When it begins to get cold most people pull their gardens and stop recycling their organic’s. With a foot of snow on the ground who would want to snow shoe to their backyard to dump the compost?
I plan on saving my organics all winter and will have a easy method available to anyone interested by the end of November. More to come!
The word “apartment” comes from the Italian “appartamento” meaning “to separate”. How do you build good relationships with people that are meant-to-be-apart?
- Have a common area
This is a comfortable place where anyone in the building can hang out and expect to see others, or just a good place to get out for a minute.
- Do an Activity
Who doesn’t like meeting new people while playing a board game, movie night or making some paintings together and displaying them in the building.
- Beauty Budget
Ok this one you need some money from the landlord. But even without that anyone can make a point to plant something outside, put up something seasonal or even pick up some garbage.
If you don’t rush inside and its anywhere near rush hour chances are you’ll meet someone and you can talk about planning the above two!
Those of us who are fortunate to have some land have probably planted by now. For first year gardens many people simply order some compost have it delivered and plant. Others churn up last years soil and add new compost. Some great veggies will be had by doing just that, but there are a few things that help make food even more tasty and nutritious beyond adding compost and manure.
Agricultural Lime
Before planting this year I reviewed Steve Soloman’s Book “Gardening When It Counts”. Soloman advocates a very light addition of agricultural lime to be added for most northern growers. We’re talking a dusting on top of the soil to be mixed. The lime helps to balance the PH of the soil and allows plants to grow faster. This is recommended in the spring/fall.
Complete Organic Fertilizer
Soloman provides a recipe for a natural fertilizer that includes lime, gypsum, seedmeal. Check it out http://westsidegardener.com/howto/fertilizer.html
Using this recipe with a good compost/manure base looks to be on of the best ways to ensure quality soil. What Soloman so clearly shows us is that plants are only as strong as what they are lacking. By adding COF or at least small amounts of agriculture lime this gives our plants (and bodies) more to draw from.
Waste and Energy Company (AEB) creates enough power for 3/4 of the city of Amsterdam. When strictly looking at the numbers the efficiency they are able to achieve is impressive.
- 1 million MWh of electricity produced per year from 470,000 tons of waste
http://www.aebamsterdam.com/en/About-us/Facts-and-figures.aspx
- 300,000 giga-joules of heat, with plans for expansion
Over 600 trucks and 1 rail car enter the facility everyday. After receiving the waste it is mixed for consistent burning. From here it goes down a shoot where the waste is readied for burning. The fires range between 1832-2192 degrees Fahrenheit. This heat is achieved without the burning of any fossil fuel.
Without getting too technical ( check out http://www.afvalenergiebedrijf.nl/home.aspx for more info) the facility achieves a 30% efficiency rate for electricity generation (coal fired power-plants achieve around the same at 30%-35%). Over 99% of all the incoming material is used for electricity, heat, recovered minerals or construction material. The remaining 1% is trucked to the salt mines in Germany.
The AEB facility is located next to the Waste Water Treatment Plant for a reason. These two facilities have a symbiotic relationship where the water is heated at and then transferred for district heating. Homes that are outfitted for district heating use the water to heat their homes. By 2030 40,000 additional homes will be converted to the 10,000 already in use.
I was lucky to receive a tour of this plant. Many other countries routinely ask for tours and are intrigued by this system. The UK is considering bringing portions of their waste to the AEB, as it would be less harmful then adding additional landfills. Afican
This system works so well partially because of the long term contracts with the waste haulers. Contracts are negotiated for 15 year terms which ensures longer term supplies of waste. At any given time 3 days of burning material is in reserve. The goal is to keep the fires going at all hours.
Burying waste isn’t a option in Holland. For over 100 years they have refined waste burning into a very efficient process. Of course I would like to see the organic waste processed into compost. Surprisingly organic waste is valued by AEB for the moisture it supplies, approximately 38% of the waste is organic. So they make electricity with organics instead of soil. If you want to recycle your yard waste in Amsterdam there is a composting facility 1 mile north that would be happy to take it off your hands.
At the Alliance for Sustainability meeting in Minneapolis this weekend Krista Leraas from Backyard Harvest described poverty. The quality of the food we eat is in poverty. Most of our relationships with each other are in poverty. Our level of happiness is in poverty. We aren’t connected to our food system or each other. These dark area’s expose lack of connection.
Think about the best moments of life. What happened? I’m willing to bet it was feeling connected to a person, group or nature. Food has always brought people together. The easy thing about the above “poverty” is we can change it immediately. Get together interact, have a potluck, eat quality food, be outside and connect.
One of our three missions is to build community. Apartments have rarely inspired community in the past. As a result there is a real hunger for connection and no reason that anyone should be denied friendship. As we all revitalize, re-localize we realize that we’re not just making a “sustainable” city, we’re making meaningful connections and truly enjoying life.
