Every week, I post a picture of the food that has gone bad over the last seven days. I started doing this in March of 2008 to help motivate myself to use up my food instead of wasting it and it’s been very effective. Since it helped me so much, I invited other bloggers to join me in posting their food waste photos, and Food Waste Friday was born.
This week, I have a tiny bit of corn and black bean salad. I really should have just finished it off the last time I ate some of it. Oh well.
It doesn’t look that bad in the picture, but holy moly! It smells terrible. My whole kitchen reeked after I took the picture this morning.
Do you think I can compost it? I have a lidded bin, so attracting critters is not a problem (do old stinky cooked beans attract rodents anyways??). My only hesitation is that there is a little bit of salad dressing mixed in with that, and I know fat is not good for compost. It’s only a teeny smidgen, though.
Advise me!
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How did you do this week?If you blogged about your food waste, link us up by entering your info into the Mister Linky Widget below. Participants get a spot on my Food Waste blogroll for the upcoming week, so join us! You’ll save money, reduce your trash output, and get a little publicity for your blog!
Allie
Monday 19th of October 2009
I did pretty well. I threw out about a half a cup of peanut sauce (that I really should've used, but just didn't get around to it), and two tortillas (also that shouldn't have been wasted).
WilliamB
Sunday 18th of October 2009
Everything composts eventually. The question is, how long do you want to wait? When someone tells me "Do X" or "Don't do Y" I ask "Why?" If they don't know, then it's merely unsubstantiated hearsay. Maybe the someone is right, maybe not, but I have no way to tell. So rather than - wait, too late, - so in addition to telling you that you can compost these things, I send you sources for further information.
http://www.mastercomposter.com/ This is the world's most useful composting site. I spent about a year delving deep into how to compost, ending up with three bins of a cubic yard each, curb-diving for other people's grass clippings and stopping just about every day at a Starbuck's for a garbagebag full of coffee grounds. Master Composter is the best site I found, with the highest percentage of useful information, arranged in a way that a normal person can follow. There's some actual science here.
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/soil/ The other place I adore (now from a distance, it became a hideous timesink) is the Soil, Compost and Mulch forum of the Gardenweb. They're an awesome bunch people - helpful, friendly, knowledgeable. And drama-free. There is unsubstantiated hearsay here, but also a lot of collective experience and posters are usually good about specifying under what conditions doing "X" worked for them. Read the FAQs first.
I'm also ready and willing to answer questions, supporting my statements with the science as I understand it.
Mrs Green
Saturday 17th of October 2009
No food waste for us! We were taking part in a local love food hate waste challenge, so that kept me on my toes!
What did you decide to do with your waste in the end, Kristen?
Angela
Friday 16th of October 2009
No waste for us this week- yay!
I'm sorry you had that bit of waste, but I'm glad for the reminder of that yummy salad. I've been meaning to make it...
Mrs. Money
Friday 16th of October 2009
I'd compost it. No biggie!