I was feeling like the worst environmentalist yesterday. I do drive a hybrid and recycle like crazy, but I’ve given up on composting. I was so in love with the composter when I got it from the city last summer. Now, it sits in our backyard a symbol of my failure, but I couldn’t do it anymore.
Why? Bugs. Little teeny, tiny ones that look like they could crawl in your hair without you even noticing them. I kept the compost waste under the sink, in what I thought was an airtight container, until I took it outside. It wasn’t airtight and once I saw those little bastards crawling around, I decided it wasn’t going to work. I disinfected the entire kitchen and stopped composting. (I could take waste out to the composter every time I have orange peels, egg shells, or use a paper towel, but that’s never going to happen.)
It’s been many, many months since I composted and don’t really think about it until my uberenvironmentalist friend comes over for play dates. The only paper product in her house is toilet paper; no paper towels, napkins or diapers. Her kids use cloth that she washes. I used cloth with a diaper service with my first son for a year and gave it up. We were talking about composting the last time she was over and I decided to try it again.
I explained my problem to the guy at the hardware store, who looked at me like I was crazy, and he gave me a big industrial bucket with an airtight lid. Perfect! Or not. It was such a good bucket I couldn’t get the lid off. It’s definitely airtight, but no use if I can’t get the lid on and off. Foiled again.
Which leads me to the dry cleaner. I went to the Go Green Expo in downtown LA last month and was so excited to buy an environmentally friendly dry cleaner bag from the Green Garmento, that’s says “Be Fantastic…Use Less Plastic.” It looks like a long, flat bag made out of cloth shopping bags and conveniently folds into a duffel bag to take the laundry to the cleaners. I personally don’t dry clean (or iron), but the husband needs shirts for work. Instead of getting 10 shirts wrapped in plastic, I’m hoping I’ll get 10 shirts hung up in the dry cleaner bag. That’s something, right. According to the Green Garmento press release “every year over 300,000,000 pounds of single-use plastic dry cleaning bags fill America’s landfills…”
I asked the dry cleaner if I should put my name on the bag and he said “No. I think I’ll remember. You’re the only one.” Hmmm. We’ll see what happens.
I let the composting stuff sit on my counter in an open bowl. Maybe I take it out more often since I see it, but I got no little bugs….Maybe the air dries it out??