New York City has a big problem with trash, especially food waste. An innovative new program aims to up composting rates by allowing families to exchange food waste for locally grown produce.

As the most populous city in America, it’s no surprise that New York City produces a lot of trash. Just walk down any street in Manhattan after dark, and you’ll see much of it, stacked in miniature mountains up and down the sidewalk. Of the 12,000 tons of trash produced every day in the Big Apple, more than 35 percent is organic waste–vegetable peelings, eggshells, and other once-edible food that’s perfect for composting.

The problem is, almost no one in NYC composts. Although the city is launching a composting program this fall, it will only be voluntary. And if New York’s abysmal recycling rates are any indication, the vast majority will ignore it.

The key to getting people to compost (or any environmentally-responsible behavior for that matter) is providing the right incentive. When around 46 percent of a population is living near the poverty line, however, it better be a pretty darn good incentive. For those struggling to feed their families, what happens to an orange peel is not high on the priority list.

Luke Keller and Aly Blenkin, two students at Parson’s School of Deisgn, may have found the perfect way to address both the food waste and food poverty issuesin New York. The pair recently founded Hello Compost, a service that will work with Project EATS (a New York-based nonprofit focused on urban agriculture) to allow low-income families to trade their food scraps for locally-grown fresh food.

Here’s how it would work: Families put food waste into freezable, odor-blocking collection bags. The bags are designed by local students, made from canvas and feature bright colors. The bags are then delivered to Project EATS, where they are weighed and assigned a value that translates into credits for fresh produce, grown by local farmers. “Project EATS uses an iPad app to track progress–and appeal to the human drive to compete, similar to the gaming psychology that makes the Nike FuelBand so successful.”

The idea is brilliant in its simplicity. There’s no outdoor composter to build or stinky indoor compost to content with. The rewards are instantaneous and meet a real need for many New York City families. Once engaged, it’s hard to see why New Yorker’s wouldn’t want to trade their trash for edible treasure, but it’s getting them engaged that will be the challenge.

“We need to re-imagine the role of food waste from being a smelly, unattractive side effect of eating to an attractive resource for residents to positively impact their community and to help put fresh food on the table,” Blenkin told Fast Co. Design.

Pending approval from the New York City Housing Authority, Project EATS will launch the Hello Compost service this fall. Find out how you can participate or support the project by liking their Facebook page.

Related Reading:

Food Waste: The Average American Throws Out Every Other Piece Of Food

Frozen Assets: 10 Ways To Stop Wasting Fridge Food

Images: Hello Compost/Project EATS & Fast Co. Design

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They say diamonds are a girl’s best friend. And for the organic gardener, it may just be luxury garden tools (and diamonds, too, of course).

 It’s official. Gardening is now as popular in urban settings as, well, overpriced luxury items. It was inevitable that the two eventually collided. You can’t stop progress. Especially when there’s fertilizer involved.

But still. It didn’t make this story in the June issue of Modern Farmer any less confusing. It appears that whether you’re a full-on kale and tomato-producing organic gardener, or just host a casual array of houseplants, there are luxury garden tools and gear just for you. If you also like absurdly expensive things, that is.

While none of the items appear to contain any diamonds—even despite the probability that a diamond-crusted shovel would give any noisy auger a run for its money—some can cost you about the same as a little sparkly piece of bling.

The article reports that West Elm now sells potting soil called “Brooklyn Blend Potting Soil.” They mean Brooklyn, New York, right? Where exactly does the dirt come from? The A train? The soil costs more than twice as much as regular potting soil from Home Depot, probably due to the hours it must take to find real dirt in Brooklyn. I’d actually pay a good amount of money to go on that excursion.

Williams Sonoma got in on the action, too, with a compost sieve that will set you back $195. It’s made from redwood. Should we be surprised that there are no consumer comments on the product’s page? I just imagine a bunch of gardeners with their $2 garden gloves in their wide-open mouths as they stare at the price tag. Any organic gardener or composter knows you can get a good sieve for under $20, or make your own for even less. They’re still suggesting we use it to filter food waste, right?

Don’t get me wrong. I’d proudly display a $345 Hermes hand spade, scraper and garden fork set like the bling it is…behind the glass door of a curio, or the locked one on my safety deposit box. You know, after I used it to plant some really nice tulips. Or, actually, dig for gold…

Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

Top image: Jill Ettinger

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ColumnAdventures in urban composting.