It is so exciting to see people all over the Twin Cities coming together to improve our lives. To pull ourselves out of this self imposed “poverty” and live in true wealth.
A environmental engineer once told me our landfills contents will be revisited. All those valuable metals, plastics and other desirable materials will be dig up and reused. In context he meant when it was economically valuable the effort would then be made to recycle those materials that are now thrown away indiscriminately.
Invisible economic forces that change by the minute determine the cost of our raw materials. Today many area’s don’t recycle at all. Tomorrow they’ll revisit their “waste” and sort out what is useful. There seems to be an extra couple steps with this method.
1) Why spend the extra energy to carry garbage away, then have to spend even more energy digging through it, when it could be sorted out at its source? 2) Why not add a value to organic’s (which comprises 25% of all garbage)? Aluminum cans used to be thrown about everywhere until we put a monetary value to them.
Organic’s are valuable! How much money would you need to compost? What if you were given $20.00 for every 200 gallons of your yard and kitchen matter? How about a cubic yard of nutrient rich compost every year? Organic’s lose all value when thrown in a landfill. We won’t be able to dig them up and reuse them later. They need to be sorted and transformed locally. Nature does this to everything, even landfills will “compost” but burying slows this process down. Air and water are composts closest allies.
Wherever we live none of us have to throw food/yard scraps away. Composting pays huge returns, and the time investments to do so are small. Lets sort them out at the source!
How long would it take for you to communicate with a upstairs neighbor exercising at 6am? Or any loud noise emanating from upstairs causing a distraction to you and your family? In the specific case I’m thinking of it took 8 days. The method of communication? A hard pounding on the ceiling in a classic case of communicating with your neighbor.
For most of us our free time is so limited that we have a select few that we socialize with, a “tribe.” This tribe could be scattered all over a city. So what of the people living next to us? Besides coming and going what other opportunity do we have to interact? Not all apartments or condos have common areas and if they do they are often not used. The question may be what is the value in “getting to know your neighbor”?
The ability to help each other in emergencies and looking out for each other around the neighborhood for one. Feeling welcomed and “at ease” when coming home after work. Perhaps even the opportunity to make a friend. A pounding on the ceiling happens from a lack of communication. A energy build up with no place to go but explode! Positive events happen from open communication. How do we achieve open communication?
Like any relationship, the foundation is shared experience. Grow something outside of your building (maybe compost as well?). Grow flowers and when you’re working on it see how many people stop to talk with you. Go ahead, see what happens! Perhaps instead of a pounding on the ceiling we’ll receive a smile at our door.
Hi All!
We wanted to clarify that you do not have to have your whole building on board before contacting us. If you are an apartment dweller, condo owner, business person, or student and are interested in composting let us know who you are. We’ll find a system that will allow you to compost, and allow room for growth as others in your building join in! We’re also happy to come speak with associations, school clubs, and decision makers if that works best for you.
Likewise, if you’re interested in receiving compost, or you know someone who might be, let us know. We’ll set you up with a building near you, or will bike it to your desired drop off location 
Sean & Emily
There is a place in New York City where there is on-site composting, organic farming and a 40 kilowatt solar array. The Rikers Island Jail houses approximately 14,000 prisoners and produces 30-40 tons of organic waste a day. The program started in 1996 in response to the high price of ferrying the waste off the island. It was deemed economically feasible to have a composting facility on the island.
After the food scraps are collected from the cafeteria it is mixed with wood chips. In a separate, air filtered building the food scrap/wood chip mix is gradually moved through two concrete bays. For two weeks the mix is periodically churned by heavy equipment until decomposition has started. The unfinished compost is moved outside where it composts for a few months, it is then screened and used for landscaping and gardening mulch.
Food Scrap/Wood Chip Mix
Around 250 – 300 inmates comprise the Rikers Island organic farmers. They are taught to weed, identify plants and learn about the germination process . The feedback from the inmates and gardening director is very positive. Some of the food is eaten in the prison but the bulk is given to homeless shelters. Like so many urban gardens the space is small but the contribution to the shelters is large.
Rikers island has a few thing going for it in regards to a successful large scale composting/farming program.
- Though the volume of organic matter is large; it is centrally located.
- The facility has ample machine and man power to move, churn and screen the finished compost.
- Meat and Dairy (the main odor culprits) don’t have to be sorted out. All cafeteria food waste goes in together.
Rikers Island is a example of how a large scale composting program can work in the most populace region in the country. What would normally have filled a landfill is now serving as garden mulch, education and providing food for New York City’s homeless.
Welcome to Urban Compost! We are working to provide composting options for high-density buildings including apartments, condos, schools and businesses. This website is a resource for you to learn about composting in Minneapolis, among other things we find of interest! Please look around, contribute and spread the word!
All the best,
Sean & Emily
The Urban Compost Team!