Stop Throwing Away Your Food (7 Composting Methods)
Summary
TLDRThe video script addresses the issue of food waste, highlighting that 60% of viewers discard their food scraps in the trash instead of composting. It emphasizes the environmental impact, with 37 million tons of food going to landfills annually, producing methane—a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. The script educates on composting as a natural cycle, turning food scraps into nutrient-rich soil. It offers various composting methods, from traditional bins to home machines like the Lomi, and suggests community and farm drop-offs for those without space. The goal is to reduce waste and promote sustainable practices, encouraging viewers to rethink their approach to food scraps.
Takeaways
- 🍽️ 60% of people surveyed throw food scraps in the trash, while only 20% compost them, indicating a need for behavioral change.
- 🌱 Composting food scraps is beneficial for avid home cooks, as it reduces waste and provides a natural fertilizer for gardens.
- 🌍 Landfills are a major environmental concern, with 37 million tons of food waste contributing to methane emissions, a potent greenhouse gas.
- 🌿 Composting mimics natural cycles of decomposition and nutrient recycling, which is essential for maintaining soil health.
- 🍲 Kitchen food waste reduction should be prioritized over composting, by using up ingredients before they spoil.
- 🔄 Composting involves four key elements: nitrogen-rich materials, carbon-rich materials, water, and air.
- 🏡 Even non-gardeners can compost by using a bin to collect food scraps, which can then be used to fertilize lawns or potted plants.
- 🐛 Vermiculture, or using worms to break down food scraps, is another composting method that can be done in or outside the home.
- 🏭 There are home composting machines like the Lomi, which grind and dehydrate food scraps into a usable fertilizer.
- 🏙️ Many cities and farmers markets offer community composting programs, providing an alternative for those without personal composting space.
Q & A
What percentage of people surveyed throw their food scraps in the trash?
-60% of the people surveyed throw their food scraps in the trash.
What is the environmental impact of throwing food scraps in the trash?
-Throwing food scraps in the trash contributes to methane emissions in landfills, which is a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2.
How much food ends up in landfills annually, according to the script?
-37 million tons of food goes directly into landfills each year.
What is the natural process that composting mimics?
-Composting mimics the natural cycles of life and death on Earth, where organic matter breaks down and feeds back into the soil.
What are the four essential elements required for composting according to the script?
-The four essential elements required for composting are nitrogen-rich materials, carbon-rich materials, water, and air.
What type of bin is recommended for easy food scrap composting in the kitchen?
-A bin with a tight lid to keep in odors and make it easy to transfer to the composting bin is recommended.
What is the purpose of layering in composting?
-Layering in composting helps build heat, which breaks down the compost faster.
How does the script suggest using a compost aerator?
-A compost aerator is used to dig down into the compost and pull from the bottom to create oxygen flow for proper breakdown.
What alternative method for composting is mentioned in the script for those without a garden?
-The script mentions using an at-home composting machine like the Lomi, which grinds and dehydrates food scraps into a dust.
What is vermiculture and how does it relate to food scrap disposal?
-Vermiculture is the process of using worms in a specific setup to break down food scraps, which is another method for food scrap disposal.
What community efforts are mentioned in the script for composting food scraps?
-The script mentions community composting efforts such as city programs that provide bins and collect food scraps, as well as farmers markets and local farms that accept food scraps for composting.
Outlines
🌱 The Importance of Composting Food Scraps
The speaker begins by addressing the audience's habits regarding food scraps, revealing that 60% of them throw scraps in the trash, while only 20% compost. The speaker emphasizes the need to change this ratio, especially among avid home cooks who generate a lot of food waste. The video aims to educate viewers on various composting methods, regardless of whether they have a garden or not. The speaker explains the environmental impact of food waste, noting that 37 million tons of food end up in landfills annually, producing methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Composting is presented as a natural process that can help mitigate this issue, and the speaker encourages viewers to reduce food waste in the kitchen before turning to composting.