“The worm compost bin is getting delivered next week, we can finally get the worms going again!”

“Finally!”

This is what we call a romantic Foodie Underground conversation.

Let me take a few steps back. No wait, let me start from the beginning.

As an only child that lived in the country, I spent a lot of time outside plotting my own adventures. One of my favorite summer activities was to dig through the dirt in the garden and collect earthworms in recycled yogurt containers that my mother used to plant seedlings. I would put a few in the yogurt container, and walk around with them, taking great care to look after my little soil dwellers. I called it worm babysitting. Yeah, country girl, I know.

Fast forward a couple of decades.

Earlier this year I moved into a small, no, wait… tiny apartment in a huge city (it’s Paris in case you were wondering). Funny how in some of the world’s most expansive metropolises the housing is quite the opposite. It has been an adventure in accommodating my favorite activities to fit the space. Cooking and baking is a careful dance between slicing, chopping and mixing and doing dishes in between so as to keep enough counter space open. Dinner parties are capped at six people, because more would be hard to fit around the table. But somehow, with enough effort and desire, it all works.

It was into this space that the worms would work and the resulting compost would be put to good use.

If you get excited about food, it’s easy to get excited about growing it yourself, no matter where you live. This is not backyard homesteading with raised beds and a chicken coop, this is working around obstacles like space and creating an urban sanctuary that includes some greenery and fresh herbs to cook with. I’ll be damned if I let minimal square footage get in the way of gardening and cooking.

The worms had been on hiatus and were waiting for a new home, hence the need for a new bin. When the first round of vermicompost was ready, we pulled terracotta planters into the tiny dining room and sat on the floor, mixing compost and fresh dirt and replanted basil, mint, parsley and chives. I prepped two containers for kale seeds that would be arriving the following week (kale is, after all, quite difficult to find in Paris).

There is something about putting your hands in the dirt. There is something even better about putting your hands in compost. Call me a dirty hippie – you won’t be the first – but to be able to create your own fertilizer to grow plants from your own food waste is in fact an incredible thing. Don’t believe me? Try it.

The compost bins sit under the kitchen sink. When you open up the top one, you can feel the warmth that the breakdown of organic material (or in our case, 97 percent coffee grounds) generates. A reminder that you don’t need to live in the country to take part in the natural cycle of things.

The kale arrived and it was planted immediately; we’ll see which one of the two varieties do best. Some baby basil and cilantro seeds are doing well in the kitchen, and all of the terracotta pots hang off of the window guard rail, creating our own little Hanging Gardens of Babylon, four floors up in the Parisian courtyard.

It’s not just about eating good food, it’s about being part of the process, no matter where you are. It’s not a farm, or a raised bed with seven varieties of heirloom tomatoes, but it’s something; a mini-contribution to being a part of growing what we eat. To top it all off, next week a friend is passing on a kombucha baby. Compost, kale and kombucha… and you thought Paris was only for croissants and fromage.

At least you know that those tiny six-person dinner parties will consist of kale appetizers and kombucha cocktails, and we’ll be composting the leftovers of course. I promise not to show off the worms.

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Images: Anna Brones

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It’s time to be honest and admit that while composting is ecologically beneficial and reduces overall waste, it can also smell incredibly repulsive. I’m sure we can all agree that the last thing you need is a bag of slowly rotting seepage under your sink, filling your kitchen with the foul and redolent air of vegetal decay. Imagine the following scenario: you’ve successfully attracted an appealing member of the gender you prefer. They’re in your kitchen for some reason. You’re charming, they’re drinking; things are going well. Then: their face wrinkles. Their smooth and beautiful brow clouds over with concern.

“God, what is that smell?” your date asks tentatively, because s/he’s polite like that.

“Oh, that?” you reply airily. “Why, that’s just my bin full of dead and decaying bits of refuse. You know. Scraps of half-chewed, still-warm kale. Sickly, damp lumps of old coffee grounds. Withered, cracked peels from long-rotted fruits. I just keep those things in a pile, in my kitchen, which is in my house, where I live, like it’s no big deal.”

