Quick Thinking: Reusing Paper Bags for Composting
Here in San Francisco, we happen to have an extensive residential Recycling Program, one component of which is the composting of all food scraps and wastes from the kitchen.
Biodegradable Bags – great, but expensive
Early on, after we had used up the complimentary supply of biodegradable bags to line the “kitchen pail”, I started looking for them at our local stores. These “biobags” are actually made out of mater-bi, a type of bio-plastic derived from corn. The biobags are actually breathable, and have a really different, stretch-y feel than normal plastic bags, and are designed to break down in about 10 days after exposure to the elements. Perfect for composting.
The thing is, they’re quite pricey right now — about $6.50 for only 25 of these 3-gallon bags.
I know that as more and more cities adopt a household food-scrap composting program like San Francisco, more people will buy them, and due to economy of scale, the price should (in theory) come down.
Low Cost Alternative
While we wait, though, here’s another cheaper alternative:
Save (and request) paper bags from your grocers. Folded over, a regular large-sized paper bag (the ones with the fold-up handles) will fit inside one of those compost pails.
Take a look:
The Kitchen Compost Pail is about three-quarters the size of a standard paper bag.
Fold over the top opening edges of the bag inside out, about six inches, to form a smaller bag. (The “smaller” bag was previously fitted into the kitchen pail, which explains why the bottom’s all mushed.)
It takes some doing, but a little bit of massaging, the bag will fit inside the container. Once inside, to prevent liquids from eating through the bag too quickly, simply line the inside with a few torn out sheets from a magazine or catalog.
Voila!
Other posts you may enjoy:
- Quick Thinking: Recycling Plastic Saves Oil
- Quick Thinking: Choosing a Line in which to Wait
- Quick Thinking: Driving Safely
- The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same
- What is Critical Thinking?
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