🍽️ The Basics of Composting and Its Benefits
The speaker simplifies composting by focusing on four essential elements: nitrogen-rich materials, carbon-rich materials, water, and air. They explain that food scraps are the primary source of nitrogen, and by combining them with carbon materials like wood chips or dried leaves, one can create compost. The speaker shares their personal composting method, which involves using a plastic container for food scraps and a separate bin for composting. They also discuss the use of a compost aerator to introduce air into the compost, aiding in the breakdown process. The video touches on the idea of 'lasagna composting', where layers of brown and green materials are added to build heat and speed up decomposition. The speaker also mentions vermiculture, the use of worms to compost food scraps, but notes they prefer a traditional compost bin due to the natural presence of worms.
🏡 Alternative Composting Methods for Urban Dwellers
The speaker acknowledges that not everyone has the space for a traditional compost bin and offers alternative solutions for those living in urban environments. They introduce the Lomi, a home composting machine that grinds and dehydrates food scraps into a usable fertilizer. The speaker also mentions community composting efforts and programs that collect food scraps for composting, as well as the option to drop off food scraps at local farms. The video concludes with a call to action for viewers to educate themselves and others about composting, to help reduce the environmental impact of food waste. The speaker expresses optimism about the growing awareness and efforts towards composting, suggesting a positive shift in societal habits.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Food scraps
💡Composting
💡Greenhouse gas
💡Nitrogen-rich materials
💡Carbon-rich materials
💡Vermaculture
💡Landfills
💡Food waste
💡Compost bin
💡Community composting
💡American Giant
Highlights
60% of people surveyed throw food scraps in the trash, while only 20% compost them.
Composting food scraps is beneficial for avid home cooks who generate a lot of waste.
Food scraps in landfills produce methane, a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2.
Composting is a natural process of breaking down organic matter and recycling nutrients back into the earth.
Composting can reduce the amount of food waste that ends up in landfills.
Using up what you have in the kitchen should be the first priority before composting.
Making stock with veggie scraps is a great way to reduce waste.
Composting involves four elements: nitrogen-rich materials, carbon-rich materials, water, and air.
A simple kitchen composting bin can be made from a plastic container with a tight lid.
Traditional composting bins can be used for both garden and food scraps, but may attract animals.
Tumbler compost bins are a good option for those concerned about animals.
Layering brown and green materials in a compost bin helps build heat and speed up decomposition.
A compost aerator is used to introduce air into the compost to aid in the breakdown process.
Vermaculture is another method of composting using worms to break down food scraps.
American Giant is a sponsor of the video, offering high-quality, durable clothing.
The Lomi composting machine is an at-home solution for those with limited space.
Many cities and towns are starting composting efforts, providing bins and collection services.
Farmers markets and local farms may accept food scraps for composting.
Education is key to increasing composting rates and reducing food waste.
Transcripts
so what do you do with all of your food
scraps that was the question I asked all
of you the other day and the results did
not surprise me 60% of you throw them
right in the trash and only 20% of you
compost them now those numbers need to
change especially because I know for a
fact that most of you are Avid homecooks
which means you build up a lot of food
scraps and I think just throwing them in
the trash is a waste that can be avoided
most of the time there are so many great
options to compost your food scraps and
in today's video I'm going to be
covering as many of them as possible and
that goes for every cook whether you're
Gardener or non-g Gardener or you have
space or you don't have space with just
a little bit of Education I think we can
work together to turn this ratio
around so the first thing I want to
cover is why we should all be composting
our food scraps now it's much more
obvious for a gardener when you compost
these you get free fertilizer for your
garden but as home Cooks we are plowing
through fresh ingredients we're talking
the perishable stuff like vegetables and
fruits and meats and dairy all of the
things that break down very quickly and
when you're cooking a decent percentage
of these ingredients are not actually
making it into the final dish whether
it's peels or skins or roots or bones or
just ingredients that spoil that you
don't want to consume this waist builds
up very quickly and like you saw before
a lot of times it just goes right into
the trash can so so why is it bad to be
throwing out your food scraps in the
trash can well it turns out that 37
million tons of food goes directly into
landfills a year and landfills end up
being anob environments which means they
have a lack of oxygen and when all of
these organic foods break down with no
oxygen they create methane which is a
greenhouse gas that is actually more
potent than CO2 in regards to Emissions
on top of that the more food we're
throwing out ending up in landfills well
that's growing the size size of our
landfills just taking up more space on
