Note: For information on the background and process of the experiment, please see below. At the beginning of the project, I outlined some questions to consider throughout the experiment, in order to help me gauge the changes in my perception of impact, as well as other concerns about waste and compost. With this final post, I have a few updates on the nuts and bolts questions near the beginning but more reflection on the latter questions, so I will focus my attention there.
-Is the level of waste surprising?
We have maintained our one quart level, although some days are higher and some days are lower. I'm glad we chose a clear and open container for the compost, because we can always see how much compost we are creating, and I think trash is more removed in an insulated, not very smelly, metal compost container like many people have. Our entire contents were around 35 pounds, but some of that was from other groups so an estimate for just the south kitchen's food would have a ridiculously large margin of error.
-Are the types of waste, or ratios of certain types we produce, surprising? And how it is working?
Even though I have learned quite a bit about ideal ratios, I will have to wait longer to truly experiment and see the effects on the compost as it warms up, thaws and decomposes. One interesting answer to this question I have just realized this week is that because we have a clear compost container, you can see the food we eat cycling through the kitchen. There are two factors that make this more interesting. First, at the grocery store, we often experiment in our purchases, buying new items we haven't purchased before. Secondly, we always eat through everything we have in the kitchen before shopping again. You can track both of these things by what ends up in the compost bin over the course of the block. We currently have banana peels overflowing the bowl in the last week (since we went to the grocery store), but we didn't have a single banana peel in there for weeks previously, since we hadn't purchased bananas in the previous shopping trip. Egg shells are a good predictor of how long it has been since we shopped because while we shop every two weeks or so, we often eat through the eggs in the first week and run out for the second week. When something disappears from your shelf, you don't always remember it's gone, but when it sits on your counter rotting, you usually do. Therefore, composting has been a great way for me to be reminded of how my eating habits change depending on where in the grocery store cycle we are, and begs the question: should we be shopping more often?
-When composting, do I find that I am compelled to deposit more, less, or the same amount of food waste?
Over the past weeks, I've been surprised at how I've been more disciplined about composting almost all food waste. When I went to the cabin this weekend with an energy club on campus, I was the voice calling for us to use as much as possible of the tomatoes and onions before tossing them in the trash (which I composted in our tree when we got home). I can comfortably say that in conclusion to this question, I was compelled to waste less food during this experiment. It remains to be seen if that continues after the project ends.
-Do the advantages of composting outweigh its disadvantages?
Yes. My disadvantages have been extremely low. You could say that asking for people's food waste is socially disadvantageous in certain situations, but at CC that is hardly true very often. The project cost me zero dollars and very little time, because it didn't take very long to construct and I have to take out the trash no matter what container I'm putting it in. On the advantages side, the rest of the questions should speak for themselves, I don't need to summarize everything here.
-Does composting make me re-evaluate other environmental commitments I have made, or ones that I might make in the future?
Yes. In fact, I have begun a new challenge. I will not buy a new item unless it is food or beverage. All other goods and services must be used, lost, fixed up, or otherwise non-new. I'm very excited about this challenge because I've never thought about it before but I think it can be a way to further remove myself from consumerism, and tie myself closer to the community, and all the goods it has to offer. There are a few places I am particularly worried about, where I'll have to be very creative or make a sacrifice. Deodorant and other hygiene items: I think I can barrow these from other roommates, and find half used shampoo containers around the house, but this isn't a very sustainable plan. Gas: I really love to ski and go into the mountains, I don't travel in a car very often at all in Colorado Springs, but when I leave the city, chances are it's by the means of a gas powered engine. I will continue through Lent and then re-evaluate, here we go!
To follow up on a few points from last week's post:
-Manual Labor: Therapy or Domination, or Lost Art? I had a new idea about physical labor when working for Horst Richardson this week. Because I use manual labor so infrequently in my life, when I was pounding and shoveling in Horst's back yard, I realized that so many people in the developed world today do so little manual labor. Not only does this put us at higher risk for obesity, but I also think it disconnects us from our bodies--and from nature. While other forms of physical exertion can also reduce our risk of disease and connect our bodies and minds to our surroundings, I think difficult physical labor is a unifier across the course of human history. Reading about hunters chasing animals for days and days, or women walking 1,500 miles a day in today's reading "Chapter One: The Old Way" I guesstimate that 99% of all humans that have ever lived have worked more manual labor than I do today. That is a strange phenomenon! What are its effects? Finally, this made Agyeman's focused on intergeneration connection particularly salient because you should be cognizant of future generations, but past ones as well.
-It is still true that the most significant re-evaluation is my meat intake. I have been eating much less, and basing my decisions on context, although I think I might need a few rules, as Marion suggested in her comment, to keep me in line. I will wait until after spring break to set and enforce them, when I can rely on a more regularized schedule.
-What does my composting experience challenge or reinforce from the readings and discussion?
I've already mentioned a few readings, but one of the important readings that made me make my 'no new products' commitment was our consumerism reading "True Wealth." As I mentioned in my comment to Lee, his words and the reading in general were particularly helpful in showing me how little I want to associate and identify with advertisements and the marketing of trashy (poor in quality and likely to be in the trash bin soon) goods. As the reading shows, so many of us are slaves to branding and planned obsolescence, and I am taking this measure to explore where I am on this spectrum, and what I can do about it.
Broad question update: changes in my perceptions of impact?
Yes. Composting my food waste, and reflecting, conversing, and writing about it has been a good experience for me. Although I am not sure that the particular project I chose (ie. the 'pile of rotten food waste') was the determining factor, I think I could have reached similar conclusions and confidence in my ability to commit with another project. That said, had I chosen a much more difficult project, I may have become disillusioned. A final reflection: we have a strange relationship to our trash. It decomposes SO slowly, yet people are afraid of it as soon as it goes in the garbage can. A wrapper from a granola bar goes from helpful and safe to dirty and unclean as soon as the granola bar is consumed. We find coffee grounds or an avocado pit deserving of the trash can ASAP. All these socialized conditions seem to be effects of exporting our trash quickly and quietly away from our kitchens, houses, and neighborhoods. Composting is a way to reconnect with what trash is, how long it takes to decompose, and how to not be so afraid of it.
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