The HOTBIN Weekender #12

A Chance for Giving Back to Your Communities 
With at least five states and six municipalities implementing organic waste bans or mandatory recycling laws, we have a chance of giving back to our communities by recycling/composting food at home and lessening their load.

The states (so far) are California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont; the municipalities are Austin (TX), Boulder (CO), New York City (NY), San Francisco (CA), and Seattle (WA). Oregon Metro (the regional government for the Portland area) have been requiring some businesses to divert food scraps since enacting a similar policy in 2018.

These policies that aim to reduce the amount of food waste sent to landfills are confronted with a good number of barriers and challenges including political considerations, funding for required resources, Infrastructure, and enforcement. These are some of the reasons why the regulations and implementations of these programs are not a one-size-fits-all. 

Costs and Benefits
All the above complications make home composting a simple and reasonable solution and a chance for us to give back to our communities. As we take upon taking charge of composting our unavoidable organic waste and producing rich compost soil for our gardens, we are not only reducing the amount of organic waste its send to our landfills, but we are lessening the load of local collecting systems.

How much extra waste is created during the winter holiday season?
Americans throw away 25% more trash during the Thanksgiving to New Year's holiday period than any other time of year (EPA). The extra waste amounts to 25 million tons of garbage, or about 1 million extra tons per week! While the holiday season brings good cheer for most people, it also brings a lot more solid waste to the landfill and harm to the environment.

Food-Waste Facts 
While the world wastes about 1.4 billion tons of food every year, the United States discards more food than any other country in the world: nearly 40 million tons (80 billion pounds) every year. This is estimated to be 30-40% of the entire US food supply and approximately 219 pounds of waste per person. Furthermore, food is the single largest component taking up space inside US landfills, making up to 22% of all municipal solid waste (MSW).

‘Tis the season
For sending more trash to landfills and producing additional methane gas as it undergoes bacterial decomposition. Add a home-composting bin to your gift giving and if you already have one, make your contribution to the environment by composting your holiday food-waste at home. You will be able to produce rich compost for your garden by spring.

Leaving HOTBIN while on holiday?
If you are off on holiday soon (lucky you), you may be wondering what will happen to your HOTBIN while you are away. At your return, you will find the internal temperature of your HOTBIN to have significantly dropped due to not being able to feed new waste while being away. However, your HOTBIN should still maintain higher temperatures than that of a cold composting bin. The following are a few steps to keep your composting going while you are away:

1. Feed your bin just before you go. Add (if possible) a variety of waste types with different rates of decomposition (I.e. a mix of grass cuttings, woody material, kitchen waste etc.), not forget to add shredded paper an mulch.
2. On your return, feed the HOTBIN as soon as you can with ‘easy to digest’ new waste.
3. If the HOTBIN does not heat-up right away, add new waste to increase the temperature and try adding the ‘kick start bottle’.
4. Once temperatures increase, keep feeding waste as usual until it reaches ideal temperatures of 104- 140° F.

Mid-Atlantic Nursery Trade Show (MANTS) 
We will be exhibiting HOTBIN live for the first time at this show to be held January 5-7, Baltimore Convention Center. If you are in the area, please come and visit our booth #2696. We will be present to show our products and answer your questions. In addition, you can take advantage of our Trade show discounts.