There’s a little ‘secret’ in Los Angeles. I’ve known about it for a while but recently I wondered, do my fellow Angelinos know about it, too? I’m talking about the secret of our Green Trash Bins, which are the ones reserved for our lawn scraps. Have you ever actually read the sticker on the green bins? There’s something quite cool written on there. (Cool on a trash bin?) Besides grass & leaves we can chuck food scraps in the green bins, which is a brilliant recycling alternative if you don’t compost. That’s pretty cool isn’t it? Food scraps in the forms of fruits, veggies and grains are allowed but basically the bin is vegan (so LA!), so no scraps that contain animal products, even milk, cheese or eggs. Some of this greenwaste collected by L.A.’s Bureau of Sanitation, is given away free as mulch and compost to community gardens, City residents, businesses and farmers. Cool indeed!
(Pardon the condition of my sticker!)
But it gets even better if you live in Santa Monica. According to the LA Times, their green bins really are a composting bin, accepting all food scraps (vegan and non-vegan) as well as compostable food containers and utensils.
Great news all around for our landfills. Do you know what your city’s policies are? Leave a comment with your city’s info so we get the word out!
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Hmmm. This is sweet. But… what if you live in an apartment complex? We have recycling, but no green bin. Boo. I sooo wish we did. This would be neat as well for Ry, who bless his little heart, believes that paper towel falls into the “paper” category and always tries to throw his wadded up nose-blowing pieces of paper towel in our recycle trash bin. GROSSSSSS!
On second thought, I just realized that only says “fruits and veggies” so I guess that wouldn’t solve his problem, but I am sure he would try to throw them in there as well.
Sheila,
Since you live in Santa Monica you can toss compostable containers into the green bin, which makes me wonder if paper towels are included. I’m pretty sure they can be so Mr. Noseblower might be in luck, although I wouldn’t broadcast that to the trash guy. Now we just have to find you a green bin. Here’s an excerpt from the LA Times article about that:
“Getting a city-wide green bin program in place for multifamily housing units, however, will likely take a couple years, says Thompson. In the meantime, Santa Monica will get a smaller program: Green bins where people can drop off their compostables will be placed in a couple spots around the city. Thompson doesn’t have the spots picked out yet, but said the bins will definitely be in place by the end of the summer.” Might want to give them a ring!
In some parts of Dublin we have brown bins that do the same. Mine takes any food (cooked or uncooked) and food soiled compostable paper/card etc.
So LA to require the contents to be vegan? Dude, that’s how compost is done. You don’t put the other stuff in there because compost piles are about mixing brown and green _vegetation_, which makes the pile’s temperature rise and then the contents break down.
Hey Rob, the ‘so LA’ was supposed to be sarcastic. I know how compost works. I guess my Irish sense of humour doesn’t always translate in print. I appreciate you checking in though. Cheers man.