Stop Throwing Away Your Food (7 Composting Methods)

Summary

The 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

00:00

🌱 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.

05:00

🍽️ 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.

10:02

🏡 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.

Keywords

💡Food scraps

Food scraps refer to the leftover parts of food, such as peels, skins, roots, bones, and spoiled ingredients, that are not used in the final dish. In the video, the host emphasizes the importance of composting these scraps instead of discarding them in the trash to reduce waste and the environmental impact of landfills.

💡Composting

Composting is the process of decomposing organic matter into humus-like substance, which can be used as a fertilizer for plants. The video discusses composting as an environmentally friendly alternative to throwing food scraps in the trash, highlighting its benefits for gardeners and non-gardeners alike.

💡Greenhouse gas

A greenhouse gas is a gas that traps heat in the Earth's atmosphere, contributing to global warming. The script mentions that landfills, where food scraps are often sent, produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas, when organic matter breaks down without oxygen.

💡Nitrogen-rich materials

Nitrogen-rich materials are organic substances high in nitrogen content, such as food scraps, which are essential for composting as they provide the necessary nutrients for the composting process. The video explains that these materials are mixed with carbon-rich materials to create compost.

💡Carbon-rich materials

Carbon-rich materials, such as wood chips or dried leaves, are used in composting to balance the nitrogen-rich materials. They help create the right conditions for decomposition and are described in the video as 'brown materials' that are layered with 'green materials' (nitrogen-rich).

💡Vermaculture

Vermaculture is a method of composting using worms to break down organic matter. The video mentions vermiculture as an alternative for those who might not have space for traditional composting, noting that it can be done in a specific setup, even under a sink.

💡Landfills

Landfills are waste disposal sites where trash is deposited and accumulates. The video discusses the negative environmental impact of landfills, particularly in relation to food waste, which comprises a significant portion of what ends up in these sites.

💡Food waste

Food waste refers to any food that is discarded or left to spoil. The script emphasizes reducing food waste in the kitchen as a priority before composting, suggesting creative uses for scraps and challenging oneself to use up what is already available.

💡Compost bin

A compost bin is a container used to hold and facilitate the composting process. The video describes different types of bins, from traditional outdoor compost bins to indoor countertop bins, and even machines like the Lomi, which processes food scraps into a form suitable for use as fertilizer.

💡Community composting

Community composting refers to collective efforts by a community to compost food scraps. The video mentions initiatives where cities provide bins for residents to collect their scraps, which are then composted by the city or at community gardens, promoting environmental sustainability.

💡American Giant

American Giant is mentioned as a sponsor of the video and a company that aligns with the theme of sustainability. They produce high-quality, durable clothing that is meant to last, contrasting with fast fashion trends that contribute to textile waste.

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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on the channel which is American Giant a

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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