But it is a big deal. It’s the absolute worst. It starts with composting and it ends with an A&E Hoarders film crew. And if there were eco-conscious, sustainably-minded alternatives to composting, wouldn’t you want to know about them? Of course you would. You’re a human being, and you deserve better than sharing your house with a pile of rotting garbage.

10. Onion peels make a great Easter egg dye. Or just “egg dye” if you like dyeing eggs and it’s not Easter. Wrap a layer of onion skin around your eggs before boiling, and it’ll impart a deep golden or purple tint to the shell.

9. Citrus peels are good for a million things. Dry them up and grind them for a gentle face mask. Put them in liquor. Now your liquor tastes like oranges!

8. Potato skins. What are you composting these for? They’re delicious. Eat them. Don’t be stupid. In fact, make potato skins with them.

7. Give it to the chickens.

6. Banana peels. There’s nothing worse than dumping your compost out at the end of the week and staring at the black floppy corpse of Monday’s breakfast. If you just can’t give up the habit, at least you can use the peels to polish your silver, although I don’t think “owners of silver” and “compostors of banana peels” are two demographics with a lot of overlap.

5. Do any of your neighbors have a garden? Just dump your kitchen scraps out there. That’s free compost and they should thank you.

4. Worm-eaten apples. You’re actually supposed to throw them away. Another bullet safely dodged.

3. Coffee grounds. Apparently you can use them to exfoliate your skin, so just rub it all over yourself in the shower. Problem solved.

2. Used tea leaves. It’s sad and strange the same race that has invented iambic pentameter and space shuttles has also produced you, bending over your sad little compost bin, scraping tepid, bloated tea leaves out of your mug and onto a pile of dead things. I’m assuming that’s what you’re doing with your tea leaves, of course, because if you’re drinking bagged tea then you are well beyond hope and you should go ahead and make whatever choices you like. You know what’s better than that? Make this cake with your leftover tea leaves (make sure to let them dry out a bit and chop them roughly before using). Or make this cake, I don’t care. It’s a good approach to life: every time you make a cup of tea, you have to bake a cake.

1. Just eat it. Whatever it is, it can’t be worse than composting. Quit whining; you’ll be fine. Your house smells better already.

The post 10 Bearable Alternatives to Indoor Composting appeared first on EcoSalon.

An indoor solution for the balcony and allotment-less urban dweller.

The word parasite carries with it some nasty connotations, particularly for the independent young urbanite. There’s the bloodcurdling kind (rats scrambling into crevices pitted into the tracks of the F train, e.g.)and then there’s the human kind (roommate, from hell). Both are pretty nasty.

They feed off our trash while lusting for our blood. They’re capable of murder most foul. Parasites: they suck. Whoever would invite them to live amongst us, in our kitchens? Where we eat?

The answer is, clever Deutschlanders Charlotte Dieckmann and Nils Ferber. They’re behind the strikingly inoffensive Parasite Farm.

The Parasite Farm is an indoor vermicomposting system, replete with a chopping-board for quick scraps disposal. It can be attached to a kitchen table and the mountable plant boxes can be affixed to existing bookshelves.

Inside the Parasite Farm live the parasites that feed off your biological waste churning it into humus soil.

According to Fast Company via The New York Times, food waste accounts for roughly 13 percent of the trash in the United States. Composting in the open country or even the ‘burbs offers an easy solution to offset that level of waste. Composting in the city is “not for the faint of heart.”

“It requires commitment, space and sharing tight quarters with rotting matter and two-inch-long wiggler worms that look like pulsing vermicelli.”

Um, ick.

It also beckons fruit flies and, if not pulled off correctly, major olfactory funk. Luckily the Parasite Farm comes with this handy little flytrap to keep the fruit flies where they’re meant to be.

And the lively green device makes the task look friendly and approachable, thus totally doable for the composting impaired.

Here’s a visual of how it works:

Step 1.

Slide veggie trimmings into the bin, where the worms live.

Step 2.

Harvesting involves shaking the grate at the bottom and pulling it out of the drawer underneath

Step 3.

Leftover water is siphoned into a separate tank to be used as a liquid fertilizer.

Step 4.

Voila! Fertilize seeds with your apartment grown soil. Call yourself Farmer Jane.

Truly, this is as close to urban organic as you can get.

Images: Alexander Giesemann; Charlotte Dieckmann

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ColumnWe don’t need our friends to teach us composting, we need them to have our back.