this Earth vers the alternative which is
composting now the next logical question
is what the hell is composting in the
first place and I think the easiest way
to answer that is just by looking at the
natural cycles of life and death on this
Earth let's take a plant as an example
so a seed falls into the Earth it
germinates and sprouts and it starts to
grow and grow into a bigger plant and
eventually over time it hits the end of
its life cycle it drops more seeds then
it dies and slowly starts to break down
and get absorbed back into the Earth
while simultaneously feeding the Earth
through the nutrients in the decomposing
plant and then from that exact same spot
another seed sprouts and a new plant's
Journey Begins now composting lies right
here in this section the breaking down
of organic matter and feeding it back
into the earth now Nature has been using
this recycling process forever it's
going to continue doing it everything
will break down eventually a rock will
break down metal will break down it just
takes a really long time you will break
down eventually and go back into the
Earth but human beings we are the first
species to really just interfere with
this process with some dramatic
repercussions on the environment which
is why we are focusing on food scraps
today that is something that is simple
that is in our control that can make an
immediate difference in your garden in
your yard or just the environment as a
whole now before we talk about specific
composting strategies I just want to
quickly touch base on food waste in
general in the kitchen which should be
your number one priority before you ever
get the composting and this is something
I've tried to push in my videos for many
years now just using up what you have in
the kitchen which will ultimately create
a scenario where less food in your
fridge is actually spoiling and going
into the trash and if you struggle with
this I would say the best place to start
is to challenge yourself I've done a few
challenges on this channel that have
completely shifted my mindset where I
forc myself to use what I have before
going to the market and this shifts your
mindset into a much more creative space
in the kitchen where you can't be ryant
on what you're used to cooking or
certain recipes that calls for specific
ingredients you just make stuff with
what you have and I'm telling you the
reward is huge you're going to feel
great for just using things up and not
letting food go in the trash can a lot
of you commented in on that poll that
you use your veggie scraps to to make
stock with that is also a great way to
reduce waste you keep a bag or a
container you throw in your scraps you
can freeze them as they build up and
then when you have a nice Supply put
them in a pot make a veggie stock but
your scraps of course will only take you
so far like what are you going to do
with a bunch of banana peels which takes
us into composting all right I'm sitting
on a composting bin to tell you about my
method for composting food scraps now
composting can be a very complex and
scientific subject and I think for the
most part that ends up just scaring
people away my goal is to not turn you
into some composting expert I am not an
expert myself I compost like I cook in
the kitchen I don't follow recipes I
just throw things together and hope for
the best and usually it turns out fine
and at its core composting is four
elements you have nitrogen Rich
materials carbon Rich materials Water
and Air now in this case it's pretty
simple because right here our food
scraps that is all of the nitrogen-rich
material that you need and you can
compost really any perishable food
scraps that will break down I throw in
everything in here vegetables fruits
Dairy some smaller bones that will break
down the key is getting some type of Bin
that will always sit on your kitchen
counter so you have an easy place to
just put all of your scraps as they come
up in your cooking prep you can get a
fancy bin online I end up just using
these camro plastic containers which has
a nice tight lid to keep in those odors
and also it makes it easy to transfer to
the composting bin and then we mix these
nitrogen rich food scraps with some type
of carbon material anything dry and
brown basically like these wood chips
that could be cardboard that could be
hay you can get these materials from
your yard like dried leaves you can buy
them from the nursery I love using these
wood shavings that I use for my chickens
they break down really easily and create
a really nice compost you mix those two
things together in a composting bin give
it some water and air and Bo you've got
compost but let's talk about these bins
for a second all right this is the
composting section of my garden right
here and one thing is you do not have to
be a gardener to have a composting bin
if you have a lawn or a little space in
your backyard you get one of these bins
you make some compost with your food
scraps you sprinkle it on some flowers
or your grass and it's going to just
fertilize the sh out of it now this
right here is a more traditional
composting setup a three bin setup and I
use that for all of my garden scraps and
my yard scraps and that compost down
over time and I use that to fertilize my
garden which is great and you can throw
your food scraps in a regular composting
Bay like this but obviously food scraps
will attract animals so what I like to
do and I would suggest to probably a lot
of you is to get a separate plastic
container like this for just food scrap
composting and I bought these cheaper
ones on Amazon a few years ago for under
a 100 bucks and I thought they would be
animal proof but something bit through
