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Composting in cyberspace

Posted on April 6th, 2006 – 12:28 PM
By Jaime Chismar

I’m in my Star Tribune cubical attempting to peel an orange with my too-short fingernails. The rind is stubborn. Simultaneously slippery AND sticky, my hands fumble the fruit. Juice sprays all over my keyboard, all over my monitor — all over me.

Just when I think I’ve got my produce under control, a rindy-section leaps out of my grip like a slick fish and flounders across the can’t-remember-the-last-time-I-was-vacuumed office carpet.

Damn! Damn! Damn!

I scramble under my desk to rescue the fruit only to find it coated in mystery hair and crumbs.

For a moment, my inner sixth-grader contemplates the feasibility of the ol’ ten second rule. “If the orange only touched the carpet for ten seconds or less, it’s still good, right?”

I frown and decide that the oozing fuzzball is a better snack for the compost bin than for me.

My hand instinctively moves towards the garbage can, then my brain clicks into gear — Wait! Wait! Wait!

This is the office. There is no compost bin here. That nasty orange (and all its delicious soil building nutrients) is heading for the trash!

Suddenly, I’m trapped an internal eco-ethical debate, paralyzed by produce.

How much food do I waste at the office every day? Every year?

An apple core, a crust of bread, surely my co-workers would compost if given the opportunity, right?

Why isn’t there a compost container next to all the recycling containers?

Could I secretly started a compost bin at the office?

Dear gardening friends, have I have gone too far? Transform a corporate office space into a green(er) space? Surely, this is crazy talk. I just need a few hours of soil and sunshine (or perhaps a new office plant), then I’ll forget all about this kooky composting crusade.

Right?

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 6th, 2006 at 12:28 pm and is filed under Compost. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

9 Responses to "Composting in cyberspace"

debw says:

April 6th, 2006 at 1:15 pm

I work in a school.
The amount of stuff wasted is truly mind boggling.
That said, what can be done? You could start a work worm farm, get some red wigglers, but most offices have issues with critters and smells.
You could carry a compost bucket to work and back but once again there are organic smells and can you say to some they can compost with you but the uninformed cannot. Sounds like a social liability.
I try to bring things peeled and ready to eat ( think about rewashable containers) and if you do get a wild escapee then you can take it home to its due reward or if it is beyond portability then adieu, to the incinerator for its folly.

Greengirl says: I really like the idea of preemptive composting (and not grossing out my coworkers). In the summer, I bike to work. Transporting compost via the Cedar Lake Trail might get really messy.

Bonnie says:

April 6th, 2006 at 9:28 pm

I worked at the Bell Museum for a few years and there was a green composting bucket in our staff room that one of the other staff members put in. It had a lid on it, if I remember right it looked like something that was made exaclty for that purpose (not just an icecream bucket or something) It wasn’t ever a problem because it was emptied regularly. It was a place though, as you can imagine, that most of the people where completely of the composting, recycling, low impact mindset anyway, so I don’t think there was any convincing that needed to happen. Long story short, I think it is possible.

Kara says:

April 7th, 2006 at 6:40 am

I don’t think you’re crazy. At my old office, our technology guy did the same thing. He put a small basket next to the trash, and all of our coffee ground and leftover food were dumped in there. Once a week, he’d take it home to his big compost bin, and it would come back empty on Monday morning.

Elizabeth says:

April 7th, 2006 at 12:15 pm

I think your heart is in the right place, but speaking as the wife of the head custodian at our school building, your custodial staff could very likely have a cow over the potential of the compost to attract pests. Pests (bug type and rodent type) can quickly become a health and cleanliness issue. I agree with Deb W—try to do the composting at home.

Greengirl says: Hmmm… You bring up an interesting point, Elizabeth. Would my coworkers still like composting with a swarm of fruit flies hovering overhead? Probably not.

Lorika says:

April 7th, 2006 at 8:07 pm

You could just keep an empty Tupperware type container in your desk, and use it to bring home only your own fruity food scraps. It would be small enough to fit in your backpack, and the perfect size for the occasional banana or orange peel. Actually, I have fruit at the office quite often, and have felt guilty about throwing those juicy composty tidbits away - I think I’ve just solved my own problem. I’m gonna do it.

Thank you Greengirl for being the catalyst!

Kathy says:

April 9th, 2006 at 6:27 am

Speaking as someone who works from home, and doesn’t have these issues, I suggest researching compost containers. It would definitely have to be lidded, and if it had some kind of filter to keep out smells, even better. Take a photo of this to your immediate supervisor and explain how you are going to take responsibility for emptying it and that if there are any objectionable smells, etc. the deal is off. If you anticipate possible objections and agree to be responsible I think it will succeed. But yeah, if you’re riding your bike to work, do you want to be the one toting the bucket every Friday?

Kearn says:

April 9th, 2006 at 8:35 pm

What about starting a composting service? This may be a bit too ambitious, but you have to figure this is happening in every other office downtown too. And probably in all the office cafeterias and skyway restruants on an even larger scale. They have to be paying to get it all hauled away in the garbage anyway, why not get them to pay the same amount or a little less to take it to a worm/compost farm? If you could set up a group that would go to the different places each day and empty the bins you’d get rid of the pest obstacle (the garbage it’s going in now doesn’t get picked up that often). Probably bigger than what you were thinking, but it’s an idea.

Matt says:

April 12th, 2006 at 2:44 pm

I read somewhere recently that Americans throw out about 14% of the food we buy. That got me putting the material from home in my bin. At least that way it isn’t completely wasted!

Susan says:

April 12th, 2006 at 5:53 pm

Do you realize that in St Louis Park you cannot add food scraps to your compost bin? I just happened upon the regulations. Only leaves, grass clippings etc. are allowed.

Greengirl says: Can the city really regulate what goes into a compost bin? I must Google this.

Ah, ha… http://www.stlouispark.org/residents/yard_wastePrint.htm

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