In a recent article for the Huffington Post, eco-activist Laurie David wrote earnestly (maybe a little too earnestly) about what she wants from her girlfriends. Her words were heartfelt and lofty (and maybe a tiny bit sanctimonious) as she wrote about needing female friends who “feed her soul” and how the basis of her adult friendships was teaching her friends and learning from them. One friendship, she wrote, was based on the fact that her girlfriend taught her how to make pad thai, while David introduced this woman to the “joys of composting.”

I admire Laurie David for her tireless work on behalf of the environment; moreover, she and I have a lot in common: we are both in our 50s, we both married men with curmudgeonly tendencies, and we are both desperately trying to get away with the same hairdo we had in high school.

But if Laurie David wants to be my buddy, she had better bring something to the table besides teaching me to compost. Because instructing me on how to keep a tub of rotting garbage next to my sink – a festering little pot of decay, complete with flies and worms and a vaguely vomit-y aroma – is not going to make her my BFF. My antipathy towards indoor composting is not the only reason I object to David’s blog post – her belief that friendships between women are founded on mutual teaching is just not something I can relate to.

Frankly, if I want to learn something I will take a course or read a book. (Who am I kidding? I’ll probably just Google it.) What I want from my friends has little to do with growth or empowerment, and it is not dependent on a sharing of skill sets.

From my friends I simply want love and support and unconditional acceptance. I want the knowledge that my girls have my back, and that they will, unquestionably, be on my side – whether I’m quarreling with my husband, the mob or the IRS. My friends don’t need me to teach them about Sudoku or fair labor practices – they just need me to show up with baked ziti when they’ve had a bad biopsy, or hand them tissues when they’re in the middle of a major life crisis. The friends who mean the most to me are the ones who cleaned my kitchen after my mother died, and drove me to the hospital when I had a bleeding child whimpering in my lap. They are the ones who have come – cheerfully and without much coercion – to my son’s soccer games and my daughter’s theater performances.

It’s not that I lack intellectual curiosity, well, not completely anyway, but to me, friends are not teachers or students – they are companions and playmates, fellow travelers and lifesavers. They are there to laugh with and commiserate with, for road trips and conversation, to hold my hand in an emergency and to come with me to museum exhibits that my husband wants no part of. A good friend does not have to teach me a blessed thing – she just has to come pick me up when my car dies on the interstate.

In the unlikely event that I ever decide to compost, I will learn whatever I need to know online. And then I will call a friend and hope to God she talks me out of it.

Susan Goldberg is a slightly lapsed treehugger. Although known to overuse paper products, she has the best of intentions – and a really small SUV. Catch her column, The Goldberg Variations, each week here at EcoSalon.

Image: El Groo

The post Teach Me Nothing Just Be My Friend appeared first on EcoSalon.

When was the last time you attended an event where food and drink was sold in disposable vessels?

If you’re an EcoSalon reader, it’s likely that after consuming your food or beverage you examined the container carefully to see if it was made from corn (or another plant product). And if it was, you probably then looked around for a compost bin to throw it in. Did you find one?

I’m guessing you didn’t and, left without much choice, you threw it in the garbage, maybe feeling a little uneasy, but consoling yourself with the thought that at least the container wasn’t made from petroleum, and it would break down. Right?

Wrong.

There are two problematic factors in potato, corn, and other plant-based plastics, which are often called “bioplastics.”

The first is disposal. Because many municipalities (even large cities like New York) don’t offer curbside composting, there’s an intention gap. Even the ones that do offer such a feature may offer residential, and not commercial composting, which means you’d have to bring your cup home with you to compost it. Realistically, how many people are going to do that?

Then there’s the labeling. Some compostable packaging and containers are not clearly labeled and can be indistinguishable from petroleum-based containers. Only highly motivated consumers will go that extra mile to find out, especially if there’s only one bin in which to toss your waste.

Some compostable ware may actually be worse for the environment than petroleum-based ware. Or at best, it might just be feel-good gesture or a marketing opportunity for companies or restaurants using it.

Still, plant-based plastic is a net win, right?

Probably not.

Consider net energy use. Lifecycle studies show that, as far as energy or water use goes, the production of petroleum-based plastics may actually be less taxing on the environment than the production of some plant-based plastics. This is partially because agriculture is fossil fuel and water intensive, and most plant-based plastics are produced using agricultural processes, including resource-intensive, soil-depleting mono-culturing.

