food recycler is less that you have access to usable soil and more because there is a limit to how much you can make for your three houseplants, but you can It's all about the feel-good factor of doing everything you can to offset it. My waste of money. Reducing food waste to non-hazardous material is only part of the story. Reducing the need for as many plastic garbage bags has environmental as well as economic benefits. All the concerns I had before using it, such as noise, smell, and space required, were completely fine in my studio apartment. (To be honest, at night he had Lomi running and it was an effective white noise machine.)
Smart kitchen trash cans, food recyclers and composters for the home aren't cheap, but it's hard to put a price on the value of considering your own food waste and taking actionable actions to prevent it. is.