them and created a huge mess which is
why I upgraded to this thing right here
which has been a beast also if you're
nervous about animals you can get a
tumbler compost like this which will
make it much harder for animals to climb
and chew up that bin so really all I
have to do open this thing you can see I
have a layer of this hay these would be
my brown materials on top I even have
egg carton that will break down over
time Brown materials you can see right
under there these are my nitrogen
materials and just think about lasagna
this is your cheese that goes on Brown
materials we'll call that the pasta
layer layer now the more layering you do
the more heat you'll build in your
compost which will break down your
compost faster I'm not hyper obsessed
with having super hot compost all the
time if it gets hot in there and breaks
down quicker that's great but eventually
it will break down and one thing that
will really help with that is this thing
right here so like I said we need air
for compost so this is a compost airator
there's different forms of these things
but the general idea is just digging
down in your compost pulling from the
bottom to give it some of that Iration
create that oxygen flow in there for
proper breakdown now the compost is
going to be breaking down from the
bottom up since we're adding fresh
materials in the top and you can really
see that right here and you can see
things like this bag shells are going to
break down a lot slower look at this
layering I did not add any worms they
just come they grow and they help break
down that compost now on the topic of
worms a lot of you brought up
vermiculture which is which is also
another good way of disposing of your
food scraps that's basically using worms
in a specific setup to break down your
food scraps some people do this under
their sink which is a little bit crazy
but you can set them up outside of
course I personally am not using a
vermac culture setup because as you can
see here there's so many worms and it's
pretty much doing the same thing just in
my composting bin all right so that is
my specific composting setup for food
scraps now I mentioned before I will not
be leaving out anyone who doesn't have a
yard or garden that is coming next but
first I wanted to tell you about today's
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we're going to go inside to talk about
other composting techniques now to be
honest my composting motivation
definitely went up when I got a garden
because one I had space to do it and two
I get the dire results of the fertilizer
in my garden which is great but I will
say when I didn't have a garden I was
still composting there's lots of ways to
still get in the game so the first thing
I want to bring up is this machine right
here this is the lomy right here it kind
of exists in a new category of at home
composting machines not actually a
composting machine what it does is you
pop in your food scraps and it slowly
grinds them and dehydrates them and
turns them almost into a dust which is
great if you have a small space and you
can't have an actual composting setup
like I just showed you now you wouldn't
do this to throw that in the trash that
would be a waste of energy for running
the machine but there's other things you
could do with it you could take it to a
community garden you could sprinkle it
in your plants I used it on my garden
beds I even made a fertilizer with it by
adding it to some water letting it sit
for a few days and watering that into my
plants which seemed to actually perform
quite well now this video is not
sponsored Lomi did send me this product
to try and the results were good there
are other products like this on the
market there's some cheaper products now
another option of course is a lot of
cities or towns either have or are
starting composting efforts which is
great I know when I was living in
Brooklyn during the time I was living
there there was a composting effort that
started up they gave you a composting
bin you put your scraps in there and put
it out on a certain day of the week and
they took it they composted it for you
which is fantastic that's not happening
in every city but I am seeing a growing
Trend and there were a lot of comments
on this post for all different types of
community efforts for composting which
is just fantastic that did not exist in
say my parents generation so things are
slowly changing for the better now also
a lot of farmers markets have composting
efforts they'll collect your food scraps
for me again when I was living in
Brooklyn I could take my food scraps to
the local farmers market I didn't know
exactly what they did with it they might
have distributed it to a farm that
composted it but that is a great option
speaking of farms that is another option
if you have a local Farm there's a
chance that you can drop off your food
scraps at the farm and they'll compost
it in their composting system Some Farms
just want more organic materials for
their compost and I think that covers
most of it if you have another form of
composting or another way to get rid of
your food scraps comment in below let
the people know cuz we need to turn this
ratio around around this is just no good
and a lot of it just comes down to
education really I mean when you look at
my parents in their generation no one
was talking about composting outside of
farmers and now it is a term that people
are aware of there's a lot more
education out there and I do think we're
headed in the right direction but we got
to keep pushing my friends thanks for
watching this video and I'll see you in
the next one
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