There’s the issue of breakdown and associated greenhouse gases, too. Theoretically, bio plastics will break down faster than petroleum based plastics, but in a landfill, almost nothing breaks down due to lack of oxygen. And if the bio plastics do break down, that’s not necessarily a good thing since they can emit methane, a greenhouse gas 23 times stronger than C02.

Is anyone getting it right?

I spoke to Helene York, Director of Strategic Initiatives for Bon Appétit Management Company,  a food service company that strives to lessen its impact on the environment through its business practices.

Among other initiatives, the company instituted the Low Carbon Diet. In addition to reducing meat and cheese consumption, reducing the use of airfreight, and other company wide actions, the Low Carbon Diet addresses the problem of waste – both food and non-food waste.

I asked York if plant-based plastics or petroleum were the better choice.

“What’s the environmental problem we’re trying to solve?” she asked.

Then she went on to outline the complicating considerations that make this question of “plant based?” or “petroleum based?” such a dilemma.

According to York, “If the problem is climate change, ocean acidification (which is related to climate change), total energy use, soil erosion, water use, or the decline of water tables in the Midwest, then most plant-based resins aren’t a better choice than most plastics.” Because they rely on agriculture.

“If the problem is keeping plastics out of the landfill, this isn’t an environmental problem. It’s a municipal finance problem. Plastics in a modern landfill are inert and they don’t leach. They don’t do anything in fact, while plant-based products have the potential to breakdown and generate methane.”

And then York gets to the heart of the question for The Green Plate:

“Do we really want to use land for growing commodity crops intended for industrial uses, whether they are for animal feed or to satisfy our convenience needs? Just because something is made with a natural or renewable ingredient,” she says, “doesn’t mean it’s a better product than something made from a durable ‘recyclable’ product like PET.”

In the end, the smartest thing is to reduce the number of disposables used entirely, which is what Bon Appétit is striving for in its daily operations.

You can do it, too. When you’re heading out of the house, why not grab a drinking vessel, or a mason jar (if you’re a hipster), and even a lightweight container? You could even invest in some bamboo flatware.

After all, you never know when you’re going to want to sample some delicious street food or drink. You may even consider only buying from vendors who use low impact packaging like recycled paper that is fully compostable anywhere.

This is the latest installment in Vanessa Barrington’s weekly column, The Green Plate, on the environmental, social, and political issues related to what and how we eat.

Image: denkrahm

The post The Green Plate: The Dark Side of Bioplastic appeared first on EcoSalon.

Composting when you have a big backyard? Easy. Composting when you’re a city dweller? Downright disgusting, right? It doesn’t have to be. You can turn little bits of kitchen waste – think coffee grinds and citrus rinds rather than super-stinky garbage – into fertile compost right on your kitchen counter. These cute Ceramic Countertop Compost Containers from Uncommon Goods will blend into your kitchen as if they were a jar for dog treats or flour.

The gorgeously simple containers are handmade in Vermont by artist Beth Mueller. Before tossing in your kitchen scraps, you’ll line the compost crock with a BioBag – each crock comes with 25 to get you started. The BioBags help eliminate odors and also make it easy to clean out your compost every few days, or every week, depending on how much you toss inside. We love these artful composters – labeled either “grow” or “simplify” for kitchen composting newbies – because they’re an easy solution compared to some more complicated indoor composting get-ups.

The post Incognito Countertop Composting appeared first on EcoSalon.

To be or not to be – compost worthy? That is the question Hamlet might pose if the play were written in 2010 and his so-called “sea of troubles”  meant environmental destruction such as the Gulf spill, coral devastation or floating plastic islands. In a time of waste not, we need to question when it is okay to throw away food to produce fertilizer or other sustainable uses.

Since the old directive to clean our plates no longer applies (not in a nation fighting an epidemic of obesity) we end up with a lot of extra food on our plates and tables. Sometimes the portions we serve kids and guests are too abundant. We are left to decide whether or not to wrap up leftovers, feed them to hungry pets or grab the kitchen bin to make mulch.

Don’t let it go to the dogs!

Most experts would agree table leftovers are rarely good for our dogs, despite the fact it feels good to share. “Smoky loves turkey,” my daughters coo, often tossing our pug a handful of meat or a bone. According to Pet Education, a morsel off your plate here and there probably won’t hurt, but most people don’t stop there with those perpetual, adorable moochers. And even healthy organic cuisine recommended for us might not go down so well with God’s other creatures. What about your other pets? Find more info here.

“Feed me more tofu and lentils!”

“The rich foods we eat can wreak havoc on your dog’s digestive tract,” warns Animal Planet. “A simple, consistent diet keeps their system functioning as it should. Throw in your very different foods and spices and do not be surprised if your dog has bad gas, bad breath, loose stools, etc.” Hey, none of those side effects are any fun when your little guy sleeps on your bed. That pertains to big guys, too!

Was the food untouched?

Sometimes the scraps we save for ourselves can be bad for the system, too, depending on who dined on them, how long they sat out, and if the cat licked them with her scratchy tongue while standing on the table with her cat litter-covered contaminated feet. My cat learned to mooch from my pug and she is relentless.

I have a few rules about the scraps. For one thing, I never save anything a baby has sucked on because of the gross factor. Sure, I licked my own babies’ toes, but that is different from their soggy, 1/4 eaten Noah’s bagel.

In terms of wrapping it to go in my fridge or pantry, I consider it if it was just my family that at the meal. If that ‘s the case,  I’m obviously more inclined to fridge that other untouched half of a perfectly good turkey sandwich, bowl of pasta or veggie fried rice. I know when my children are healthy, and when they are teeming with germs, they don’t usually eat at the family table. I try to clear the table dishes before animals can get to the food (yes, even when the finale of The Office is starting) and use my best judgment to decide if the saved food will really get eaten. If it won’t, it makes more sense to recycle it as compost, and very rarely does it simply go down the drain.

Guest who’s not eating their dinner?

When guests dine at our table, it is a different story. Call it squeamishness, but I’m more hesitant to save plated food because of fear of germs. Blood is thicker than water and the leftovers of those with different blood can be repugnant. Still, it’s painful to toss a hardly touched plate, and on occasion, I save food off kids’ plates because they simply didn’t eat much and their hands were clean when they sat down. A second helping of macaroni ignored; a bowl of fruit shunned; an ample helping of broccoli that never entered the mouth of steel. I see no problem with keeping those items for dinner or breakfast, or doing what chefs do, and recycling them for a soup or other new dish.

Hunger versus health.

I guess it comes down to what you can stomach and afford. I’ve heard that hungry waiters and other staff working in snazzy Berkeley restaurants often scarf up the five-star fillets and fudge cake barely eaten by a customer. They’re not letting those dishes artfully composed by a celebrity chef go down the drain.

Then again, every day, businesses trash completely untouched food because of health codes. I’ve watched a Noah’s Bagels in my San Francisco hood at closing time unload boxes of bagels into a dumpster on the street.

The final extreme is my ungreen mother, who insists upon throwing out anything left on the table, and even cleaning untouched plates and utensils because they were exposed to the air and potential germs. We all make up our own rules. Ideally, the ones we enforce will result in healthy bodies and a healthy planet.

Images: Jbloom, Pet Education, 1000 Heads

The post When It Makes Sense to Toss Good Table Scraps appeared first on EcoSalon.

In a tight urban space, committing to compost isn’t the easiest of feats. But in Washington, D.C. residents will soon be able to reap the benefits of composting without dealing with its difficulties.

Launching this spring, Compost Cab will provide customers with a bin which can then be filled with all kinds of compostables. Once a week, Compost Cab will pick up the organic material and compost it for you. For every 50 pounds of organic waste that Compost Cab collects from a customer, the customer is entitled to five pounds of fresh compost and one pound of worm castings in exchange. That’s a screaming deal for you and your plants.

For those who don’t have yard or garden space but still want to take part in the composting effort, Compost Cab will donate the customer’s share of compost to Engaged Community Offshoot, an urban farm that aims to provide people from all walks of life with sustainable, fresh produce.

But D.C. isn’t the only area with composting services. In Northampton, MA, residents can take advantage of composting services offered by Pedal People, with your organic waste being collected by bike. Same goes for the people of Philadelphia, who can call on Pedal Co-op to pick up their kitchen waste.

Are you an urbanite with a creative way of composting? Tell us about it in the comments below!

Image: SaltyGrease

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